Is that the same one that shows someone burning gas coming of their faucet, which was debunked a long time ago as a result of poor well construction (or was it ground contamination).
It was both; unless the well goes down to the same depth as the fracking level (unlikely as no water percolates down to those depths), and as upward migration of fracking media would require moving against gravity through impermeable layers of rock, the water table isn't touched by the target formation of fracking.
That, of course, doesn't negate the potential for surface contamination from spills, agricultural/industrial/mining runoff, previously unknown underground tanks, historical industrial concerns (such as smelters) to be effecting the supply on a well that was placed without a thorough (and thus expensive) search and impact assessment. In less affluent areas, the likelihood that a well was sited by a hydrologist (instead of a man with a stick) varies in inverse proportion to the likelihood that the driller is actually siting the well and acting as the hydrologist.
[EDIT: "goes up in direct proportion" changed to "varies in inverse proportion to the likelihood"; I proof-read myself terribly]
I didn't see the movie, and I'm sure it sensationalized things as movies have to do (matt damon!).
But. You're saying "oh that won't happen unless people screw up". Guess what, in the real world, people screw up all the time. Screwups should be a major part of the math when people make decisions about fracking.
"Regarding Mike Markham - In a scene from the film, Weld County landowner Mike Markham is shown with director Josh Fox igniting gas from a well water faucet in his home with a cigarette lighter, which the film attributes to natural gas exploration in the area. In 2008, The Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) investigated a complaint made by Markham alleging that nearby natural gas operations impacted his domestic water well. A Colorado Oil and Gas Information System (COGIS) report stated that Markham’s water "appears to be biogenic in origin."
The Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission uses the origin of the methane, either biogenic or thermogenic, to determine whether or not the groundwater contamination can be attributed to natural gas drilling. According to the agency, natural gas drilling does not lead to the presence of biogenic methane. The 2008 COGIS report concluded that "there [were] no indications of oil & gas related impacts to [Markham's] water well." Markham’s water well was drilled through four different coal beds containing biogenic methane gas."
