The industry has tied itself to a tree in this matter. Neither it nor the supporting state agencies keeps such records. Too dangerous. When Mr. McClendon and Mr. Pickens and Mr. Tillerson say something to the effect, “Fracking has never destroyed a water well,” or that no one has been harmed, they don’t want anything to challenge it.

In court, when companies appear to be loosing, they simply make a generous settlement, tying the victims to silence as a condition, and the court records are sealed. But, here have been numerous media reports and local, anecdotal lists.

The situation is changing, however. The public Health Industry has taken an interest. Today there are many academics securing factual information. May 19th there was an article published in the Times Tribune of Scranton Pennsylvania by Laura Legee, reviewing DEP records for the state which establishes groundwater contamination.

Pennsylvania Alliance for Clean Water and Air maintains a list called “The List of the Harmed” of over 1200 effected, some dead, as a result of shale

http://pennsylvaniaallianceforcleanwaterandair.wordpress.com/the-list/

drilling contamination. They can’t all be lying, as the industry implies.

The situation is slowly changing. McClendon, Pickens, and Tillerson can no longer make their claims. With so many people working on the problem it is about to undergo a dramatic change. It will be interesting to see how it effects the industry.

On a more philosophical note, the are two kinds of truth: verifiability, and in the absence of that, authority. In this case, authority has had its day and is loosing out to verifiability.

Do we have any figures on numbers of accidents that involved leaking chemicals?

Another thing to look for are the number of illnesses linked to fracking fluid?