Hanger and Fox trade jabs

‘Gasland’ continues to spur controversy

By TOM KANE

HARRISBURG, PA — John Hanger, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), says film director Josh Fox was dishonest in his presentation in the award-winning film ‘Gasland’.

The film, which won a special jury award at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, UT. last spring, criticizes the natural gas drilling industry for allegedly causing widespread contamination of water and air in communities around the nation.

“His overall presentation is dishonest because the film is selective in what it tells the public and leaves out important information,” Hanger said. “It intentionally highlights mistakes that the industry made. Mr. Fox clearly has an advocacy position. He wants to shut down gas drilling. He presents only information that supports his goal.”

Fox, a filmmaker who lives in Milanville, PA, a small hamlet in Wayne County, was asked to sign a lease with a gas drilling company. In response, he said, he refused and embarked on a nation-wide journey to a number of gas drilling sites in over 20 states and filmed testimony from people who agreed to lease their land to gas companies and experienced contamination of their drinking wells and of their air.

The film has been broadcast on HBO and has had several viewings in the Delaware River valley during June and July. Numerous viewings are planned around the country in coming months.

Hanger claims that the film incorrectly stated that the DEP budget for 2009 was cut by 25 percent, leaving the department almost crippled by the cuts.

“This is just not true,” Hanger said. “The portion of the budget that comes from the state was cut 25 percent but our other sources of funding were not. We receive funding from the federal government—our major source of funding—and by fees and fines that the industry pays. There were some lay-offs in 2009—we have 2,900 employees—but we hired 37 new inspectors and oversight staff in 2009 and in 2010 we hired another 68 oversight staff, giving us a total of 105 oversight staff.”

Hanger claims that both sides of the issue—the companies and the critics—overdramatize the good and the bad. “They both tend to leave out very important facts,” he said.

Gas drillers want to drill and claim there are no problems, he said. “There clearly are problems and we must continue to have a strong oversight.”

Fox responds

“It is Mr. Hanger that is being dishonest—not ‘Gasland’—by ignoring the problems that drilling has caused all over the state and by attacking the film and the citizens who are voicing their severe contamination issues and health problems,” Fox said in response to Hanger’s criticism. “Contamination is widespread and severe. It is not only in Dimock and Fort Worth; it is everywhere the industry goes.”

Fox said he personally witnessed, documented and read independent water and air tests in eight states and over 1,000 cases of water contamination have been documented across the country.

“Don’t forget. It was John Hanger’s DEP that first went around with drilling companies telling residents that the drilling was done with water and sand—no chemicals—a story that was reported in this very paper [The River Reporter],” said Fox.

“At the time of filming Mr. Hanger’s interview [May of 2009], there were four families in Dimock that were receiving replacement water. As of June 2010, the number has grown to 32 families in Dimock getting replacement water. The number is rising because the drilling continues and the contamination spreads,” Fox added.

Fox is not very optimistic about the future of drilling. “No amount of state oversight can stop gas drilling from having severe problems,” Fox said. “The film only shows the tip of the iceberg.”