I was reading back through this thread now that I am home and wanted to be sure to address things and people I’d missed in previous posts.
wow this sounds intense , I saw people trap them hogs , we do not have them in CT ,I didnt think fracking of oil went on still , but my guess is when oil skyrocketed again it became profitable I hear them hogs can ruin fields causing livestock to break legs and not live along with ruts ruining farm equipment
The above photo was taken in the spring when some companies brought in a lot of equipment to drill two gas wells. In my area the term “oilfield work” covers oil
and natural gas. Most of what’s currently going on has been natural gas exploration. Oil/gas companies arrange to clear timber from a tract of land to which they own or have leased the oil and mineral rights (which also included natural gas). Then stumps, brush, and debris are gathered with heavy machinery, ground up, buried, and or burned. Next another contractor levels and preps the land for exploration by preparing what’s known as “a pad.” To do so a lot of heavy equipment, like earth movers, excavators, and large bulldozers, is hauled into the site (enough to resemble a small college campus).They also literally haul in tons of sand used for fracking. The sand is transported in the gray boxes stacked beneath the dirt road towards the middle of the photo. Before the actual fracturing or “fracking,” drilling comes first and after a certain depth is reached a mixture of high pressure water, a specific type of sand, and chemicals (to maintain a certain viscosity to my understanding) are used to cut into shale rock deep beneath the surface to fracture the rock formation and release the natural gas trapped beneath. Water for fracking (frack water) is pumped into a site using large diesel pumps via large-diameter rubber hoses. The hoses are unfurled along the sides of roads and highways, over and under driveways, in drainage ditches, and beneath roads. Frack water is sourced from ponds on various properties
for miles around. The water is sold by the pond’s property owner. I’ve seen some these ponds get drained almost to the bottom then dug out deeper. After which, the ponds are refilled with ground water and rain runoff to be used again as needed by these companies. I’ve also seen water pumped from a local river. This is my understanding of what I’ve seen, been told, and have read about the fracking process.
Once the gas is reached somehow it is contained in a well and the release of gas is controlled as it’s moved for processing. In addition to drilling, fracking, and installing the wells contractors come to dig, weld, and bury a lot of pipes forming a pipeline to transport the gas; we have a few natural gas facilities in the region as well. There is also constant 18-wheeler traffic hauling “salt water” or natural gas fracking byproducts pushed out of the earth by the natural gas that has been released for extraction. These trucks can be seen and heard on the roads going in and out of these types of sites 24/7. All of this makes a lot of noise, most of which can be heard for miles, and is responsible for heating our homes, cooking, and generating electricity. Industrial traffic also puts a lot of wear and tear on country highways and roadways
When hunting in the area I heard a lot of the aforementioned noise from these wells and sites pictured, in addition to noise from wells within a 1-2 mile radius. These sites were previously piney woods that have been cleared for this sort of industrial activity. As I mentioned earlier, this causes the animals to move around. There have been several other wells that have sprang up since the photo of the two above were taken during spring of 2021.
I explained all of this to provide some sort of context to my discussion of my hearing being compromised on the hunt, animals being forced to move into different areas, as well as to address @jwrabbit123’s above quoted comment in bold. I hope this clears up any confusion.
Edited typos.
