Not In My Back Yard! ... Just venting here.

So when we moved out here in the middle of nowhere, the appeal for me was it was just that- the middle of nowhere. No neighbors to be seen and blessed, blessed peace and quiet!

The first year was just that, but we were working so darned hard we did not have much time to enjoy it.

The second year we were settled in but it seemed the oil industry was on an upswing and 6 new wells were being built on our not so quiet little dirt Range Road. Huge trucks of every sort carrying all kinds of dangerous looking equipment roared past our house every few minutes. We sighed and bit our tongues and did not complain. Oil, Alberta's blessing and curse.

Finally things started to settle down on our road and we were sitting out behind our house one summer afternoon sipping Margaritas when I spied something two quarter sections over. A new house! What the #$(%&@! Nothing one day and a house the next! We felt so violated. Nothing in the 6 quarters surrounding us yesterday, just hay and cows and trees. How dare they! This was the straw that broke the camel's back! We complained about that house to each other for a month solid until the novelty wore off and we started to relax again.

Until this weekend.

I was out feeding on Friday. The sun had gone down and a giant spotlight was shining in my eyes. It was right beside the offensive house. Two quarter sections away and it was so bright I had to shield my eyes. Well, I thought, my neighbor is doing a little work out in his yard. This was not the case. Within an hour a huge oil rig that towered above the forest, covered with similar lights, had been erected. The accompanying noise and drone of machinery was and continues to be oppressive.

Can't we catch a break with this oil drilling? Does there really have to be two on every quarter section? I wanted peace, quiet, solitude! I get traffic and machinery.

Sigh.....

I suppose it could be worse. I drove by to look at it today and it is less than 100' from that offensive house. Those poor people. The least they can do is put Christmas lights on the thing.

Thank-you for listening.

Sue

Wow... that sucks.

ooo bah humbug.

They drilled about 300 feet from my place, it took a couple of weeks then bang, they were gone. A Christmas tree (yes, I said Christmas Tree, but not the HO ho ho kind) is now in the field. Silent, and hidden from me by some bushes.

Totally sucks though.

No oil rigs around me thank goodness. But we do have encroachment. When we moved here we were in the boonies. There were 6 farms within a couple of miles of us. Now there is only one still operating and we have a few sudivisions nearby with more going in every year.

Our one saving grace is that we are backed by a swamp so there won't be anything going in behind us.

I am at the end of a dead end road, the owner of the property next to mine always said that I would have first option well I guess kids come first they built last fall across the road from me, did not alst a winter. It was sold this summer to a lady with 4 kids all drive and all drive thier own cars to town every day. They will not last a year with that kind of gas and they have not been home since the first snow fall.

Yep, that does suck. And there is nothing you can do about it either. It is a strange relationship we (My DH and I) have with the industry, we work in it, and live off of it, but searched for 3 years to buy a piece that was no where near it. Did the company come to your door and take down all info like "How many persons, ages, allergies?, asthma?, Ummmm, why do you need to know this? Oh, just protocol..."

That would be my question ? They have to get a agreement with all the neighbours don't they ? no appeal board ? never mind the property value going down as well ! Maybe it's different in Alberta , but here you have to send all the neighbours a letter stateing your intent and if even one of them objects then it's a no go ! I certainly wouldn't want one of those things close to my home , they would have to buy me out before they would set one up !

Yes, Katsuki, we get the prying protocol, its for your own good in case of an accident questions yearly. In the last place we got them too, but there I was over my animal alottment and always lied. Here I say ' 50 chickens, 15 waterfowl, 4 cats, 1l dogs and one husband without concern.

And yes, Prairie Dog, you can fight it but the record of winning is very small. Besides, who wouldn't want $1500 a year royalty.

The scary thing is, we are in the corner of a chunk of land taken off a quarter. We are 50 feet from the edge of our land and if they wanted to drill in our 'front yard' that actually belongs to someone else, we could do nothng about it.

