Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Barbara on September 22, 2011 at 9:30am

in bradford county the well pads are bigger than four acres..............some start out being said to be 'only' five acres, then the company comes back to say, 'oh, by the way, we really need ten acres'....four sounds like a small pad.  so be prepared to deal with this, too. 

 

and the frack ponds have the potential to leak...many made of a poor grade/thickness of vinyl liner....over flow, all kinds of things............and the water IS noxious...hence the high razor wire topped fences. 

 

traffic will amaze you; the access roads are wide....two big trucks can pass on them...and built to be there forever; dust dust dust and noise ...plus, as someone here mentions, pollution from the diesel engines of the drilling equipment as well as all the idling trucks waiting for their 'turn' to pull in and do their thing.  the loss of crops with the pad is forever, as with the access roads and 'pond'.  the 'pond's are many acres, too...i think at least five.  come to bradford county if you want an idea of what is in store.  the wells are everywhere....and more being built daily.  and the pipelines...............don't forget them......the gas has to get away from your well, and the frack water to/from the ponds.............the right of way for these things is fifty feet.....that's forever, too...........though you can still farm it if you make sure the pipelines are constructed deep enough to not be damaged by any farming you might do.  no construction of any building or permanent anything on the right of way.

 

with a good lawyer, much can be amended re:pipelines to your benefit...number allowed, depth, continued 'rent', no above ground structures such as pig launchers/receivers, etc etc

Permalink Reply by Judy Woodard on September 23, 2011 at 3:24pm

Placing a pad on your land is a big deal. It will be VERY noisy and very high traffic (big truck hauling machinery & water, etc. You should be reimbursed for access to your land, you should restrict the hours trucks can run in & out if the pad is near your home. They will run 24/7 if you don't restrict them. Your lease should have included restoration when the well is finished and only the wellhead & small building are left. The access road will undoubtedly get wide & rough. You should be sure they will restore the road and all the land damaged by the drilling process. They will need a small access road to monitor the well, but you should agree on what that will require. Are they hauling water in or are they accessing your water supply. If so, they owe you for that water & you might also need to limit how much they take & they will have to haul in additional water for their needs. The fracking water pit will be a concrete pond-quite large. You need to negotiate break-up & removal of this concrete after drilling if you can see no further use for it yourself, and there probably is no other use for it.  You should also receive restoration of the grass, trees, shrubs, fences, whatever is destroyed, damaged or removed by them, or whatever is added that they want to just leave behind and will no longer need. Check with someone (an oil & gas lawyer?) about what you need to do now that you are at this stage, so that you don't get stung with details you know nothing about. They also owe you for easement for any pipeline they run across the rest of your acreage to remove the oil. I believe that particular payment is tax free.  I know, at least to me, this all seems overwhelming, but you need some good legal advice. Oil & Gas people are not to be trusted to tell you what's coming and how much it's worth to you to let them do it. Good luck!

Permalink Reply by Karen Bagdes-Canning on September 24, 2011 at 1:33am

Trust me that you will get little of this from the gas company.  Just don't lease unless you are comfortable with taking the money and running, leaving your neighbors with a polluted and deadly environment.  Go to youtube and watch Fracking Hell: The Untold Story by Earth Focus.

Permalink Reply by T. Mangue on September 24, 2011 at 11:23am

Consider this...

"in Schoharie County, recent catastrophic flooding has stirred new worries that toxic chemicals used in hydrofracking and the wastewater could travel far.

Alfred Santillo, 67, a farmer in Sharon Springs, said that after he leased 324 acres to Alexco Oil and Gas for $40,000 in 2008, he promptly spent a chunk of the money on equipment repairs and drainage improvements.

During the recent rains, he said, the water stopped just short of breaching the road and his house and barn.

“It sort of held, but that was just luck,” he said. “What would happen is that the holding ponds would overflow and this toxic water would be all over the countryside. How would you contain it?”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/23/nyregion/hydrofracking-leases-sub...

Permalink Reply by Finnbear on October 5, 2011 at 4:59pm

They will likely use more than 4 acres before all is said and done, especially if they intend to drill 6 wells from it. It could be as large as 8-10 acres for that many wells. You will lose the ability to use most of that acreage permanently (until the well is plugged and the equipment is taken away). Make sure their "offer" covers the market price of the land because you are essentially losing those acres to the drilling operation as if you had sold them to someone else.

Permalink Reply by Janice Lanphere Hancharick on October 6, 2011 at 2:56am

I realize when anything is being built (the house next door, a mini-mart, etc.) there will be turmoil to contend with until the site development is finished.  However the site is still the owner's, just as a right of way (although leased) is still on record as belonging to the owner.  How are taxes adjusted for these activities?  In the first case a wellpad produces so there is royalty income, but in the case of a right of way does the company's payment have to be a one-shot deal?  Those taxes go on forever!

As for the well being plugged and equipment being taken away, leases must have a time frame for that to happen once production is no longer profitable, but do you really see that happening?  A site that large that peters out could have one-armed jacks ... at the very least till the cows come home!  Wouldn't that be the time reclamation clauses could be put into play as the site activity is scaled back?

Permalink Reply by Barbara on October 6, 2011 at 4:08am

be sure to delineate the time-frame for removal when well is 'dead'...and to what condition the site is returned. not enough to just take away equipment, the whole pad/road need restoring.

i am not sure how the taxes on the land the road is on work........but your asking makes me wonder...i'll bet it is the landowner's obligation.  if it is, that is something else that SHOULD, ideally, be rectified in the lease to being the gas company's..........but i'll bet we don't have that in most leases. 

just offering thoughts......fortunately those structures will not be on my property..unless somewhere/somehow the freedom to do this is hidden in my lease, but i do have right of way issues and that is full of 'hidden' little surprises..........such as the freedom to re-dig anytime at all to add any number of pipelines/fiber optic cables, whatever, for which they receive payment but the landowner does not.  fun, isn't it?

 

Permalink Reply by Mickgyver on October 6, 2011 at 8:25pm

yes chesapeke is only offering 20,000 to contol 7 acres .,that is not enough to wipe out the use of the land especially if the landowner does not have a clause in the lease that demands a certain amount of acreage to be included . I feel since it requires 40 acres to be able to drill a deep well , the property leased should have every forty acre piece possible included in the units

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