will be able to enjoy next custom of weeks and make this a sporting event to remember. >> canremember. >> you can find more information on the al jazeera he be website aljazeera.com. lots of interesting analysis, aljazeera.com. damage fracking does to our drinking water is all wet. plus showdown in texas oil money and power pitting people against their own state government. fracking the world itself has become nonuse itself against oil and gas interests against little guy. with health concerns specifically contaminated

drinking water at the center of that fight. and that's what's making headlines like these ones, so shocking. a preliminary report released last week by the environmental protection agencies agency, the epa says hydraulic fracking does not problem to the environment. the epa doesn't believe it does damage to the drinking water. not so fast. the report was originally due out in 2012 at a cost of $12 million, remember that now a final report isn't due out until 2016 and it's going to cost $29 million and that's the key. the epa sphwended epa intended last week's release to be a preliminary statement not

final assessment. assessment.fracking is the controversy method that's powering the america's energy boom. fracturing the rock, releasing oil and gas which is then collectby wells at the surface. but states and cities nationwide are clark over clashing over how to address the pollution and earthquakes that sometimes accompany frack operations. we are seeing conflicts over local control of drilling in states like new mexico, ohio oklahoma, in oklahoma, the cities of norman and stillwater oklahoma are considering their own curbs but pro-oil law makeers complain that these local regulations kill jobs. remember though contaminated drinking water is the concern with

fracking. people became concerned with fracking while they saw this moment, that i'm going to show you, josh fox's ceamed fox's academy award nominated feature film film. film. >> they would have me in the pen so fast my head would spin but look they can come out here and do whatever they want to and they don't even have to report and tell us what they're putting in there. >> that was a clip from the hbo documentary gas man. he was concerned about the safety his drinking water. the film has been criticized by oil and natural gas producers by

miz misstating facts. joining me is josh fox, the environmental activist behind the movie. he says the epa has betrayed its constituents. the personal story that spurred the idea for film. jorve josh said he received a $100,000 offer to lease out his land for drilling. he decided against it. parts of this were interesting quote, writing about hydraulic fracturing, the epa said we did not find that these evidences, meaning fracking did not have systemic impact on drinking water in the united states. >> you expect that if the epa put out a headline and the top of their press release that it would actually be the same thing that's actually in their report.

the report is a thousand pages right? >> it's pretty long. >> even you would have the chance to read it at this early date. but the truth of the matter is that this is a pattern of epa of having elevator alarming information inside a report on fracking while their pr department comes out with a statement that sounds rather innocuous. the oil and gas industry systematically says, there is not one case of contamination. while the epa report shows it contaminates water in texas, in be california, while the report should say, the fracking contaminates groundwater. let's get into it for a second if you don't mind. >> yes. >> because epa then comes out they issue that statement on a thursday. on sunday they come out and they

say oh you know what? people are misreporting this. we have to admit that we have limited data. so how do you portray something as not widespread if you don't have widespread data sets. >> it was nuanced. >> which they did. >> in a thousand pages i questions that's what you get but there was no nuance or 2010. >> there is no ambiguity in the actual report. the report says fracking contaminates groundwater. i want to ask you maybe people are not familiar with gas line part 2 but in gas line part 2, the families you just saw in be wyoming and demick pennsylvania, particularly in demick, after they did several months of testing they said demick's water is safe. don't drink your water.

they showed contaminants in the water. >> is this bad press at the epa, are they confused? in 2010, you drew conclusions in your film that is now 2015 and the epa takes a thousand pages to be less clear than you were in your film. so what do you know that the epa doesn't know? >> well something changed in that time. what changed, the major thing that changed is obama administration policy on fracking. the science never lies. the science is the science there are concontaminate nats or there contaminants in thewater. >> that's more than a disturbing trend, that is an allegation that says it's trumping scientific research. >> i'm a reporter, not interested in

research. what we found from foia, industry influence into this epa fracking study. we also know that when we look at the water test from the these different places it shows fracking contamination. >> and we covered the idea of industry influence particularly in denton texas, they didn't want fracking in their town and the state gets to impose their will. we'll talk about that in the next segment. are you talking about at the white house level, influencing epa outcomes? that sounds more serious than somebody in texas saying, don't get in the way of our drilling. >> epa, science, on the ground doing testing came out months later and said we were held back from publicizing this science because it was going to affect obama's 2012 political campaign in the presidential campaign. these were people who worked at epa. who had science.

who had the smoking gun right? who said this is fracking, this is water contamination, they risked their jobs and blew the whis whistle. it is that is not environmental science, that is not environmental protection agency. that is the smoking gun. >> we want to show viewers the clip, anybody who remembers the trailers, this is the one who got all the coverage. let's run this clip and then we can discuss it. >> i saw it go up. >> yes. >> we'll just give it a second here .

