Oil Boom Fears In Irish Hills Michigan.

Let me start off by saying that the Irish Hills area is probably the most beautifull area in southern Michigan. It is full of rolling hills and lakes.

www.freep.com...

BROOKLYN, Mich. -- Bringing with it concerns about potential earthquakes, contaminated drinking water and dangerous spills, an oil boom has hit the popular, pristine vacation destination of the Irish Hills in Jackson and Lenawee counties.Tall rigs punch holes among lakes and wetlands, and gas flares light up the night sky.

The boom that began with discoveries of oil near tiny Napoleon three years ago has made Jackson County the state's top oil producer. It produces about 2% of the oil customers consume statewide, a company executive said. Manistee County in northern Michigan is the second-highest producer, and Lenawee County is third.

Oil companies are seeking more mineral leases and more spots to drill, and now, permits for deep-injection wells to inject their waste fluids underground.

My family owns property up north near traverse city with oil wells on it. They have not produced in years and we have been told the only way to get whats left is by fracking. We told the company that wanted to do the fracking to take a hike. We were concernred with contaminating the streams and river that runs through the land. We are currently waiting on results from wind tests another company conducted for the possibility of putting up windmill power generators.

Fears that the oil companies might be using hydraulic fracturing, or fracking -- a process in which millions of gallons of water and chemicals are shot at high pressure down a well to break up oil- or gas-bearing rock -- drew about 400 people to a town hall earlier this month.

I really hope that at the very least they will say no to fracking.

always like hearing news about my state.

im all for drilling but not fracking

S+F

Oil in Michigan. No fracking way

I owned land in the Gaylord area many years ago, also the oil rights, I was aproached also and said no way.

Sadly much of the oil rights on vacant land privately owned in Michigan are owned by the oil companies and it presents a huge problem. If they decide they want to drill there isn't much recourse if any. Those who bought the land knew what could happen.

seen this in the paper while checking out at big boy yesterday! it is truly a beautiful area, love going out to michigan international speedway out there. i sure hope they don't bring that frackin crap around here. thanks for posting!

I live in Michigan as well, Midwest to be more specific, and we have two oil wells visible from our front porch at night. Burning their waste into out ozone layer all day and all night. We were asked to have our land surveyed and we said ya because money was tight at the time and you never know! News came back that there was no oil, but we got payed just for them to look at it at least looking back though I'm glad we did not because it would have destroyed our sexy acreage.

A wetland can be a very delicate location for fracking. It would be interesting to know what kind of study was done prior to drilling.

In my area Shell plans to frack into the great dikes of the spanish peaks. Shell has gotten the green light despite the fact they only have a limited study in hand which doesn't address the unique geophysical nature of the region. They've only done a good enough study to satisfy local/state officials.

The spanish peaks were formed by magma intrusion the surrounding land split, these fissures filled with magma forming the dikes. Shell is going after natural gas deep within the dikes.

There's already several methane fracking operations here. They've destroyed private water wells, some blew up others went dry. Operations have been suspended at one site awaiting further study. Contaminated water was released into the river stunting cattle/crops. I'm sure they'll line some pockets and be back. We're an arid region we can't afford to pollute our ground water.

My area is also a vacation destination not to mention this is cattle country. Ranchers have been having a fit but obviously the Colorado Cattlemen's Association has little say when oil companies come sniffing around.

Locals want some assurances/funds set aside in advance to cover damages/losses but we aren't allowed to speak at meetings. Our area was raped/pillaged years ago by coal companies who left and never reclaimed the mines...they're not to be trusted.

My biggest fear is the "hells door" scenario. If methane wasn't bad enough now it's natural gas. CO2 drilling has been going on here for years, unfortunately our area is rich in natural resources. They plan on tapping into reserves as cheaply as possible. More extensive studies take time and money. With such a sparse population and local officials in their pockets, I'm afraid Shell will do as it pleases.

We had a magnitude 5.3 earthquake last august originating from an area where fracking is ongoing. Do they really want to wake up Colorado? If you have natural resources I assure you this will be coming to an area near you.

Yeah, I live in mid-Michigan by Dow. There's enough contamination as is from dioxins. There's also random wells all over this area. As posted above, I don't mind drilling but frackings a whole different story.