This exposé about the dangers of fracturing rocks deep underground to extract oil and gas might jolt you like the earthquakes the technique causes. Poisoned water, contaminated wells, stews of toxic chemicals, exploding toilets, unbearable noise, and torn-up landscapes from Alberta to Arkansas are presented in all their horror by Canadian journalist Andrew Nikiforuk.

But his story focuses on the efforts of one woman, Jessica Ernst, to halt fracking where she lives in Alberta. Ernst was an industry insider who ran a business arranging agreements between oil drillers and landowners, part of which involved mitigation of environmental damage. This equipped her to appeal for protection from regulatory boards when her own water and that of neighboring ranchers and businesses became so contaminated with methane that they couldn’t take a shower with it, let alone drink it.

After being repeatedly stonewalled by the boards, which even fudged data to try to prove that the methane was naturally occurring, Ernst sued the agencies and the fracker, Encana, in 2007. The defendants’ lawyers managed to drag out the case until it went all the way to the Canadian Supreme Court, where it is still pending. Nikiforuk shows clearly how the industry’s legal maneuvers allow it to evade accountability and bad publicity in many other places as well. With plaintiffs worn to a frazzle, suits often get settled out of court and forgotten.

Because of people like Ernst, there’s growing knowledge of the dangers of fracking, and increasing opposition, but much remains to be done. Nikiforuk, for instance, notes the “Halliburton Loophole” in the U.S. Energy Policy Act of 2005, which exempted fracking from crucial clean-water regulations, and which the Senate refused to close this year. And who toiled mightily to frack this loophole? None other than Dick Cheney, ex-boss of major frack supplier Halliburton.