Oil and Gas at Your Door? (2005 Edition) - Earthworks

Oil and Gas Development and Impacts
Industry is not solely responsible for ensuring that surface owners are treated fairly. Federal and
state governments share in the responsibility to ensure that property owners do not absorb a
disproportionate amount of impacts and costs related to oil and gas development.
Unfortunately, in many regions, governments do not live up to this responsibility.
The [Department of Environmental Quality] continues to exonerate itself with a laissezfaire
attitude toward releases that cause evacuation and injury claiming it is “impossible
to legislate or prevent accidental releases.” The state’s rationalization becomes that
those who are gas victims simply live, through luck of the draw, in the wrong place, and
will inevitably be subject to this additional “normal” hazard of life. “We do not live in a
risk free society” as Fitch [Supervisor of Wells] reiterates. “The gas must be extracted
from where it lies.” In other words, gassed and displaced families are simply the sacrificial
lambs whenever small independent, limited liability corporations choose to move in.
—Excerpt from Survey of Accidental and Intentional Hydrogen Sulfide Releases Causing Evacuations
and/or Injuries in Manistee and Mason Counties from 1980 to 2001. 215
The potential costs or impacts to surface owners from development of oil or gas on or near their
property can be summarized in three categories: health, safety, and welfare (or quality of life).
FIGURE I-27.
IMPROPER NETTING
AND FENCING
Can result in death of
wildlife and livestock.
HEALTH, SAFETY AND QUALITY OF LIFE
The potential costs or impacts to surface owners (and communities as a whole) from the nearby
development of oil or gas can be summarized in three categories: health, safety, and welfare
(or quality of life).
Health impacts may result from: surface and groundwater contamination; dust and air pollution;
soil contamination; noise pollution; light pollution (e.g., if drill rigs operate 24-hours-a-day);
and stress related to living in an industrial zone.
Safety may be endangered due to: potential home fires and explosions (e.g., due to methane
or hydrogen sulfide seepage); potential of fires or pollution from accidents or improper worker
conduct in the field (e.g., blowouts; valves left open); flooding related to poor water and waste
management practices; increased community crime resulting from an influx of new workers;
and reckless driving by oil or gas workers.
I-42