Re: gas well fracturing / \"fracking\" ?
44trxfun,
Man have you touched on a sesitive subject with me!! OK brother, here goes. I live here in Texas, smack on top of, and right in the middle of, The Barnett Shale. In case you haven't heard of it yet, it's the largest natural gas deposit in the US and we have drilling going on all over out here, where there had not been any real drilling for anout 25-30 years.
Like one poster already told you, first, it depends on the producer who now owns that oil/gas lease your land is on at this point. Secondly, DO NOT LET THEM BS YOU!!! some of these companies like to leave you, the surface owner, with the impression that they can come on your place and do whatever they want to, and you basically can say nothing about it!..HOGWASH!! Tell them to stuff it!!
Now, I'm being very nice here, so please bare with me. You need to check your state's laws regarding oil and gas production, surface owners rights vs mineral owners rights etc to know where you stand that way, as a general rule!
Too many smaller oil and gas producers will try and get away with whatever they can, and not pay you for it, whereas the larger, quality, producers want things completely on the up and up from the very beginning and will take care of the surface owner, cooperation wise, money compensation wise, etc. With fracking, there's not that much torn up though.
They just fracked the gas well across the county road from me in an open pasture. The workover rig was there for about two weeks total, but not working the entire time.
Like you were already told, have them rerock the road their trucks will be using, since if it's not in good shape now, their trucks will definitely tear it up! Make sure that any trees they tear up are replaced, or you get compensated for them. Make sure that they return the entire area they use back to the way it was prior to this operation, and that they do it within two weeks of completing their work. That includes bulldozer work, fencing around the well area if you have livestock, and do not allow them to have an open pit without it being fenced in too while they're working. After they get done, have them suck up the fluid in that pit into a tank truck and cart it off your property and then bulldoze the dirt back in to the pit area to cover it up. Do not let them leave the open pit there, with fluid in it until it evaporates on it's own!!
Fracking is not as bad as drilling a new well by a long shot, but is a pain in the rearend, none the less if you are not the mineral rights owner.
I guess in short, remember that you own the land and you still have say in what is what!! There's more, but that's the general gist!!