The American Dream....or so they thought. People from all over Arkansas have flocked to Greer's Ferry Lake for its pristine beauty and clear, mountain water. Many built luxurious vacation or dream retirement homes on its bucolic bluffs with breathtaking views filling them with peace and tranquility. These dreams have been shattered of late by unlimited, unrestricted natural gas activity in the area. Many developments are surrounded by gas wells and fracking that shakes the earth and floods their once quiet, peaceful environment with shattering noise and tremors. There are huge compressor stations that emit poisonous fumes and disturbing noise that thunders across the landscape for miles. Now this....a beautiful two story brick custom home on the lake is in the process of collapsing. Sadly, evidence of happier times are strewn across a once manicured lawn...a bird feeder...neatly stacked wood pile....but still the house is caving in on itself like a old dying man. Neighors interviewed were distraught and said the homeowners moved out and were living in a trailer somewhere. The owners received no help from insurance companies, the gas companies, nor the government. Others are very afraid for their own homes. About an eight hundred foot stretch of macadam road had collapsed including the electric and water. Temporary water lines and electric is in place to service the severed street, but still dark, jagged fissures of unmeasurable depth tear the ground like an earthquake zone.
How shall we then live?
There are other reports of sinkhole, and subsidence activity out there from gas activities see this article:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6953385.html
Another report linking susidence with gas drilling activity:
http://www.gsa.state.al.us/gsa/geologichazards/sinkholes/sinks2.html
Indonesia incident blamed on gas driling as well:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidoarjo_mud_flow
Texas Sharon blogs about this in several entries:
http://txsharon.blogspot.com/2010/08/subsidence-from-oil-and-gas-development.html
Someone sent me these photos of the Greer's Ferry site and surrounding gaswell activity.
This is tragic! Pretty soon we will find that our insurance rates either increase or we won't be able to get insurance in the gas-patch. Our property values have already decreased and FHA will not loan on home near drilling.
ReplyDeleteAnd to think, Christine and I almost couldn't buy our now unsellable place because we couldn't get insurance-not because of drilling or anything else-but because we don't have a fire hydrant within 500 feet of the house (I think the nearest one is more than a few miles away)
ReplyDeleteI think it is time for any seismic test/test well data being held by all entities (gas company/drilling company/petroleum company/gas well development investors/pick one on the payroll) should become public record by legal mandate. Obviously these companies either are not capable of comprehending obvious/unstable geologic faults when identified via seismic test(s)/test well(s) studies of the area or just don't care about the consequences of drilling/fracking/reacting down into/through/below unstable geologic formations.
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