Officials approve fracking on town-owned property

CALEDONIA — Caledonia officials will allow an oil company to a fracking process to drill on town-owned land.

The Commercial Dispatch reports the town signed an agreement with Fletcher Petroleum Corp. of Fairhope, Ala. The town received $100 for a three-year lease on a three-quarter-acre parcel.

Hydraulic fracturing involves drilling horizontally instead of straight down, using high-pressure jets of water, sand and chemicals to split the shale and release previously unreachable reserves of natural gas and oil.

Foster Kennedy, who represents Fletcher Petroleum, says he has worked on more than 100 wells that use the process and has never encountered a safety issue related to fracking.

Mayor George Gerhart said he believes the fracking process was safe “as long as the process is done correctly.”

Kennedy said there are several other wells in Caledonia, and at least two of them are still producing. He said all of them were erected without incident. However, the current fracking process was not used during the drilling of those wells.

No startup date has been announced by Fletcher Petroleum.

One Response to “Officials approve fracking on town-owned property”

1. Daniel-Mississippi Says:
   January 7th, 2013 at 11:27 am

   So…Mayor Gerhart has risked his town’s drinking water and that of neighboring rural water associations for $100?