Gasland Part II Page #6

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that had similar problems,

saying, "We, too, need a water line,"

insisting that the Dimock

water line be a precedent for the state.

Coming home from Dimock,

my own situation was escalating.

The only place

they hadn't managed to drill

in Pennsylvania was

the Delaware River Basin.

It's the border

with New York State,

and there are hundreds

of streams, tributaries

to form that mighty river.

15 million people get

their drinking water

out of the Delaware

River Basin--

New York City, Philadelphia,

and southern New Jersey.

A lot depends on nothing

ever happening up here.

There's an old adage:

"You can't ever step in

the same stream twice."

And from growing up

running up and down a trout stream connecting

to the Delaware River, it's

fairly obvious how that's true.

Every year, the snow melt

carves out a slightly new bank.

Every year,

the spring thaw rushes in,

takes down a few trees.

Every year, a new beach head,

a place where a swimming hole

is slightly deeper.

And, depending on the rainfall

and the weather,

there could be

a rushing current,

or a boulder revealed

by a drought that you've never seen before.

But in this case,

something besides nature had changed this.

Pro-drilling landowners

in my county

had leased over 80,000 acres.

The stream's always been

my property line, and now, just across from me,

I could wake up and see off

my front porch every day

the other side of the stream

was now leased.

If drilling began,

that side would be controlled

by the gas industry.

Now it didn't matter

that my family never signed.

I was completely surrounded,

and if they drilled,

you'd never step in

the same stream again.

The River Basin is controlled

by a 5-member body--

4 governors of the states

that border the river

and a representative

from the president--

and New York State had

been paying attention to what was going on

in Pennsylvania and

throughout the country.

The New York legislature passed

a one-year moratorium on drilling throughout New York,

and the federal government

was also taking a look.

Prompted by Maurice Hinchey,

congressman from New York,

the Federal Environmental

Protection Agency begins a two-year study

of the effects of hydraulic

fracturing on groundwater,

and EPA Administrator

Lisa Jackson declares

that if states are falling

down on the job enforcing regulations,

then the federal government

will step in.

One such failed state

was Wyoming,

and one such town was

a tiny little place called Pavillion.

My backyard, New York,

and national policy tied

to tiny little places

like Pavillion.

FOX, VOICE-OVER:

EPA moved in and did

a full groundwater study,

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