The Barnett Shale

When we moved to the country 4 years ago, I was excited. Getting out of the city to peace and quiet. Our little neighborhood off a county road is very peaceful, not much noise. We're in a different county than the big city and in a good school district. The clean air, trees, and able to see the stars at night were the major factors in deciding to move out of the Metroplex. We are far enough from the city to enjoy the country, but close enough to quickly get to the city when we want it.

There are a few cons to living so far out:

• We can't get cable or DSL
• We can't get pizza to deliver to us
• We are on well water and septic

Those little things we've learned to deal with.

Enter the "Gas Boom" in North Texas. The Barnett Shale -- a rock formation more than 7,000 feet beneath the ground -- is one of the biggest natural gas fields in the United States. It's been there for millions of years, and now the oil companies are going after it.

We've seen these gas drilling rigs going up all over the area for most of 2006. They are ugly to look at when traveling on the hiways and byways, they run 24/7 and are lit up at night so you can see them for miles. When they started encroaching on our neighborhood, I started groaning about it. Our peace and quiet disappeared. Instead of hearing crickets and coyotes and night, now we hear the drilling.

I guess maybe I complained too loud or too often, because this past week they put a rig up across the street from my house! It's across the county road, but now I can here the thing in my house when all other noise is quite (i.e. TV, kids). I'm furious with the situation but I know there's nothing I can do about it short of sneaking over there, wiping out the crew on duty and blowing the thing to kingdom come - GTA style. LOL

This is the view from my front porch!

I haven't seen the upside to all this drilling. It hasn't affected me in the positive at all. The only people I see benefiting are the oil companies. They offered me $75 to drill under my property, at which I scoffed at them.

My house uses all electric. If the power plant that serves my area uses natural gas, I haven't seen a change in my bill.

The oil companies want to make it sound like this is the greatest thing to happen in North Texas. Maybe for them it is, for the average Joe like me, it stinks!

And That's What's Bugging Me.