Saturday, January 23, 2010

My Explosive Neighborhood Chesapeake Energy Gas Drilling Site

Well, it's another Saturday and another bizarre encounter with a white truck. This time it is a Chesapeake Energy white truck, not an Express Energy Services white truck.

All morning long, ever since I was in the pool around 8, I'd been hearing very loud explosion like noises, sort of like an erratic jackhammer, only louder.

Around 10 I was heading to the Tandy Hills to join the Brush Bash and discovered my 2nd flat tire of the week.

Sometime around noon I decided to try and find out what was making the explosive jackhammer-like noise.

It was quickly clear the explosive noises were coming from my neighbor across the street, that being a Chesapeake Energy Barnett Shale natural gas drilling site.

I decided to walk to the site and take video of the noise. By the time I was directly across from the site the explosive noise was significantly louder. I was fairly certain there was no one working on the site that was accounting for the noise, due to the fact that the gate was locked. When someone is in there doing something the gate is open.

Now, here's the part where the story turns weird and has me once more seeing a white truck. Just as I turned my camera on a white Chesapeake Energy truck drove up. A tall, lanky guy got out of the truck, opened the gate, and drove in.

After I took a picture I switched the camera to video mode to capture the explosion noises and continued walking towards the gate to the Chesapeake drilling site. Within seconds the explosions stopped, obviously silenced by the guy I'd just seen.

So, what was making those explosive noises? Today's Saturday white truck incident did not seem as menacing as last Saturday's, but those explosive noises seemed plenty menacing.

I did not realize the explosions were going to be so quickly silenced, or I would not have talked at all on the video. You can still hear several of the explosive pops before they go silent.

7 comments:

  1. After the white trucks come the black helicopters.

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  2. Bill---
    I have already seen the black helicopters. I am doomed.

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  3. You should have gone in!!!!!!!!!!!! On another note, I wouldn't be worried until I started seeing guys in suits following you. CIA style.

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  4. Jovo---
    I did not occur to me til later that I should have walked on to the site and asked the guy what had been making the explosion noises. 3 hours later I was leaving here right at the same time the Chesapeake guy was leaving. So, whatever it was, it took about 3 hours to deal with.

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  5. Think about it a bit more and you did the right thing. Myself, I would rather read about the giant explosion in the Startlegram than experience it firsthand. Hindsight is 20-20.

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  6. Steve A----
    Well, today's hindsight is that the well did not blow up, so nothing dire would have happened had I walked in, except for the Chesapeake guy may have been unpleasant. But I think you're right, it was not worth the risk. Those explosive noises were so loud, like shotgun blasts.

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  7. Maybe they were shooting varmits with a small caliber firearm. In Texas I assume that most pickup truck drivers are armed because I'm smart like that. Who knows.

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