Last year, Green Action Centre sponsored the film Burning Water at the Manitoba Reel Green Film Festival. The film documents the environmental effects of fracking for oil and gas in Alberta. In some cases, residents water has actually become inflammable as a result of oil and gas fracking chemicals leaking into groundwater.

Participants in the post film discussion raised concerns about what this could mean for Manitoba, as the industry grows here. Little is known about which chemicals are being used in what quantities in Manitoba’s growing oil industry.

Now new research by the Winnipeg Free Press shows that the use of hydraulic fracking is only growing in Manitoba. With 3600 oil wells in production, and most using fracking, the risks of this technology to Manitoba’s environment could continue to escalate. However, the Province has promised to provide better oversight for the industry.

Read Mary-Agnes Welch’s report at:

Fracking on the rise in Manitoba
By: Mary Agnes Welch

MANITOBANS could soon know a little more about some of the environmentally-worrisome effects of fracking in the province’s booming oilpatch.

The province is working on a series of new regulations that would require oil companies to report the type and amount of fracking chemicals used in each oil well. That information would become part of a plain-language, searchable online database available to all Manitobans…