Gasland the Movie: How much to believe?

HBO featured a movie tonight, called Gasland.

One write up describes the movie as follows:

‘GasLand’, a documentary that premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and focuses on hydraulic fracturing, will begin airing on HBO starting June 21 at 9 p.m. The documentary focuses on American communities that have been impacted by the increase in natural gas drilling-specifically hydraulic fracturing-across the country.

The documentary’s writer and director, Josh Fox, had been approached by a natural gas company who was interested in leasing his family’s Milanville, Pa., home for drilling; they would receive a signing offer of $100,000. Fox set out across America in search of information about natural gas drilling methods and their impacts on the environment and health of the people and areas in the drilling locations. Locally, he visited Dimock, Susquehanna County, where natural gas drilling had already been taking place. A family that he profiled had been worried about their water supply being contaminated. He found similar concerns in citizens of other states that were host to the drilling, such as Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and Texas.

The question a person has is, “How accurate is this documentary?”

When one reads the reviews, there is clearly a lot of difference of opinion. We read:

“GASLAND just might be the best film of the year.” -The Huffington Post

And at the other end of the spectrum, a site called Energy in Depth has a whole page of material under the title Debunking GasLand, with section headings:

• Misstating the Law
• Misrepresenting the Rules
• Mischaracterizing the Process
• Flat-Out Making Stuff Up
• Recycling Discredited Points from the Past

As an example of the types of things shown, it says:

Mike Markham: Fox blames flammable faucet in Fort Lupton, Colo. on natural gas development

But that’s not true according to the Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC). “Dissolved methane in well water appears to be biogenic [naturally occurring] in origin. … There are no indications of oil & gas related impacts to water well.” (complaint resolved 9/30/08, signed by John Axelson of COGCC)

What are readers views on the movie? If you didn’t see the movie, this is link to an NPR interview with the director. There is also a trailer available for viewing.