Kentucky has long been a hotbed of dirty energy production, but this discovery may just take the cake...
The ad starts as any listing for a rural area might, billing the property as “Heavily forested land with berry bushes and nut trees and hardwoods in rural mountainous setting with forks and creek.” But by the second sentence, it takes a surprising turn, describing land in Blaine, Kentucky that seemingly sits near or on several different dirty fuel projects:
Free gas available and royalties. Somewhere between 80 and 125 acres. Surveyed. Lease unavailable… Radioactive soils, history of discharges to land and water including land farming, present discharges to protected waterways. Flooding due to Yatesville Dam hydrologic gate failures. Anyone with chemical sensitivies should not consider this property and its resulting oozing rashes consistent with chemical burns and breathing problems probably from air discharges from Abarta Gas Plant emmissions. This property is not suitable for farm animals, pets, children, adults, fishing, swimming, hiking or farm animals. Really, it’s not suitable for building or habitation. It’s not suitable for 4-wheeling or hunting as above ground corroded gathering lines that feed to the transmission line on the ridgetops are all combustible and highly flamable. Majestic old standing lumber is not safe to fell or remove due to the magnitude of the condemnation by the gathering field. The unmarked pipes are not maintained and pose a serious risk of leakage and spills. The abandoned crusty ones are very toxi The ad, which totals 915 words, has no real author name listed, so it’s not clear whether it’s a stunt by a group or an individual, or a fed-up landowner making a statement. ThinkProgress reached out to the listed email address for comment, but has not yet heard back.
Blaine, Kentucky, where the property is purported to be, and its surrounding area is home to idled and abandoned coal mines. The town’s population plummeted from 259 to 47 between 2009 and 2010. The land is also said to be on Martha Oil Field, which is a radioactive site. It was tapped for oil in the early 1900s and later by a process of water injection, but because it lays on a shale bed with a naturally-occurring type of radiation, residents believed all of the extraction equipment used was contaminated. In 2007, they sued Ashland Oil Company for health damages. Ashland claimed the residents were overreacting, and the company has since been folded into another oil corporation.
The ad goes into this a little bit, while also mentioning the hydraulic fracturing (or, “fracking”) boom in Eastern Kentucky. It warns potential buyers “The area has lots of production wells where produced water is injected and a history of fire flooding and water flooding and hydraulic fracturing.”
Property inside the Martha Oil Field, which covers a 50 square mile area…. Fish advisories were in effect last I checked and local surface waters are not supportive of normal things. No county water to the property at present. Three wells of public record on property. Could be more! …There may be an underground tank or two not of record. Definitely lots of leaks. Raw sewage discharged to forks and branches from adjacent properties has been a long-term practice. A pond that likely contained fracturing solution was ordered to be breached by the Corp of Engineers spilling it down the draw into the main creek at one point. This creek is one of two main tributaries of the popular Yatesville Lake. Another mountainside earthen ram retention pond, possibly an evaporation pond of toxins (wells are immediately adjacent) could flood the entire area at any time. Aside from that, the property is gorgeous and wonderful, very pleasing to the eye.
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