Gas drilling put on hold in Bedford

Email To A Friend
Printer Friendly
Comments

---

by Emily Canning-Dean

Reporter

Bedford -- City officials say that proposed natural gas drilling near City Hall has been postponed. They said they believe the drilling will happen in the future, but they are not sure when in the future.

Law Director Ken Schuman said the drilling has been postponed because the drilling company, BlueRock Energy, has not received permission from all of the residents within the 20 acres around the drill site, which is required by state law.

He said that, because the majority of the residents gave the nod, the project can still go through, but BlueRock must make an application through the state for a "force pool."

"The force pool would allow BlueRock to do the drilling on city property without permission of all of the surrounding properties," Schuman said.

Officials from BlueRock did not return calls for comment or to indicate how the force pool process was going.

City Manager Bob Reid said residents within the 20 acres would receive royalties from the drilling.

"It wouldn't be a lot," Reid said. "It would be $100 initially and about $12 a month after that."

The city would also receive 400,000 metered cubic feet of natural gas. That is a $7,000 value, according to Reid.

Reid said the city is not sure how much natural gas is on the property, but the city or surrounding property owners would lose nothing by the drilling.

Once the drilling begins, it would be constant for about seven days. When the drilling is complete, the well is protected by a cement barrier no larger than a parking space.

BlueRock is also planning on drilling at Stafford Park in Maple Heights.

The company expects to set up the well about 100 feet east of the baseball field at the park in a space approximately 20-feet by 50-feet that is currently open.

E-mail: ecanning@recordpub.com

Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3166