Dirty Fracking Business by Peter Ralph

have been exaggerated and maybe the bank was spooked.’
    ‘You’re living in a fool’s paradise, Son. You need to see Gasland, and then you’ll find out about the misery that the big oil and gas companies in America unleashed in Pennsylvania and Colorado. Poison in the water, poison in the air, people lighting their drinking water, sickness, cancer and animals th..’
    ‘I went to see it last night,’ Steve interrupted. ‘It’s so biased and one-sided, I’m not sure it’s believable. The oil and gas companies weren’t given a chance to put their side.’
    ‘Yes they were. Were you asleep when that guy, Josh Fox, phoned the gas companies, trying to get an interview, and they knocked him back or wouldn’t take his calls?’
    ‘And you actually believed that?’
    ‘Why wouldn’t I?’
    ‘Because it’s a fix-up. Michael Moore does it in his docos and Al Gore did something similar in An Inconvenient Truth. They make it look like they’re trying to get the other side’s opinion but it’s the last thing they want. It’s far more effective to create the smokescreen of a cover-up and the illusion of evil.’
    ‘Unbelievable. What’s it going to take to convince you?’
    ‘Dad, look; I agree with you that the mining companies shouldn’t be able to force their way onto properties and I’ve written articles expressing that view , but until the legislation changes they’re not breaking any laws.’ Steve put his arm around his father’s shoulders. ‘One of the guys I did that management course with at Harvard lives in Denver and I’m going to Skype him tonight and find out what’s fact and what’s make-believe in Colorado.’
    ‘At last some good news. I’m guessing by the morning you’ll have changed your mind.’
    ‘Perhaps.’ Steve smiled, not having told his father that his friend in Colorado was an investment banker. ‘Oh, and by the way, I’m going to accept CEGL’s offer to buy advertising space.’
    Len Forrest clenched and unclenched his hands. ‘I never thought you’d do that to me, Son.’
    ‘It’s a business decision, Dad, pure and simple. The Chronicle can’t afford to knock back that type of revenue and, besides, it’ll speed up getting rid of your debts.’
    ‘With the blood and sweat of those folks that the gas companies are running out of the valley,’ his father snarled, wiping a tear from his cheek. ‘Thanks, but no thanks.’
    ‘Wait until you see how I handle it, before judging me.’

Chapter 10

    Dean Prezky woke from a broken sleep to the sounds of birds tweeting and the humming of the bush but he could still hear the whirr, whirr, whirr, even though it wasn’t as noticeable as it had been in the silence of the night. He climbed into his rusty Toyota four-wheel-drive and headed to the CEGL site office, where the noise was loudest. He pulled up and looked out of his window at a heap of neatly configured steel pipes and four compressors surrounded by a chain-mesh fence and instantly knew the compressor station had been commissioned. The eight gas wells on CEGL’s property had been converted from exploration to production and methane was being piped to the compressor station. Filled-in trenches, where pipes had been laid, extended to the property’s boundaries and methane was most probably being received from wells on surrounding properties. Dean knew that, had he agreed to have pipes laid under his property, gas from the two wells sunk on Joanna’s property would be pumping to the compressor station, and he guessed that pipes would eventually be laid under the dirt road. He had no idea where the compressed gas was being pumped to, or whether it was for domestic use or export, nor did he really care; his only concern was the noise. He climbed out of the four-wheel-drive and knelt down, closing his eyes, as he listened to the whirr, whirr, whirr, shocked by its intensity. Surely this breached whatever laws determined the noise level? Perhaps the noise would abate