>> whoa, jesus christ. that's the best i've got! i smell hair. >> never gets old. >> it never gets old. we have some geologists and again, it's impossible to know who's on what side and who's getting paid by whom but there are geologists that say that's methane and it's naturally occurring in well water. >> duke university and several other scientific peer review studies that come out that say if you are within one mile of a fracking well, you are 17 times more thrieblg likely to have methane in your well water. and other studies that show you will have ethane in your groundwater. i can't speak to every instance

but we do know however there's a very, very strong relationship that's showing up in the peer reviewed science in the epa report itself the one we're talking about between fracking and groundwater contamination. however that is not only concern with fracking. what a lot of people relate to their water is very, very important. the air pathway however, that you're living with huge amount of volatile organic compounds in the air, you can go buy bottled water, it is very hard to stop breathing the air. and that's what is making people sick. the each was epa was supposed to be testing that and they stopped studying that. >> there are republican presidential candidates that say dismantle the epa. >> i'm saying the report, the spin is very, very easy to manipulate. manipulate.

if you look at the -- there are pdfs that show you very clearly, where they looked for groundwater contamination and in every instance they found it. not only did they cut the air pollution part of it, they actually cut all case studies for this report. there are no influence case studies for this new epa report. why? because industry refused to cooperate with epa. they did not let them on their well sites or let them know chemicals are involved. the fracking industry is exempt from the safe drinking water act. which means that you can't even know what they're injecting into the ground. how are you going to test this? this is much more than $29 million study. >> in fact i actually think that's the biggest take away from your films that how did that happen? how did our politicians allow that to happen? >> well. barack obama made it a campaign pledge. in my backyard in dunmore

pennsylvania in primaries when i was a volunteer, he said that and it has not been a priority in his presidency. >> thank you, this is one of the most compelling things facing our country. josh fox, the director of gas line and gas line 2. the governor passed a law overriding the ban, residents are fighting mad and they refuse to give up. a texas standoff in two minutes.

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>> go one on one with america's movers and shakers. >> we will be able to see change. >> gripping. inspiring. entertaining. talk to al jazeera. only on al jazeera america. >> the city of denton, texas sits right outside fort worth. problems of pollution and heavy traffic and denton residents complained about the health effects of having drilling rigs near their homes and schools. but texas's new law is banning the city's ban on fracking. it shows how important the oil and gas has become in texas and how far the balance of power has tilted. david ariosto has our report. >> in texas, energy is king and oil and gas boom recently helped the lone star state's economy

expand as twice the rates of the u.s. now texas maybe in danger of transitioning from america's job engine to its anchor. in march, texas lost 25,400 jobs, the most in the country and the state's biggest job loss in more than four years. big reason, the price of oil plunged by more than half since its peak last summer. many here in texas say they need to do everything they can to keep the oil industry thriving. not everyone feels the same way, particularly those in the town of denton just outside of dallas. this is oil country, platforms like these used to have rigs on them in which they were churning out oil around the clock through fracking. but that got residents a little concerned. they voted on it and voted essentially from fracking to take place inside the town but

that is about to change. governor greg abbott recently signed a bill into law that nearly assures no texas town could ever ban frack again. power to regulate oil and gas and hand that power over to the states. governor abbott says it's necessary to protect an energy industry that accounts for nearly one fifth its economic output. >> denton residents like debbie ingram argue that they are being disen enfranchised. >> we have been home rule, where we get to decide what happens to our citizens and our towns. basically we're telling us we don't have that option. >> debbie says she voted in the favor of the ban last year after

an oil rig was placed roughly 300 feet from hurry house. >> it made it so you couldn't breathe, you had a sore throat all the time. your eyes were watering all the time. i had the nose bleed, my dog had a nose bleed. >> if those symptoms start again -- >> i'm leaving. >> where will you go? >> i'll go someplace where there's not shale underneath. >> it's very surprising because the texas ethos has generally been smaller government closer to the people the better. what we're saying is state government saying to local governments, look we know better. we don't want you to have zoning, we don't want you to keep fracking out. it goes against 20, 30 years of what we see here in texas. >> industry says in many cases they were there first. in denton urban sprawl drove residents closer to

mineral rights. energy companies point to time lapse he like these to emphasize their points. arguing that denton had no right to ban fracking in the first place. residents like debbie recognize the rights to coexist. >> i was raised where texas was a gas and oil state and that the people that have the underground rights have the underground rights and they have the right to make the money off of them. i think all that we're trying to do as citizens is, make them be more responsible. make them not dig under every single place and dig wells everywhere. >> reporter: and other state governments are taking note. colorado, ohio, florida and new mexico are all in the process of passing similar legislation. in oklahoma, both the house and the senate voted to outlaw local fracking bans. that's in spite of a recent state survey that says it's

