A company wants to lease 30 acres in Reeves County, Texas. Does anybody know what the per acre dollar amount of these leases are?
What is a landfarm lease?
When an oil well is drilled, there is waste created in the form of cuttings, mud, etc., which are contaminated materials. These materials need to be disposed of in some manner. One way is to put the mess on a barge and take it out to sea and dump it.
A more common way is to disk up an area of ground and thinly spread the contaminants on top of the disked ground. Then oil-eating little microbes are added. These aerobes hate hydrocarbons. The lands are then disked again and more material, more microbes, more disking, etc. Since we are talking chemistry here, not all soils are satisfactory to use for biodegradation. Acidity, chlorine, etc., all play a part. Wet areas are not a good idea, since it’s bad to spread the contamination around and get into the fresh water supply. So, semi-arid regions work better.
This is called bioremediation. The process is governed by state boards, depending on what state the property is located.
The process increases the NORM (naturally occurring radioactive materials) for a good bit for a couple of centuries or so, depending on the extent of the landfarming operation.
In the final analysis, a landfarming operation is classified as a hazardous waste dump and is regulated accordingly.