With all of the talk about drilling and leasing, what about infrastructure? While talking to some friends who are from West Union Wv, they talked of how the roads and land is being affected by the companies. What is going to happen in the next few years and even now when it comes to fixing those problems? The roads from a constant pounding from truck and heavy equipment vehicles is causing a lot of distress on the roadways. The runoff from the drilling and digging and dozing has been seen in the water. The streams and lakes are the beneficiary of all the runoff. What effect will this have on fisheries and drinking water? Anyone with any opinions whether their own or professional on this topic?
I saw a news report where a man had complained to the state about a well drilled uphill from him, the state told the operator that they had to do something to resist soil movement and the operator installed a plastic and wooden stake silt fence. The fence did nothing to stop a 3 foot avalance of mud from covering the crops, road and stock tank of the man who complained. Frankly, in such a situation I think heads should roll at the state for not holding the operators feet to the fire and for gross criminal negligence of the operator for property damage and what could have caused loss of life and has caused loss of livelyhood. Not a spur of the moment thing, they were forewarned.
When North Dakota had 100+ inches of snow the state warned the operators to secure their reserve pits. Imagine the state being ahead of the curve? The operators ignored the warning and the flood from the spring thaw spread drilling waste over a large number of acres and into lakes and springs. The state fined the operators as a group $20 million, there never was any clean up that I heard about, I guess anyone down hill from a well became an unpaid soil farmer, with toxic and possibly radioactive drilling waste spread across their land. In addition to the inadequate fine the state increased the bond to drill a well to $400k. The state also was to make the operators haul away waste instead of burying it onsite, but that never materialized. All I can think of to explain this, any of it, is that the state is in love with the money from energy production. The state will forgive any but the most heinous disasters.
I believe there is a video from a pipeline leak in Mayflower Arkansas with crude running in the streets almost to the top of the curbs, which probably would have topped the curbs but fortunately (sarcasm) there were storm drains to carry the crude to the creeks, streams and Lake Conway, water supply for 400k people, or so it says in the video, sounds plausable though. If this made national news, I missed it.
Government is in love with the money. We as a people could band together, give of our time and money to choose a politician, I don't even care if you get the one most responsible, and make his life a nightmare over these incidents or destruction of the taxpayers infrastructure. Make that one cringe everytime he sees a news camera. Hound him out of office and make sure the replacement is suitably motivated. Pick another one.....
I know it's not nice, but nice has been tried. As a nation we have been too tolerant of our employees and they now serve themselves and not us. Case in point, nobody has ever figured out where the billions of dollars to update the computer systems of the IRS disappeared to, at least not that I have heard. Why do we allow such things to go on?
DT,
It appears that the state is not properly regulating the operations. I have not seen this on any of the surface I own.
State and county tax benefits should be used to regulate the industry there.