I recently urged you to watch GasLand, HBO’s outstanding documentary on “fracking” (hydraulic fracturing)—a dangerous drilling procedure that allows natural gas to infiltrate our water supply and create pools of toxic wastewater.

Since my June 28 blog post, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture has quarantined 28 cows from a Tioga County farm, as they were exposed to a large pool of drilling wastewater from a nearby natural gas operation.

Pennsylvania Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding says he doesn’t know how much wastewater the cows consumed, and he announced the quarantine to prevent potentially contaminated beef from entering the food supply.

“Cattle are drawn to the taste of salty water,” he says. “Drilling wastewater has high salinity levels, but it also contains dangerous chemicals and metals. We took this precaution in order to protect the public from consuming any of this potentially contaminated product should it be marketed for human consumption.”

The cows were out to pasture when a wastewater holding pond leaked, sending contaminated water into the adjacent field. The resulting toxic pool killed a 30’ x 40’ patch of grass.

While no cows were seen drinking the wastewater, their tracks were evident throughout the pool, which had extended 200 to 300 feet into their pasture. Tests found the wastewater contained chloride, iron, sulfate, barium, magnesium, manganese, potassium, sodium, strontium and calcium.

Redding says he’s most concerned about the strontium, which can be toxic to humans (especially children).

The state’s Department of Environmental Protection issued a notice of violation to the drilling company, East Resources Inc., and required further sampling and site remediation. This simply isn’t good enough. The site should be shut down before it causes even greater harm, and fracking should be outlawed altogether.

Photo: Shaleshock

Ever try to light your tap water on fire?

Josh Fox has witnessed the phenomenon firsthand (see photo, above).

The filmmaker chronicles the largest natural gas drilling boom in U.S. history in his documentary GasLand—and the environmental ramifications aren’t pretty. The film premiered on HBO last week and will air through 2012. (Click here to view the trailer.)

The film’s genesis was Fox’s discovery that natural gas drilling was about to start in the  Catskills/Poconos region of New York and Pennsylvania, where he lives. He was offered $100,000 to sign over drilling rights to his land.

Fox traveled to 24 states to expose how Dick Cheney’s pals at Halliburton developed a new drilling system called “fracking” (hydraulic fracturing), which may permanently contaminate the country’s water supply and worsen air pollution.

Chronically ill residents in drilling areas shared common symptoms and discovered that an urban legend held true: They could light fires straight from the faucet.

Drilling-related pools of toxic waste were also killing cattle and vegetation. Oil-well blowouts and gas explosions regularly occurred, only to be covered up by officials.

Not an HBO subscriber? A 2010 Sundance Film Festival award winner, GasLand will be available on DVD in December.

Photo courtesy of International WOW Company