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Irregardless of that, I see how Wallace ID could have contaminated CDL Lake. But from CDL proper up to Sandpoint? Is this to say that CDL Lake, Hayden Lake, Pend Orille were all affected?
IDK if you even look at the date of the articles or information your reading... but that article is from 1996.
Also the Krem article is nothing new, thats what they spend, or close too that, almost every year for 20 years. Before people had foursight, they messed up. Now they are cleaning it up. This is nothing new.
According to AltaMesa Texas (gas and oil company) that showed up at our gate last week, they are here, they are drilling, and there is nothing we can do to stop them. So for anyone who thinks that fracking won't happen in Idaho, you are very wrong.
AM Texas wanted to put very intrusive seismic sensors on our property to monitor the drilling they will be doing. They failed to disclose that this device would basically take an x-ray of what is under our property so they would know where to drill. This was confirmed by the USGS and a representative from AM Texas the following evening. They were willing to pay us 10 an acre for this, $36 total. When we told them to kick rocks, they said it didn't matter if we sign the form or not, they will just put the sensors in front of our house down by the road and they will take whatever we have under our land whether we like it or not. If we don't sign the form,we will miss out on royalties.
Luckily for us, there was gas and oil ordinance committee meeting the next evening that we attended to get up to speed.
It is important to know that mineral rights are NOT tracked through title companies anymore. The state also has no idea who owns the mineral rights to your land. I was directed to an employee at the county assessors office that will walk us through the process of finding out who owns the mineral rights to our land. Basically, go through the county records all the way back to the 1800's to find out who owns them. I am told it takes about 3-4 of research that you must do on your own. This is fraud on the part of title companies if you ask me. How can you sell a piece of land and not disclose how much of the land you are actually selling.
Also, if you do own your mineral rights it doesn't matter. It's called forced pooling. We live in land blocks, approximately 640 acres. If a few of your neighbors decide to sell out that are located in your block, they can drill your land no matter what. Idaho is still deciding what percent of acreage in each block is considered a majority. In Virginia, it is 25%. So if 25% of the land in your block decides to to allow drilling on their land, you are forced to give up your land and they will drill.
And now for my soapbox. Gem County residents want to have baseline water testing done on 50 wells throughout the county so that we will know for certain if our water is getting polluted by the drilling. Fracking companies have been saying for decades that it is safe, despite the thousands of lawsuits against them and the numerous of out of court settlements they have made to cover it up. Their argument is that no one had their water tested before drilling began, so they don't know for certain if drilling is the cause of the pollution. We have the opportunity to do this now. Get the testing done before the drilling starts and we have something that might hold water in court when pollution is discovered down the road. AM Texas won't pay for it, and Gem County won't either. We have federally matching funds available if we can come up with $104k by the end of October.
Please spread the word or let me know if you know if anyone can help.
On a side note - Technically, the drilling they are doing isn't called fracking because they are going through sandstone and not shale. Although when we asked the AM rep the other night if they could confirm that they won't be fracking, all she could say was "At this time our plan is to not frack". So yes,they intend to frack.
Last edited by rhinestonesniper; 09-14-2014 at 04:32 PM..
I'm no geologist, but I know shale and sandstone. They seem to be about the same hardnesses and porosity to me, and both have a range of variance in both.
This comes only from my personal observations, but if they say they're not going to frack, I would take that with a lot of skepticism. If oil is found, tHey may not call the rock oil shale, but they will do what they need to extract it, I'm sure.
On the other hand, I can say for some certainty that all the oil exploration that happened in S.E. Idaho turned up to be a bust in the 1980s. There was a lot of indications that oil was there, but no exploratory wells that were drilled ever turned any up.
It may be possible that the oil outfits are doing similar exploratory work at this point in Emmet, but I know nothing about it.
It's a very good idea to get those base levels done now, before any drill bit goes into the ground. I hop all of you can dig deep enough to get it done!
Best of luck to you all… I hope all Idahoans make it tougher for these guys than other states have done. Our state has already had our full share of the damages left behind when the extractive industries move on after making their big money, sometimes for many decades before it's played out.
According to AltaMesa Texas (gas and oil company) that showed up at our gate last week, they are here, they are drilling, and there is nothing we can do to stop them. So for anyone who thinks that fracking won't happen in Idaho, you are very wrong.
