RECKLESS DUMPING OF TOXIC FLUID
A prominent Texas law firm commissioned VIDEOFILES to research and produce an investigative documentary about one of the firm’s toxic tort cases. The film, “What’s in Your Backyard?”, examines the environmental impact natural gas plants and hydraulic injection wells have on neighboring land owners and surrounding communities.
Most of us are familiar with diesel fuel. The noxious hydrocarbon is ubiquitous in our industrial culture. Diesel powers everything from our cars and trucks to power plants. It’s foul smelling and highly toxic. We certainly do not want it in our homes. So how would you feel if one day the tap water in your faucet smelled and tasted like diesel fuel? Unthinkable? Hardly not. This is happening to families across Texas. Texas ground water is under assault by reckless drillers using high pressure hydraulic injection fracturing techniques.
The culprit is not unlike the Deepwater Horizon BP oil spill that unleashed a tsunami of oil in the Gulf of Mexico. Culprit natural gas producers are unleashing an underground tsunami of oil plumes that threaten our beloved Texas aquifers, water wells and land. Sadly gas producers abide by the same failed culture that gave Americans the Gulf oil spill. A failed culture that places profits above public safety and the environment.
The technique of hydraulic fracturing is truly a brilliant, engineering marvel. Halliburton patented hydraulic fracturing in the 1940′s. The process involves injecting a toxic cocktail of diesel-like fluid, heavy metals, water and sand deep underground to fracture the shale rock formations. The resulting fractures release the methane gas trapped in the shale. But here is the problem. No one really knows how much toxic fluid is used in a typical fracking operation. No one knows what percentage of toxic fluid is recovered or left deep underground. No one knows the exact composition of the toxic fluid. The gas producers consider this information to be a trade secret. They claim it as intellectual property which is protected from public disclosure and watchdogs such as the EPA. It’s called the “Haliburton Loophole”. But what we do know is there are now 1200 contamination sites spread across 100 Texas counties. While it may have taken a brilliant engineer to invent hydraulic fracking it only takes a fracking idiot to frack a well adjacent to an aquifer. Ground water contamination is a predictable and foreseeable consequence of fracking. With Texas being overrun by natural gas producers, all Texans should ask themselves “What’s in our backyards”?
The producers at VIDEOFILES worked closely with top environmental expert witnesses and prominent attorneys to craaft a compelling story about one landowner, damages and the impending threat to the surrounding community. The finished film “What’s in Your Backyard?” was a huge success. Lawmakers in Austin woke up and took action, ordering clean up of the property. Criminal and civil suits against the operators are pending.
Related Links:
http://www.earthworksaction.org/halliburton.cfm
{ 1 comment }