Sue

$1500 a year won't take care of property values these days , more like $15.000 might be a good starting point and more even , they're makeing far more then what they will ever reimburse you for , plus all the hazards that go with them being so close to your home ? I guess each to his own , but I'd make them buy me out and move before they would plant one so close to my home , but that's me

I'm sorry your peace and quiet is disturbed, makes you sad when your no longer in the sticks alone.
Oil, the almighty dollar. The oil rigs won't be there forever, will they not move once they suck the well dry?

Actually I believe that wellhead need to remain 600 feet from any residance ~ because we are dealing with Mineral Rights 2 feet under, property lines are of no importance. And I always thought that because a land owner has no rights to the Mineral Rights under the said property that these wellheads are not disputeable, not in Alberta anyways.

The small amount of $$$ that is recieved every year is a small compensationfor land owners who may have had their water-table drilled through. Undoubtedly most have, but you don't know it because it is plugged ASAP with all the latest technologies that the Service Companies like the one I worked for for 9 years provide. This situation on a drilling rig is called "Loss Circulation", when the drilling fluids pumped downhole are not returning to surface, they are getting lost somewhere.... but where? Well, they need to fill that gaping hole quick, before the hole sluffs in above or before they need to order more water trucks etc. By quick I mean hours or days. Service company comes out in cases that the rig cannot plug themselves and mix and pump down some synthetic rubbery cement mixture that is designed to plug the hole causing Loss Circulation, so that the rig can see returns again. Sometimes this procedure is repeated several times before it works, and every time it doesn't work all the stuff pumped down hole is lost in the water table. Understand what I am trying to say? And this only one situation of many, many oilfield situations that are regular coffee and donut procedures.

The truth is that ignorance is bliss, but it can be a harmful bliss.

Are mineral rights in Alberta the same as here in BC? Does oil fall under mineral title?

Most people are NOT aware that they do not own their sub-surface rights. We all assume our property is our property. Wrong!

A very few people hold mineral title to their own property, as a form of insurance against this very thing. But I have a feeling the oil industry probably has been granted some sort of power that makes them almighty.

SUe, this is unfortunate and I know that's inadequate to say. Too late now for you to get your free miner's license and start staking claims. If your Alberta system is anything like the BC system, staking claims can be confusing since the mapping system isn't that helpful. But in the event that the local developer hits a gold vein while he's blasting in roads...I'm in the money!

"Sub-surface" rights / title is probably what I should have called it. Don't think it falls under Mineral Rights, but essentially the same thing. And you are right Uno, they are very hard to aquire these days, from what I have been told.

If you haven't worked in the oilfield than I guess there would be no reason to know these things. They are not just holes in the ground. And it didn't become all that obvious until I did not work out there anymore. I think when you are surrounded by it, it seems normal. Also living out in the country where water is your own responsibility, a person really starts to think.

In Alberta we may own the land but we don't own what is under the surface.

The sad thing is I must tolerate anything that happens and without compensation and have no say in the matter if it happens on the neighbor's proerty, the legal amount of feet from my house.

Sue

Mineral titles are not hard to acquire here in BC, you just have to know what you are doing and hope no one else has staked your home place.

In BC it works as follows: 1) go to your local BC Access centre or whatever that government office is, where you get your driver's license, and apply for your free miner's permit. IT costs $50.

2) go home and log onto Mineral TItle Online. Click that you are staking mineral claims. Wait forever while a map of BC loads. (this is the most hostile site I have ever encountered, staking claims is time consuming and frustrating, but not difficult. Well yes, difficult..)

3) when map has loaded keep changing view until you sort of think you have found your town and sort of think you have found familiar looking roads that might be leading to your house. There are NO ROAD NAMES on this map, so unless you can identify the topography, lakes, and roads, primary and secondary, it is VERY difficult to determine what you are looking at!

4)When you think the cursor is on your home place, start selecting claims. THey are in blocks of aprox. 50 acres. A claim is the area that fits between one square formed the the longitude and latitude grid. Further north, these sizes get smaller because the lines of long. and lat. move closer together. Depending on how your personal property sits, you may need to stake only one claim, or 20, depending on your land size. Have your credit card in your hand. You pay for each claim.

If someone else has staked that claim, you are out of luck. Here in BC, you hold mineral title for one year and your claim automatically forfeits after a year, unless you renew.

Interesting...