AM Texas wanted to put very intrusive seismic sensors on our property to monitor the drilling they will be doing. They failed to disclose that this device would basically take an x-ray of what is under our property so they would know where to drill. This was confirmed by the USGS and a representative from AM Texas the following evening. They were willing to pay us 10 an acre for this, $36 total. When we told them to kick rocks, they said it didn't matter if we sign the form or not, they will just put the sensors in front of our house down by the road and they will take whatever we have under our land whether we like it or not. If we don't sign the form,we will miss out on royalties.
Luckily for us, there was gas and oil ordinance committee meeting the next evening that we attended to get up to speed.
It is important to know that mineral rights are NOT tracked through title companies anymore. The state also has no idea who owns the mineral rights to your land. I was directed to an employee at the county assessors office that will walk us through the process of finding out who owns the mineral rights to our land. Basically, go through the county records all the way back to the 1800's to find out who owns them. I am told it takes about 3-4 of research that you must do on your own. This is fraud on the part of title companies if you ask me. How can you sell a piece of land and not disclose how much of the land you are actually selling.
Also, if you do own your mineral rights it doesn't matter. It's called forced pooling. We live in land blocks, approximately 640 acres. If a few of your neighbors decide to sell out that are located in your block, they can drill your land no matter what. Idaho is still deciding what percent of acreage in each block is considered a majority. In Virginia, it is 25%. So if 25% of the land in your block decides to to allow drilling on their land, you are forced to give up your land and they will drill.
And now for my soapbox. Gem County residents want to have baseline water testing done on 50 wells throughout the county so that we will know for certain if our water is getting polluted by the drilling. Fracking companies have been saying for decades that it is safe, despite the thousands of lawsuits against them and the numerous of out of court settlements they have made to cover it up. Their argument is that no one had their water tested before drilling began, so they don't know for certain if drilling is the cause of the pollution. We have the opportunity to do this now. Get the testing done before the drilling starts and we have something that might hold water in court when pollution is discovered down the road. AM Texas won't pay for it, and Gem County won't either. We have federally matching funds available if we can come up with $104k by the end of October.
Please spread the word or let me know if you know if anyone can help.
On a side note - Technically, the drilling they are doing isn't called fracking because they are going through sandstone and not shale. Although when we asked the AM rep the other night if they could confirm that they won't be fracking, all she could say was "At this time our plan is to not frack". So yes,they intend to frack.
That sounds like the Alta Mesa I know. Those guys are a bunch of douchenozzles and they get sued everywhere they go.
About force-pooling... Note that if you accept an oil & gas lease in a state with a force pooling policy, you're probably getting plucked like a fat chicken. If you refuse to lease and they say "You may as well sign the lease because it doesn't matter if you don't! We'll just FORCE POOL your butt!" what they are actually saying is "I would really appreciate it if you just accepted this low-ball offer because it makes my job a lot easier and we won't have to pay you as much in the long run."
Here's how it works: If you refuse to lease, they have to schedule a hearing with the commission to make a case that they need to have you compelled to contribute a portion of your mineral rights to the pooled unit. When they do that, they have to enter lots of their proprietary, discreet information into public record, they lose control of the land situation in favor of the government and the government commission will determine what the "going rate" for minerals and bonus consideration is rather than Alta Mesa. The lease that they bring to your door is LOW BALL. If you accept it you are driving the "going rate" down for others that refuse to lease and you will be signing a lease that essentially lets them do whatever they want. Drive a hard bargain and don't be timid about telling someone applying hard sale tactics to eat bad things and expire. You probably have more bargaining leverage than you think.
About surface rights: The mineral estate is dominant and a lease covering the mineral rights DOES provide the lessee with the right to use what portion of the surface is reasonably necessary, HOWEVER, it does NOT give the lessee carte blanche. They must reasonably accomodate your use and enjoyment of the surface. If they come to you for some sort of surface use agreement or easement, BARGAIN HARD. Get what you want out of it, not what they tell you you can have. If it falls apart because you bargained too hard, don't despair. If you wait in the weeds long enough it is fairly likely that you will get a chance to make them sorry they didn't play ball with you. Especially if you're talking about those douchenozzles at Alta Mesa.
I'm not an attorney and I'm not very familiar with Idaho oil & gas, but feel free to send me a DM if you have any questions. I may be able to point you in the right direction or offer some fresh perspective or a dirty trick or two... Or I may not. It just depends.
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