[QUOTE=Taz's Master;6276313]
Quote:
Originally Posted by Eric 951
New in your area? Where in "Steeler country" are you? They've been pumping oil out of the ground in Western Pennsylvania longer than anywhere in the world, and fracking isn't a new procedure there.
From what I've learned, the dangers are real, but they are primarily incident rather than systemic dangers. Bad casings can introduce natural gas into the water table, and frack water spills can and do happen and they poison water supplies and livestock. Although the huge water usage in the fracking procedures is a systemic concern that I'm not comfortable with.
There are real concerns about the safety of the operations, and the gas companies are intentionally deceptive in their efforts at dealing with landowners. I'm especially interested in 2 dynamics:
#1 the landowners are the leaseholders. In Western PA, when you buy property you buy surface rights, the GOM rights have been sold off, and usually don't come when you buy property. In N. Centeral, PA that hasn't been the case, most property retains the GOM rights, and the gas companies aren't dealing with people who live out of the area and simply want a return on their investment, but rather the people who live where the development is happening.
#2 much of the outcry comes from people who made big money living and working in cities (in my opinion cities are far worse for the environment than a gas or oil field), and they don't want their bucolic retirement spoiled by the economic opportunity afforded their idyllic rural community.
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I am in the heart of it in SW PA and natural gas fracking is certainly "new" to many of the residents here.
The giant
PR campaign regarding natural gas and marcellus shale has opened alot of people's eyes to the situation as well.( 5) years ago most people here had no idea what fracking or Marcellus Shale was, now with the TV/radio, billboard, adverts, endless land-men, public forums, landowner groups, etc. (not to mention the drilling rigs, pads, containment ponds, water haulers, and every other pick-up sporting a bull-bar and TX, OK, WY plates) every one in this area knows about it. It has exploded into the conciousness and is "new".
People who have never heard of the process and are suddenly immersed in all facets of it are inclined to think the process is a new technology(I have witnessed this first-hand).
There are alot of landowners in SW PA that didn't have their mineral rights--however it is not a blanket truth and there are plenty of landowners that do have their rights and can lease them to drillers.
I know farmers whose parents or grandparents sold or leased their rights decades ago for as little as 50.00/acre. If those leases have been renewed, or are still in effect, then those landowners get nothing and can't do a thing about it if Chesepeake has subsequently purchased the rights and wants to set a pad with (7) wells right in the middle of a pasture or corn field--including building of the access roads and can put compressor stations, storage tanks, transmission lines anywhere ont he property(except within 200 yards of a structure).
Yes, this definately sucks and makes people angry.
On the flip side, if you have your rights and leased them to a driller for 3-5,000 an acre up-front binus opayment, and get a 16-20% royalty for all the gas and oil they pump out of your unit, that is alot of additonal income, and has created a few "instant millionaires" in town.
If the (2) landowners cited above are next-door neighbors, obviously this is going to create tension, and pit the haves aginst the have-nots, and a bandwagon-urge to "get the drillers out of town, because they are ruining the environment"
Are there alot of environmental questions regarding drilling/fracking which need regulated and answered--yes.
Is it as dangerous and reckless and certain groups would have you believe--no
Are drillers looking out for the land-owners best interests--no
can you as a landowner have a good relationship with a drilling company--yes
This is an issue I take seriously and have invested alot of time and effort to understand.