Colorado county copes with methane mystery

[phantom power]

WALSENBURG, Colo. — Bernice and Jerry Angely like to show visitors the singed T-shirt a friend was wearing when their water well exploded and shot flames 30 feet high.

...

"The water is so saturated with methane and other chemicals it is not to be used for human consumption," said Bernice Angely, who's had water trucked to her home 10 miles west of town since her well blew up in July 2007.

...

Ten miles west of Walsenburg, a rushing sound emanates from a pipe that vents methane from Ben and Melanie Bounds' water well. The pipe was installed after a June 2007 explosion blew off a shed roof covering the well.

The Bounds had moved from Dallas to build what they call their dream home atop a hill with a breathtaking view of the Spanish Peaks. They say their problems started when Petroglyph began drilling nearby. They're suing the company and haul water from town to their cistern.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jyEsD9ktg-heQaUo4k03nWPBzV-wD9BMSPIG1

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

1. uh oh. Methane is what will ultimately . . . oh, never mind. nt

[TwilightGardener]

2. Colorado has really screwed over its residents in the coal-bed methane

areas, because under CO law, most of these residents do not have rights to minerals and gas under their own property. So, gas companies are free to purchase the rights from whoever owns them, and can drill pretty much anywhere they want on private property. And they either need to figure out a better, cleaner, safer way to extract the gas, or shut the whole goddamn thing down.

[zbikerwy]

3. methane hoooo

actually it's not colorado's fault, it's not colorado law that says they don't own the mineral rights underfoot, its the federal mining laws that dictate this, i have a hard time feeling sorry for someone that buys land and does not do due diligence about their mineral rights. sounds like they were sitting on a bonanza and did,t care Enough to go to the court house and see who still had the mineral rights, they could have then bartered a deal to tap this resource and benefited the whole region.
From what i have seen here in nw wyoming, drilling is as clean,safe and better than just about anywhere. plus it can be used without damage to the environment, always a plus in my book
sighhhhh, ya just cant fix stupid

[Braulio]

4. Huh that's not right

In the USA, the federal government owns mining rights on federal land. State laws control who owns the mineral rights on PRIVATE land. If the land owner owns the mineral rights, then he can control to some extent what happens.

What probably happened is a gas leak from a gas well into a fresh water aquifer. This is of course easy to prove, and when it's done, the company which owns the well will have to pay damages as well as for environmental remediation.

[zbikerwy]

5. oops, i stand corrected

thats correct, feds own fed rights, state law dictates private and/or state mineral rights. if you buy property with a great view and didn't purchase the mineral rights ALONG WITH the property, then a previous owner has control of the mineral rights unless you purchase them from said previous owner.
i was referring to prior to statehood some of the mineral rights were occasionally left to the fed government in Laue of being able to claim them at a later date after proving up on the property.
case in point is my grandfather ranch in the powder river basin has a natural gas well that was never attached to a small homestead acreage. since WWII their was a law change of smoking that makes it un claimable now

[depakid]

6. Reminds me of a scene from The Two Jakes