They're drilling a what!?

I moved into my house in early January. I soon realized, in the field behind my neighbors across the street there was activity. The activity is the drilling of a gas well. Yep, a gas well. Smack dab in the middle of a neighborhood. Aside from the quandary of living almost on top of it, I heard today that one recently blew up in the metroplex area. Hmmm... really, who wants to live this close to a gas well?

I actually called the city yesterday because the noise was horrendous. Apparently drilling is noisy business. Very noisy. Think several 18 wheelers driving through your house in surround sound 24 hours a day. You still probably won't quite get how absolutely nerve wracking it was. According to the city and the information I found, this is a new venture for them and from what I could tell, they're still trying to get the ins and outs of the drilling process. They were great in answering my questions and getting back to me. I was told yesterday that by the time I got home, it should be done, but to call her back on Monday if there were any other issues. Oh, and by the way, they were going to burn off some kind of excess fuel, so it would look like there was fire, but don't worry, the fire department had been notified. That's good to know. And, if you haven't guessed, the noise was still there, at times louder than the previous 2 nights. All night. I left at 10 this morning for an appointment and got home late. The noise is gone. Finally. It's weird being this quite, but oh so pleasant.

Requirement is for gas wells to be 300 ft from a residence, school, church. I'm not too sure it shouldn't be further. There are also codes governing the noise, apparently except when they actually do the fracturing (? terminology). Joy. Someone could have told us. No one knew what was going on. Oh, and if I had known, would I have still bought this house? Honestly, I don't know. What I do think is I should have been told. But, hey, the builder didn't even know. And, frankly, they should have been told too.

Below are some pictures of the "torch" as I fondly dubbed it. It's gone now, along with the noise.





Photo using a night setting with the flash off.














Normal setting with a flash.