In British Columbia’s Peace River region, farming families and First Nations are witnessing an unprecedented rush on water resources, a rush driven by energy corporations that need copious amounts of water to produce natural gas.

Last year, Bob and Terry Webster got a firsthand taste for just what the water rush means. It’s left them and many of their neighbors wondering what the future holds for the region they call home, and for one of our most precious natural resources.
The Websters own a buffalo farm on Berryl Prairie, west of Hudson’s Hope and a short distance from Williston Lake, the reservoir in the north central region of the province created by the building of the WAC Bennett dam.

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.

Suit accuses EnCana, Alberta Environment and Energy Resources Conservation Board of negligence and unlawful activities. Case to be presented at the United Nations in New York.

Nearly a decade ago EnCana, one of the world’s largest natural gas producers, began a risky and experimental drilling program that required intense hydraulic fracturing for shallow coalbed methane (Horseshoe Canyon Formation) throughout central Alberta.

Hydraulic fracturing blasts open oil, gas and coal formations with highly pressurized volumes of water, sand and undisclosed chemical fluids or gases. The technology has boosted natural gas reserves but has become the subject of serious government investigations throughout North America due to surface and groundwater contamination.

Gasland the movie - 7PM - The Arts Station - March 21 2011

"The largest domestic natural gas drilling boom in history has swept across the United States. The Halliburton-developed drilling technology of "fracking" or hydraulic fracturing has unlocked a "Saudia Arabia of natural gas" just beneath us. But is fracking safe? When filmmaker Josh Fox is asked to lease his land for drilling, he embarks on a cross-country odyssey uncovering a trail of secrets, lies and contamination. A recently drilled nearby Pennsylvania town reports that residents are able to light their drinking water on fire. This is just one of the many absurd and astonishing revelations of a new country called GASLAND. Part verite travelogue, part expose, part mystery, part bluegrass banjo meltdown, part showdown."

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.