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Is It Really That Bad?
I spend a lot of time driving back and forth between Houston and Beaumont. It's approximately 80 miles, and there's not a whole lot in between — mostly farm and ranching land, a few houses, and the usual interstate gas stations and such.
One particular area is about 20 minutes outside of Beaumont, where there is a large crawfish farm and other cultivated farmland. It was on this area approximately 2 years ago that a sudden change took place: someone began drilling for oil. Seemingly overnight in one of the fields next to the freeway there appeared trucks and workers, and eventually a drilling tower was visible rising above the formerly "pristine" land. Large lights and various equipment items were there in a flurry of activity over what I suppose was the next couple of months; the exact time period I didn't record, since I just assumed they'd be there awhile. I was wrong in my assumption, as they were soon gone, with the drilling area apparently capped off with a pumping apparatus and a couple of tanks.
During this period, I saw no oil on the ground; the only disturbance was the makeshift dirt roads on which the equipment was brought. The farmland outside of the drilling area was unaffected, including the nearby crawfish farm. No oil spills or dead wildlife were observed.
In the approximate 2 years since this occurrence, the land has been recultivated. Driving past the area, there is no visible difference between this particular plot of land and the surrounding area, save for the aforementioned tanks, which are relatively small; a person who didn't already know oil drilling had taken place on this land certainly wouldn't notice.
My own small-scale experience seems to be consistent with larger-scale drilling operations in places like Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, where wildlife flourishes (well, as much flourishing as can happen in Arctic tundra). As the debate continues about drilling in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and offshore on the Outer Continental shelf, opponents consistently tell horror stories about oil drilling ravaging the environment and killing wildlife. Perhaps opponents should ride with me to Beaumont one day, and I'll challenge them to point out the environmental damage caused by drilling along the way. Perhaps they can even chip in for gas.
One particular area is about 20 minutes outside of Beaumont, where there is a large crawfish farm and other cultivated farmland. It was on this area approximately 2 years ago that a sudden change took place: someone began drilling for oil. Seemingly overnight in one of the fields next to the freeway there appeared trucks and workers, and eventually a drilling tower was visible rising above the formerly "pristine" land. Large lights and various equipment items were there in a flurry of activity over what I suppose was the next couple of months; the exact time period I didn't record, since I just assumed they'd be there awhile. I was wrong in my assumption, as they were soon gone, with the drilling area apparently capped off with a pumping apparatus and a couple of tanks.
During this period, I saw no oil on the ground; the only disturbance was the makeshift dirt roads on which the equipment was brought. The farmland outside of the drilling area was unaffected, including the nearby crawfish farm. No oil spills or dead wildlife were observed.
In the approximate 2 years since this occurrence, the land has been recultivated. Driving past the area, there is no visible difference between this particular plot of land and the surrounding area, save for the aforementioned tanks, which are relatively small; a person who didn't already know oil drilling had taken place on this land certainly wouldn't notice.
My own small-scale experience seems to be consistent with larger-scale drilling operations in places like Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, where wildlife flourishes (well, as much flourishing as can happen in Arctic tundra). As the debate continues about drilling in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and offshore on the Outer Continental shelf, opponents consistently tell horror stories about oil drilling ravaging the environment and killing wildlife. Perhaps opponents should ride with me to Beaumont one day, and I'll challenge them to point out the environmental damage caused by drilling along the way. Perhaps they can even chip in for gas.
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