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Posted on Fri, Mar 11, 2011 : 12:15 p.m.

What the frick is fracking? Watch documentary 'Gasland' March 29 to find out more

By Linda Lombardini

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Alex Yerkey

Today our guest writer is Alex Yerkey, Michigan campaign organizer for Clean Water Action.


What the frick is "fracking"? A very cool-sounding word. A way uncool and ungreen activity.

Fracking is short for hydraulic fracturing, an environmentally dangerous way to drill for natural gas. Basically, gas extraction companies drill deep then wide into underground shale. They force millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals into the well to break up the shale and release the gas.

In Michigan, those companies are leasing mineral rights to thousands of acres of state-owned land — and leasing thousands more from private owners, some at incredibly high prices. And, yes, they're planning to frack it.

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GASLAND, 6 p.m. March 29, at UMMA's Helmut Stern Auditorium

Why should you care?

Because in other parts of the country, fracking has been associated with a number of public and environmental threats, including earthquakes in Arkansas, flammable tap water and radioactive discharge into rivers. In Pennsylvania, which has about 71,000 active gas wells, The New York Times tracked the wastewater troubles.

Though some say this natural gas rush could provide us with cheap, abundant power and heat for the next century or more, it may not be worth endangering public and environmental health. Supporters point out that fracking and natural gas are better than building a coal-processing plant. It's nowhere near as environmentally safe as solar-, wind- or hydroelectric-generated energy.

But it's coming in a big way to our state. We have one well now. More are imminent. So come learn more at our screening of GASLAND March 29. This multiple award-winning movie, an Academy Award nominee, details the adverse effects that under- or unregulated natural gas extraction has wrought across the country.

Stick around after the film to hear a panel of hydrofracking experts discuss how the issues pertain to Michigan. Bring your questions for a Q&A that follows.

Tickets are free to this event:

  • GASLAND screening, discussion and Q&A
  • 6-8:30 p.m., March 29
  • Helmut Stern Auditorium, U-M Museum of Art

To get your complimentary tickets or more information, please contact the Ann Arbor office of Clean Water Action, 205½ N. Main, 734-222-6347, Fran Brennan at fbrennan@cleanwater.org, or me at ayerkey@cleanwater.org.

We still have several open sponsor spots for elected officials who'd like to add their names to this effort. City Councilmember Sandi Smith has already signed up and invites her colleagues to join her. Sign up by emailing ayerkey@cleanwater.org.

Read more:

Linda Lombardini lives happily green in the Great Lakes State and tries to protect our precious water. You can contact her at Linda@TrilliumRealtors.com.

Comments

AlexYerkey

Sat, Mar 12, 2011 : 4:46 a.m.

Dave, I appreciate your comment and the concerns you raised about the film and its accuracy. While we at Clean Water Action feel that the film is generally accurate (otherwise we wouldn't screen it), we don't feel it's our role to provide a scene-by-scene fact-check. We do feel that it is our role to show a film that discusses one of many potential threats to our environment, especially one that drew considerable popular attention, won multiple awards, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary. There are a number of groups who would love nothing more than for every conclusion drawn or inference made in the film about the potential dangers of hydrofracking to be gospel. There are others - among them America's Natural Gas Alliance, whose website you link to in order to debunk the flammable tap water myth - who would similarly like nothing better than for it to be proven 100% false. The truth is that filmmakers comes to their work from a point of view. They try to offer a persuasive argument that fits discrete facts into a larger narrative arc. The truth is also that certain people stand to make huge profits on natural gas drilling and use (like the America's Natural Gas Alliance folks), and it's no surprise that they spend considerable time and money debunking Gasland. All of these ideas and perspectives have value as we chart our energy future. Clean Water Action is showing this film because it has sparked the public's imagination on an issue about which we care deeply. We want to have an enriching conversation on this issue, and that means we need the widest diversity of viewpoints possible. Whether Michigan has stronger laws than other states seems to be the wrong question to ask. What we should as is whether those regulations are sufficient to ensure that fracking is done as safely as possible.

Dave

Fri, Mar 11, 2011 : 10:15 p.m.

As entertaining as Gasland may be, it's unfortunate that a reputable organization like Clean Water Action is spreading the numerous inaccuracies in this movie. The flammable tap water myth has been debunked by numerous sources, including here: <a href="http://anga.us/learn-the-facts/the-truth-about-gasland" rel='nofollow'>http://anga.us/learn-the-facts/the-truth-about-gasland</a> That's not to say that we shouldn't be cautious. What happened in Pennsylvania with wastewater is terrible - but Michigan has among the toughest regulations in the country, and companies have been doing fracking here for decades with no problems. Here's one case where Michigan is far ahead of the curve - although admitting that Michigan has among the best regulations to deal with fracking - and that its been done thousands of times for years with no problem - probably wouldn't generate the headlines Clean Water Action is hoping to get.