Gasland Part II Page #14

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the slaughterhouse.

The helicopters had been through

the day before.

If there ever was a symbol

of oil and gas production competing with the old ways,

wild horse roundups

would have to be it.

Far in the distance,

up on the ridge...

a single mustang on the plains,

by himself.

Had he escaped?

I'm always--have kind of

a knot in my stomach before these go.

Once it gets going,

it seems to--I forget about it pretty quick.

Uh...it's a--

you never know what

you're going to hear.

WOMAN OFFICIAL:

The drinking water well results.

We did find methane

in 10 of the 28 wells.

They were isotopically

very similar to the gas

from the production

reservoir.

We found synthetic

organic compounds,

including a couple

of gycols,

some alcohols,

and 2-butoxyethanol.

We found several

petroleum-related compounds,

including benzene

at 50 times the safe number

for maximum

contaminant level.

We also found diesel

and gasoline range organics on a fairly widespread basis.

[Applause]

FENTON:

Benzene, 50 times--

50 times the maximum

contaminant level

on benzene in

the monitoring wells.

That's insane.

That's a mad amount

of pollution.

FOX, VOICE-OVER:
The case

in Pavillion was the shot heard around the world.

It sounds almost absurd,

but it was the first time EPA verified

fracking chemicals were in

the water because of fracking.

And Lisa Jackson

made good on her word:

EPA moved into Dimock,

announced a full round

of testing of 60 homes,

and began delivering water

to residents that were affected.

MAN:
Whoo-whoo! Whoo!

[Truck horn honks]

This is the day.

This is the day of vindication, right?

FOX:
It's huge, isn't it?

SCOTT ELY:
Yes, it is.

You know, it's a little

overwhelming, too. FOX: It is amazing.

I think we should be baptized

with this EPA water.

I haven't been baptized

for a really long time, but I'm ready to be baptized.

FOX:
You want to get

in the water? ELY: Good. How you doing?

FOX, VOICE-OVER:

For the first time in a long time,

in Dimock, there was hope.

And then the election started.

Obama's State of the Union

address was largely seen

as the first campaign

speech of the cycle.

BARACK OBAMA:

This country needs an all-out, all-of-the-above strategy

that develops every available

source of American energy.

[Cheers and applause]

OBAMA:
We have a supply

of natural gas

that can last America

nearly 100 years,

and my administration will take

every possible action to safely develop this energy

because America will

develop this resource

without putting the health and

safety of our citizens at risk.

And, by the way,

it was public research dollars

over the course of 30 years that

helped develop the technologies

to extract all this natural gas

out of shale rock.

Thank you, God bless you,

and God bless the United States of America.

[Whistles and applause]

FOX, VOICE-OVER:
It was a major

election-year shift in policy.

When policy shifts,

investigations shift, too.

But we were about to find out

just how many steps could get taken backwards,

and just how much science

could get swept aside.

When the first test results

came back to Dimock,

the residents called me,

feeling vindicated.

But the tests weren't released

to the public; I had to drive out there and get them myself.

Of the 6 tests that I

could get, all 6 wells

had significant levels of both

ethane and methane;

3 of 6 wells had volatile

organic compounds;

4 of 6 wells contained

polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons,

including benzo(a)pyrene,

benzo(GHI)perylene,

dibenzofuran, dinitrotoluene,

pyrene, and hexachlorobenzene,

explosive levels of methane,

and a host of contaminants,

including uranium,

associated with drilling.

And then EPA released

a desk statement to the press,

saying Dimock's water was safe.

It was deja vu

all over again.

...in Dimock

is at the center of a national focus

on natural gas

drilling's impact on drinking water.

The EPA's first ruling

is that the water

at those homes is

safe to drink.

FOX, VOICE-OVER:

Without the tests being released to the public,

the media ran with the headline

"Dimock's water was safe."

FOX:

ELY:

FOX:

ELY:

FOX:

ELY:

FOX, VOICE-OVER:

When a federal agency changes course,

it happens all across

the nation.

Just two weeks later,

the Imminent and Substantial Endangerment Order

against Range Resources

in Texas was lifted.

The Lipsky case was dropped.

The press was told

the case was settled,

but there was no settlement

for the Lipsky family.

Their water was

still flammable,

no arrangement for

water replacement was made,

and a pipe replaced the

garden hose off the head space of their water well

which spewed a flame

3 feet high.

Steve and Shyla Lipsky were

dragged through the media

in a smear report from Fox News.

And the campaign against

Al Armendariz finally succeeded;

he resigned under pressure.

With all this back and forth,

I asked retiring Congressman Maurice Hinchey,

who had originally asked EPA

to get involved, who was the sponsor

of the "Frack Act" in Congress,

what he thought was going on.

My thought is that

there are--heh heh!--

a certain amount of contests

within the Obama Administration.

There are people within

the Administration who have differences of opinion.

Some understand that, uh,

the way in which this

frack drilling operation has taken place

and is taking place right now,

is being injurious

and is costing a lot

of money, is being harmful.

And there are others

who are very much in favor

of what this situation

should be continued.

We have to find out if it's

safe for us to be here. FOX: Right.

But we also have

to find out what happened

so that we can stop it

from happening again,

because people complain

about the price of gas;

wait till you're paying

twice that for water.

FOX, VOICE-OVER:
What was

more troubling was that both Scott Ely in Pennsylvania

and Steve Lipsky in Texas

were saying the same thing--

mid-level EPA would come

to their door and tell them,

"We're sorry. We're being

yanked off the case.

Higher-ups are telling us

we've got to walk out on this."

It didn't make

any sense. Again--

Well, again, I got people

from inside the EPA,

'cause I don't want to get

anyone in trouble 'cause there's good people there,

I think, and said

that higher-up just yanked it away from them.

The Philadelphia office got

a call from the higher-ups from D.C., chewing them out.

He said that, uh,

that it wasn't just Range Resources,

the gas company came

after them, it was the whole coalition.

But it was from

the higher-ups, and they said there was some congressmen

that were calling, you know,

and when they first come in here,

there was congressmen

that were really harassing EPA:

"Why are you there?

Get out of there. You don't belong there."

And it's kind of scary

when your own government

is afraid of a business.

FOX, VOICE-OVER:

"Don't use your water. It's not safe.

We can't do anything about it.

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