quote very likely that most of oklahoma anticipates recent earthquakes were triggered by oil and gas operations. the state is now averaging 2.5 earthquakes per day each with a magnitude of 3 or greater. but in recent days oil and gas companies have laid off workers in texas and other states as plans for new wells are being put on the shelves and that raises the question as to whether the low price of oil can actually do a better job of preventing fracking than any other local ban. >> david ariosto joins me now. this ban, isn't crazy spreading all over texas. why is denton doing it now? >> you only see pockets of this in certain places but this is big business in texas. the energy sector contributes about $172 billion to the texas economy, the largest crude oil reserves anywhere in the country is in text texas so this represents

a lot of money. denton was a threat. the texas legislature which wants to promote this industry particularly given the price of oil, how much that's sagged and how many workers have been laid off, they want to protect their industry and that's what this plan was all about. >> the united states was very unusual about surface rights to rights. when you talk about private property and who has the rides rights to that property when it's on somebody's private property and the city says no fracking? >> this is a federal statute that dates back to the 1800s. at the end of the day if you have mineral rights that trumps the rights of surface owners. the oil company's argument is that this was their territory first, and no matter what you do on the surface that's going to

trump rights of service centers. we've only seen a couple of exceptions to that. this is working through courts they would probably win this anyway but it speaks to how big an industry how important it is to texas and other states had law. >> if you are in citizenton text and you don't want to have fracking on your property what are your options? >> not many options. you can move to a place where there's no shale, what this interview said, but as the technology increases we are finding ways to squeeze oil out of places we never thought possible. it's hard to know which area is safe. >> thanks david. shortly after governor abbott signed the law that banned fracking, i talked to the president of the texas oil and gas association, the companies that produce crude oil and gas.

let's talk about why texas needed this freaking ban which you supported. denton is the only town in texas fracking. it is not a phenomenon sweeping your state. there are much bigger phenomenon that are sweeping your state. thinking that biker gangs are going to rate. this doesn't even hit the rarity on what texas is thinking about. >> we actually have people providing misinformation about what oil and gas extraction is doing asaying that fracking is causing environmental problems when we have studies that have been conducted in the barnett shell area that says the public is being protected, the water quality is being protected. i think it's this misinformation that led to this. i want to admit up front i think operators need to do the best job we can communicating with the public, we need to be sensitive to the needs

industrial fest productivity provides a little bit of discomfort to everyone. >> i love your state a lot and i spend a lot of time there as much as i can. the idea that the state was able to tell a municipality that they can't do something as a texan if you were from denton wouldn't that sit a little badly with you? >> well i want to work with all cities but the cities are created by the states themselves. the states grants those rights to the cities. and what we know to have a good economy is that we want to protect communities and we want to protect our ability to create jobs. this bill if you read the bill it affirms the rights that the cities have and it really does create the balance. you know ali, local control doesn't mean out of control. everybody gets to do what they want to do and there are constitutional rights i might

point out. many of these mineral rights are owned by families, those individuals have the rights to their property in the complete bundle of rights that they are entitled to. >> up next, hacking america, "on target" takes a trip to the dark web. >> he was electro-shocked and tortured. >> decades of corruption abuse, and torture, by chicago police... >> you think people make a distinction between cia, black ops sites, verses torturing a thirteen year old kid from the south-side? >> people realize that torture is torture. >> lisa fletcher brings you an in depth report chicago torture only on al jazeera america

wall of silence in american cities? >> did somebody get shot? fault lines baltimore rising only on al jazeera america someone's identity is stolen and you only need to look at the headlines of the massive data breaches, there is no escaping the reality that your information is vulnerable. next week we bring you a special report, hacking america. mary snow went into the dark web with a former black hat hacker what she saw will surprise you. >> they can actually sell access to your computer. so that somebody can use the

computer you own to order things with your stolen information. >> and how much does that go for? >> that goes anywhere from 20 $50 maybe. >> that's it? >> that's it. >> 20 to $50 you can take over my computer and i have no idea you're doing that? >> that's right. >> don't miss our special report, hacking america, monday at 10:30 p.m. i'm ali velshi, thank you for joining us. >> a global climate crisis >> two feet of sea level rise is projected... >> threatening america's coastline >> you'll see water in the streets without rain... >> now fighting back with a revolutionary new technology >> there de-watering the ground... >> this is the first time anybodies done this before >> techknow's team of experts show you how the miracles of science... >> i'm standing in a

tropical wind storm. >> can affect and surprise us. >> wow...these are amazing! >> "techknow" where technology meets humanity. only on al jazeera america. experts call the deadly m.e.r.s. outbreak in south korea large and complex, and warn more cases are likely. hello, i'm martine dennis you're with al jazeera, live from doha. also to come - a second massive data breach. u.s. officials say hackers targeted intelligence and military personnel. plus... >> i'm andrew thomas with thailand's navy in a helicopter above the andaman sea,