NIKIFORUK: "SLICK WATER: Fracking and One Insider's Stand

[Oscar]

EVENT: Talk and Book Launch at Ground Zero, Slick Water: Fracking and One Insider’s Stand Against the World’s Most Powerful Industry

Media Alert For Immediate Release, September 1, 2015

Rosebud Community Contact: Shauna Murphy (403) 677-2088

Rosebud, Alberta – Investigative journalist Andrew Nikiforuk launches Slick Water at Ground Zero Saturday, September 12, presenting a book talk, followed by Q and A.

Slick Water reveals the shocking story of Jessica Ernst’s determined stand to hold Encana, and Alberta regulators accountable for damages caused by fracking. When Ernst’s dogs refused to drink her well water and she suffered caustic burns from it, the oil patch consultant began asking questions; she discovered Encana had secretly fracked hundreds of gas wells around Rosebud in the fresh water zones.

After Ernst filed her lawsuit and put forward evidence that Encana had violated laws by fracturing the community's drinking water aquifers, she was falsely tagged as a bomb-making terrorist and harassed by the Harper government’s anti-terrorism squad. Frightened but undaunted, she uncovered a startling history of liability, fraud, and intimidation, along with a willful denial of widespread groundwater contamination.

In his powerful work, Nikiforuk interweaves Ernst’s story with the history and science of fracking, as well as human and environmental harms left in its wake.

Nikiforuk has been writing about the oil and gas industry for more than 20 years and the Ernst case since 2004. He won the Rachel Carson Environmental Book Award for Tar Sands, Canada's Governor General Award for Saboteurs, seven national magazine awards, and the 2013 Writers’ Trust Award in Celebration of a Writing Life. He was one of the first journalists in North America to document the devastating effects of hydraulic fracturing on communities. He lives in Calgary, Alberta (Andrew@andrewnikiforuk.com).

Saturday September 12, 2015, from 6pm, Rosebud Community Hall, off Hwy 840, west of Fire Hall

Book Sale & Signing 6:30pm; Book Talk by Nikiforuk 7:30pm; Q&A follows, then more signing (Books $20 ea, cash or cheque only please)

Free Event: refreshments from Rosebud Centre of the Arts; Donation jar for expenses

Slick Water is published by Greystone Books and was partly funded by The Canada Council for the Arts.


"Slick Water is a true-life noir filled with corruption, incompetence, and, ultimately, courage. It is a deeply informative, disturbing, and important book." —Elizabeth Kolbert, 2015 Pulitzer Prize Winning author of The Sixth Extinction

-30-


Andrew Nikiforuk interview today on his new book:
[ http://www.630ched.com/the-ryan-jespersen-show/ ]

The Poster
[ http://www.ernstversusencana.ca/septemb ... l-industry ]

A community for the book's journey: Fracking Alberta - Taking a Stand at Ground Zero
[ https://www.facebook.com/groups/1626398770933718/ ]

Slick Water Event page:
[ https://www.facebook.com/events/1485411728444698/ ]