Fracking Hell: The Untold Story

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An original investigative report by Earth Focus and UK's Ecologist Film Unit looks at the risks of natural gas development in the Marcellus Shale. From toxic chemicals in drinking water to unregulated interstate dumping of potentially radioactive waste that experts fear can contaminate water supplies in major population centers including New York City, are the health consequences worth the economic gains?

Marcellus Shale contains enough natural gas to supply all US gas needs for 14 years. But as gas drilling takes place, using a process called hydraulic fracturing or "fracking," toxic chemicals and methane gas seep into drinking water. Now experts fear that unacceptable levels of radioactive Radium 226 in gas development waste.

Fracking chemicals are linked to bone, liver and breast cancers, gastrointestinal, circulatory, respiratory, developmental as well as brain and nervous system disorders. Such chemicals are present in frack waste and may find their way into drinking water and air.

Waste from Pennsylvania gas wells -- waste that may also contain unacceptable levels of radium -- is routinely dumped across state lines into landfills in New York, Ohio and West Virginia. New York does not require testing waste for radioactivity prior to dumping or treatment. So drill cuttings from Pennsylvania have been dumped in New York's Chemung and other counties and liquid waste is shipped to treatment plants in Auburn and Watertown New York. How radioactive is this waste? Experts are calling are for testing to find out.
New York State may have been the first state in the nation to put a temporary hold on fracking pending a safety review, but it allows other states to dump toxic frack waste within its boundaries.

With a gas production boom underway in the Marcellus Shale and plans for some 400,000 wells in the coming decades, the cumulative impact of dumping potential lethal waste without adequate oversight is a catastrophe waiting to happen. And now U.S. companies are exporting fracking to Europe.

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[HEADBANGRR]

CORRUPTION!

[Jack Hammer]

The American Bird Conservancy says that Altamont alone has killed more than 2,000 golden eagles. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service hedges its annual windmill bird death estimates at between 100,000 to 444,000 dead birds in the U.S.

[Jack Hammer]

Austin used hydroelectric power from 1891-1900, when the dam broke after a severe flood.

Alternatives need to be commercial and wind, I'm sorry to say is devastating to anything that flies. Do some research on the matter, so much for the eagle, huh? So much for the bats, who are vital to the ecology. Solar? How much land do you want to destroy?

[Jack Hammer]

having fun trying to silence my posts by negative votes? Whata' child you are..... You do know that only makes people want to look at them, but go ahead and waste your time, it is funnnny that an adult would take the time to do that....

[Jack Hammer]

When you quit being a hypocrite, you'll have some credibility...

[Jack Hammer]

a reporter?  funny....

[Jack Hammer]

oooooo..... that really hurts me...  from a hypocrite, no less....

[Jack Hammer]

you? A longterm hypocrite, user of the product you so hate....