The Catskill Chronicle

Story and photos by Carol Montana

GLEN SPEY, NY (April 7, 2011) – Documentary filmmaker, David Morris, lives in Delaware County in the Town of Hancock. He has a neighbor who leased 2800 acres of land to a company that drills for natural gas using a method called hydraulic fracturing or “fracking.” It’s a method that opponents say, sends hundreds of thousands of gallons of clean water into the ground, mixes it with toxic chemicals, and fractures the earth, allowing toxic runoff into people’s drinking water.

“That really got me,” he said, “I was really kind of panicked, the more I found out about the potential for devastation …”

Morris (photo left) has since learned that he might be close enough to the New York City reservoirs that he won’t be affected by the drilling. “But I just kept hearing more and more stories from people. And of course over the border in PA, I call it “The Ghost of Christmas Future.’”

He says he’s become a “frack-a-holic. It’s such a huge story.”

So Morris made his own story, a documentary entitled “Frack! The Movie.” And on Saturday, April 2, the Mountain View Resort donated their facilities in Glen Spey for a screening.

Hosted by Peter Comstock of the Homestead School, the screening attracted hundreds of anti-drilling supporters. The documentary had two showings, followed by a Q & A with a panel that included Wes Gillingham from Catskill Mountainkeeper, Bruce Ferguson of Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy,  Dimock, PA resident Craig Sautner whose water has been contaminated by fracking, Pat Carullo of Damascus Citizens for Sustainability, and actor Mark Ruffalo (photo right). 

Morris, who has made other documentaries, is also a musician. “I’ve scored a bunch of horror movies. This is really the truest horror movie I can possibly imagine making.”

“Frack! The Movie” has been shown in NYC, in Hancock, and in PA. For additional screening dates visit www.frackthemovie.com. There is a calendar on the website, which Morris wants to fill up.

Morris started his movie before he knew about “Gasland,” Josh Fox’s award-winning documentary. “At first I thought he’s making a movie so I don’t have to,” said Morris, “the way he did it was so hugely powerful. … And then a few more months went by and I realized one movie isn’t enough. Anyone can make a movie, write letters to the editor, to their congressman … I can’t encourage people enough to stay on it, keep writing. …”

Dimock, PA resident, Craig Sautner, doesn’t want the state or Cabot Gas Company to buy his land. He just wants his water back. “I’m not settling. … They screwed up my water, I want my water restored. …  They can’t clean up the aquifer, it’s ruined. My property value is down to 15% of what it’s appraised at. Maybe $30,000.” Sautner paid $150,000 three years ago.

“We moved in there March, they came to us in May, we signed the lease in June, they drilled in August, we had contaminated water in Sept. This was a vertical well,” he says. “So all the people in New York State who think that they’re going to do vertical drilling safely, maybe not. They hit a pocket of gas, and when they tried to fill it up with cement, it let all the gas out. Since then they’ve capped that well with concrete. … They plugged up three wells, and I still have a problem.”

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection says the Sautners have strontium, acetone, methane and ethane in their well water. “We took showers using that water for a year. How many years did they take off my kids’ lives?”

To see more photos or to purchase prints of Hundreds Attend Screening of "Frack! The Movie," visit The Catskill Chronicle on Zenfolio.

The following two videos, made by Ken Walter, are the from the Q & A session after the first screening of “Frack! The Movie.”