It's been nearly two years since Tecton Energy abandoned its plans to drill in the Galisteo Basin. But for communities in the Rocky Mountain region and several other states around the country, the battle between landowners and natural gas and oil companies is far from over.

In the documentary Split Estate, producer/director Debra Anderson, who lives in Santa Fe, focuses on the detrimental effects of the controversial deals that she says can wreak havoc on the environment and pose health threats to people in areas where drilling occurs.

"It was somewhat invisible because a lot of the big drilling is happening in big, unpopulated places," said Anderson in a telephone interview. "Then they started to creep into residential areas. A lot of people I talked to had been trying to get attention to this issue for a while."

Her film, which took three years to complete, focuses on the San Juan Basin in Northern New Mexico and Garfield County, Colo., and is narrated by fellow Santa Fean Ali MacGraw.

A split-estate situation occurs when landowners own only the rights to the surface land and another entity, either a company or a person, owns the rights to the minerals beneath the surface. The mineral rights, more often than not, take precedence over the surface rights, allowing those who own them to set up shop — by bringing in a big drilling rig — and extract the underground resources merely hundreds of feet away from residences.

Anderson said she was inspired to tackle this project after reading a 2006 article in OnEarth magazine called "Wrecking the Rockies," which told the story of a woman who developed an adrenal tumor after her water well was contaminated by drilling in her area.

"It was a shocking story, because it was about how a natural gas company can come in and drill on your land," Anderson said.

As a native of Colorado, Anderson said, she found the story hit close to home, but with oil and gas drilling happening in 32 states in the U.S., it is an issue that is widespread.

"It applies to everyone because we're all responsible for the energy we use," Anderson said.

In Split Estate, Anderson interviews families and individuals whose farmland has been invaded, whose water supplies have been contaminated and who have developed severe health problems because of drilling. She also interviews gas and oil company employees who insist their practices aren't dangerous, including one woman who admitted to having consumed fracking fluid (the combination of water, sand and chemicals injected underground to force open channels in sand and rock formations to allow oil and natural gas to flow).

Since its release in 2009, the film has been met by reactions ranging from rage to extreme sadness, Anderson said. But she hopes it will serve as an educational experience as well.

"The most important thing is to see that we need to urgently leave fossil fuels behind and move into new energy at a much faster pace," Anderson said. "There's no reason to be doing what we're doing with fossil fuels any longer. It's so problematic."

Contact Veronica Cruz at 986-3042 or vcruz@sfnewmexican.com.

IF YOU GO

What: Screening of Split Estate
When: 8 p.m. Friday
Where: Center for Contemporary Arts, 1050 Old Pecos Trail
Cost: $9.50; seniors, students and military, $8.50
For more information: www.splitestate.com