Day 2 - Gasland Movie

Gasland is a documentary that exposes the environmental and public health hazards associated with fracking. I thought it was a powerful video, as it showed many families struggles with their water being polluted and not much being done about it. However, it didn't really address how many people were really impacted by fracking, which is a weak point of the video. It was distressing to learn that 500-700 chemicals are used, and 1/3 of them have known environmental impacts. Other environmental impacts of fracking include high water use, high greenhouse gas release, heavy equipment use, earthquakes, habitat loss, land degradation, and noise pollution. Unfortunately, the companies are not required to disclose information about all of the chemicals so we don't even know what they are. They are able to recover about 90% of the chemicals that are sent down, but what happens to the other 10%? All of this makes me very nervous, along with the fact that now we have to store the wastewater from what we did recover. The practice itself, when done correctly, may be okay, but in population centers it becomes more dangerous. We need to be more careful in high population areas so that we do not contaminate their drinking water and destroy their land. However, the fracking companies are not required to disclose information or follow regulations, and the fines are minimal compared to doing the right thing and fixing whatever it is. This is very disheartening and it makes me think that the fracking industry will never be what it should be.