Screening | Debra Anderson's Documentary Split Estate (2009): The Danger of Hydro Fracking

This compelling documentary shows the dirty side of natural gas, an energy source the industry touts as a clean alternative to fossil fuels. It maps a tragedy in the making, as citizens in the path of a new drilling boom in the Rocky Mountain West struggle against the erosion of their civil liberties, their communities, and their health. Exempt from federal protections like the Clean Water Act, the oil and gas industry has left this idyllic landscape and its rural communities pockmarked with abandoned homes and polluted waters. Many, gravely ill, fight for their health and for the health of their children. All the while, the industry assures us it is a “good neighbor”.

We all pay the price in this devastating clash of interests that extends well beyond the Rockies. Aggressively seeking new leases in as many as 32 states, the industry is making a bid to drill in the New York City watershed, which provides drinking water to millions. As public health concerns mount, Split Estate cracks the sugarcoating on this industry and poignantly drives home the need for real alternatives.

76 min. The director will be present.

We must stop gas drilling in the New York City watershed. Every person in this country deserves access to safe, clean drinking water. However, if New York State government allows the natural gas companies to use Hydraulic Fracturing (hydro fracking) process to extract natural gas in the Marcellus Shale in the Catskills where New York City's watershed is located, you can forget about turning on your tap and expect to be able to drink the water or use the water for showering or cooking.

Hydro fracking is a process used by the energy companies to extract natural gas buried in rock formations by pumping millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals underground to break apart the rock and release the gas. Chemicals used in fracking are toxic which pose a serious threat to our health either when chemicals are pumped underground or when waste fluids are handled and spilled on the surface or washed by flash flood downstream. This fracking process has already ruined the lives and the land of many residents in 34 states in our country including Texas, Colorado, Wyoming, Pennsylvania and the list goes on. Now this is at our door step in New York State. We must stop the big natural gas companies from ruining the lives of New Yorkers.

You can learn more about the danger of fracking to our drinking water and the air we breathe by attending.