Fracking – On the Documentary Film Screening of Split Estate
Rainforest Action Network of Chicago recently screened the film “Split Estate” at multikulti. We later interviewed over skype Lynn Waters of SAFE and she said that many of the people in the film have already passed away due to sickness from the fracking. This has become a pressing issue for Illinois since the gas and oil industry have already bought up properties in Southern Illinois near some of the most major fault lines in the US. There is a push in Illinois to halt the permits that would allow these companies to start fracking in Illinois.
Landowners might be surprised to find that property rights only entitle people to own the surface, but that doesn’t include the mineral rights and everything else that lies beneath the surface. The US government gives precedent to mineral rights above surface rights. And so industrial drilling rigs are popping up in people’s backyards around the US and there is nothing that property owners can do about it. The US government will grant mineral rights to companies giving them approval to drill for oil and natural gas right on people’s privately owned land. Essentially these companies have the legal authority to trespass on a person’s private property and set up these monstrous drilling rigs right in anyone’s lot.
In one case that was cited in the film Split Estate, a landowner was forced to allow drilling rigs on his land against his personal consent. He would later find the graveposts of his grandparents who were buried on the land were removed and discarded by the drilling company and the gravesite was resurfaced to where he could no longer locate the burial site of his relatives.
Private land is being invaded by industry despite significant outrage of residents and protests from the local communities. Corporations have become the new settlers on the industrial frontier and families are being displaced in a way that is reminiscent of how the Native Americans were forcibly removed from their land. Only this is going on today to US citizens.
The fracking process is destructive and dangerous, it has a devastating impact on the environment that has made many communities uninhabitable. People are being forced to abandon their homes due to facing serious health threats.
The documentary film Gasland shows video footage of people who can light their water faucets on fire because the fracking process has caused natural gas to seep into the aquifers and local wells. People in communities around fracking rigs would notice that the ponds around their homes had started bubbling after corporations started fracking nearby. One person decided to light a match and throw it into the pond and to his surprise a giant flame ignited. He then took a cone and put it over the spot that was bubbling and funneled the gas like a lamp that once lit would burn continuously. Our water sources have become flammable? Aside from the shocking implications of people being able to light their water on fire, which is frightening enough to think that at anytime your house may be filling up with natural gas, the big picture looks even worse.
Hydraulic fracking uses millions of gallons of water for every time a gas well is drilled and fracked; and gas wells can be fracked multiple times. This water is contaminated by toxic chemicals that are used in the drilling process. There are over 500 chemicals in the fracking fluid being pumped into the ground under high pressure. 90% of the chemicals used are known to have adverse health effects; many are carcinogens, neurotoxins, endocrine disrupters, and the list goes on. Once the chemicals enter the water table, water is permanently ruined, being contaminated with non biodegradable toxins that will pollute the aquifers for thousands of years, whereupon billions of gallons of the earth’s reserves are forever taken out of the natural hydrological cycle. Precious water sources are being irreversibly destroyed and recklessly depleted in ways that will adversely impact people for countless generations of people in the future.
We can’t afford to lose billions of gallons of our fresh water reserves in a world where over 3 billion people right now suffer from insufficient access to potable water. Water is an absolutely precious resource that must be protected.
The fracking industry takes no accountability for water sources that have been contaminated and will go to insidious lengths in denying wrongdoing to ensure they will not be held responsible for the damages they have caused. Companies lie to people and tell them their water is “safe to drink” despite having strong chemical odors, a foul impotable taste, causing a burning sensation to the skin during bathing, having an oily residue that will coagulate at the surface, and also being flammable. This behavior shows a despicable lack of concern for public health and welfare of people; all these companies care about are profits. Instead of being forthcoming about the many serious health risks that people will inevitably suffer from exposure to these toxic chemicals, the companies do everything they possibly can to hide the truth and cover the facts. By claiming that the fracking fluid is their patented product, and the chemical constructis “proprietary information”, they continue to refuse disclosure of the complete list of chemicals that are being used and prevent a rigorous scientific analysis that would determine the potential health threats and environmental impacts the chemicals will have.
Once residents begin to realize that the groundwater or surface water in which they depend upon has been contaminated, they are forced to pay the expenses out of pocket to have their water supply tested in a laboratory, which can cost thousands of dollars. The burden of proof is placed upon those being violated, having to hire investigators and lawyers, and fight long drawn out battles in court to be reimbursed for damages. The fracking companies will offer a settlement outside of court…as long as the victims are willing to sign legally binding secrecy and non disclosure agreements which prevent them from ever talking publicly about the incident. Let’s get this straight, here in America there are US citizens being coerced into forfeiting their first amendment right to freedom of speech in order to be justly compensated for the losses they suffered.
You might wonder how this could ever happen in America, and ask why the government doesn’t regulate this pollution under the EPA. Well get this…these gas companies are EXEMPT from: the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, the Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act, the Natural Environmental Policy Act, and also the Toxic Release Inventory of the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act. That’s right, the gas and oil lobby got laws passed and created loopholes that have exempted the gas and oil companies from complying with these environmental protections. Thus, there is no federal regulation that makes what they are doing illegal or unlawful.
Therefore we have to fight the battle on the state level and call upon the Illinois General Assembly to act. Right now there is an opportunity to get legislation passed during the November Veto Session. We need to call upon our state representatives and state senators and urge them to pass Senate Bill 3280 which would call for an emergency moratorium to halt fracking in Illinois. Let’s get this accomplished!
To learn more about fracking watch the documentary film Gasland and also Split Estate.
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