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To: Mannie who wrote (20393)	12/30/2002 12:02:30 PM
From: piscatologist	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 104157

happy holidays scott! thanx for the article. i hadn't seen it, but have been living it for a few years now. in fact i know or know of most of the people in it. it has been a boom town around here for a couple years, albeit the decrease from the high in natural gas prices helped alleviate some of the growth problems. i am hoping if they release the federal land, they do it in sections over time. landreys are a nice couple and are customers of mine. this is the first time i have heard of the companies not drilling a new well for someone affected by the drilling. most of the water from the aquifer the coal-bed drilling is taking place is not that great anyway. most have gotten a new well of better quality at no charge to the land owner. maybe with gas prices off the peaks, the companies are getting harder to deal with. in landrey's area, they are just drilling wells and pumping water now. i heard they won't have gas pipelines to the area for a year or two. at that point in time landrey's would be able to afford water flown from france on the concord. due to their advanced age it is probably of little consolation to them. some of the ranchers who have not owned their land for a long time, do not own the mineral rights. for them it is a real bummer as surface damage payment may not make up for all the encroachment on their land. on the other hand, i know of ranchers that were faced with losing the family ranch held for generations to the bank. they have now paid off the loans, purchased new vehicles and for the first time in their lives, are taking vacations to hawaii. i know of an attorney who is a large land owner who gets (if all his wells are producing), $175,000.00 per DAY. i am concerned about some of the greed coming from some of the methane companies, but do believe there is another side the article didn't mention. my home is not real close to any of the drilling. my well is deeper that the aquifer that the drilling is taking place in. yet once a year an engineering firm comes and tests the water for quality. i believe it is paid for by the methane companies. the city of gillette have 2 new 2 million gallon water tanks for domestic use. they are filled with water from the wells and is of better quality than the water from the madison formation where our water now comes from. the ranchers are getting reservoirs for their cattle where they had none before and stalking them with trout. sorry about the long winded response. everything in the article was true, but didn't include any life changing stories of the other side. gary p.s. raymond plank, the chairman of apache oil, is quite a character. i'll tell you a few stories about him over a beer sometime.