With the dangers of nuclear power playing out in Japan, fighting in Libya pushing oil prices up, and climate scientists pointing an accusing finger at coal, America is desperate for some energy alternatives. One that seemed promising is natural gas - a relatively clean burning fuel. But critics now say the process of getting gas from the ground may be risky.
If you saw the documentary, Gasland, there’s one scene you’ll never forget. A guy from Weld County, Colorado - where gas wells are common - turns on his tap, flicks his lighter and jumps back as the water bursts into flame.
It was a dramatic way for filmmaker Josh Fox to get the public’s attention. He then goes on to make a frightening case against an industrial process called hydraulic fracturing -- or fracking:
You can see how fracking is done in southwest Virginia - in a forest near Abingdon. This is coal country, and there’s methane trapped in coal seams. About thirty men have come to drill a well and shoot a mix of water, nitrogen and sand into the rock. The force of that fluid cracks the coal and frees the gas, which is then captured and sent to market by pipeline.
"There’s enough gas to supply this country for my kids and my kids’ kids."
That’s Greg Kozera, president of the Virginia Oil and Gas Association. He’s pretty excited, because part of this state sits on the Marcellus Shale - a deep rock formation that extends north through West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York. It’s the second largest gas field in the world, and some experts say it could meet the nation’s energy needs for a hundred years.
Kozera insists gas can be extracted safely. He saw Gasland and checked a map for one of the other places featured - Dimmock, Pennsylvania:
"Just north of Dimmock was a little pine tree, and it was Salt Springs State Park. So I picked up the phone, and + I said tell me about your park. And she said, “Oh, we’ve got these natural salt springs. They’re fed by the natural methane in the rocks.”
And if the weather conditions are right, she said, you can actually set the springs on fire. So water can be contaminated by natural factors and by nearby septic tanks, and Kozera says Pennsylvania is pretty lax about where people put their wells.
That doesn’t comfort Sarah Francisco, a senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center:
There have been fairly well documented instances where people’s drinking water wells have been contaminated by methane gas that’s leaked from wells, and there are a lot of questions about whether drinking water is also being contaminated by this fracking fluid.
The fluid she’s talking about hasn’t been used yet in Virginia, but it’s widely used in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and out west. A mix of chemicals, water and sand, it fractures shale deep underground. Some of that fluid then comes back to the surface carrying naturally occurring radioactive substances and salts which are stored in holding ponds:
There have been concerns about these pits flooding over or leaking and contaminating rivers and streams. Sometimes the material is just sprayed out across the ground, or it may be taken to a sewage treatment plant.
Sewage treatment plants are not equipped to remove the chemicals or radioactive pollutants in fracking fluid - so the stuff had been dumped into rivers, and communities downstream - like Pittsburgh -- ended up with drinking water that didn’t meet federal safety standards.
So what’s the situation in Virginia? Could it happen here? And why should people in all parts of the Commonwealth care? We’ll answer those questions in part two of our series on fracking.