For the first time, a scientific study has linked natural gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing with a pattern of drinking water contamination so severe that some faucets can be lit on fire.

The peer-reviewed study, published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, stands to shape the contentious debate over whether drilling is safe and begins to fill an information gap that has made it difficult for lawmakers and the public to understand the risks.

It's not exactly the moratorium that thousands of citizens had asked for, but shalegas operations in Quebec are going to be severely curtailed for the next year, perhaps longer, Environment Minister Pierre Arcand said yesterday following the publication of a much-anticipated report into the future of the shalegas industry in Quebec.

An in-depth strategic environmental assessment - which could take up to two years - will be conducted into the impact of shale-gas drilling, Arcand told reporters in Montreal. It will look into issues such as the treatment of waste-water from drilling sites, and the "harmonious coexistence" of citizens and the industry, he said.

Residents of the idyllic Rocky Mountain town of Fernie, B.C. demonstrated against BP’s Mist Mountain coalbed methane project today. Nearly 200 people turned out for a rally against the contentious project, which could cover 320 square kilometres of B.C.’s southern Rockies.

Click here for more photos from the rally by Todd Weselake - Raven Eye Photography

Chanting slogans like “Tell the Government of BC, We are Coalbed Methane FREE!” the crowd assembled at the Fernie Arts Station and then walked through downtown to the office BP occupied before closing it earlier this year.

This is an update to the recent release titled “BP gets British Columbia drill license 3 days after Deepwater Tragedy”

Wildsight learned yesterday that BP has already begun an exploratory drilling program 22 kilometers northeast of Fernie at Fir Creek.

Groups attack B.C. approval of southeast drilling

By Scott Simpson

Calls for a moratorium on coal bed gas exploration in southeast B.C. were rejected Wednesday by Energy Minister Richard Neufeld.

Environmental groups, and the provincial New Democrats, are attacking the government for an announcement last week that while it’s imposing a two-year moratorium on Shell Canada’s coal bed gas drilling in northwest B.C., it is simultaneously allowing BP Canada to proceed with drilling in the southeast.

The northwest moratorium was praised, the southeast decision condemned.

Meanwhile, Shell is shutdown for two years in northwestern B.C. for further community consultation

Fernie, B.C. — The multinational oil corporation BP has been given the go-ahead to develop coalbed methane in a 300-square kilometre stretch of Rocky Mountain wilderness west of Fernie, the B.C. government announced today

In brokering the deal with BP, the B.C. Liberals ignored concerns from the local community and the City of Fernie, who strongly oppose CBM in the the Southern Rockies region without further review. (See backgrounder attached.)