Oil Comes Within Smell Range

January 22, 2015 I stepped outside on a clear sunny afternoon to the distinct strong smell of petroleum. I will not write what my first thoughts were. Later glancing at the local small town paper online, there must of been other residents with the same thoughts as I ... because they had printed a short story on what that smell was. It was only three oil well STARTUPs and the smell should go away in a couple of weeks, no danger to the public.

That was what the newspaper said. I had my doubts.

This is nothing new to the 'tropics' of southern Indiana, its common to see them scattered throughout the farm country, just not within range of my house.

So just last week, I step outside on a bright sunny day with the temps hovering around 12°, when I have that familiar smell again. I go back to my local paper online to find a new updated short story dated February 25, 2015 ... a couple of paragraphs ... a spokesman from Citizens Energy Group states: "they expect the odor to dissipate in the coming weeks as the well start-up process concludes".

That was the same thing he said in January. It looked like the article was cut and pasted with only the publishing date changed.

My curiosity got the best of me. Saturday morning, even with winter storm warnings for later that day were announced, I poured a cup of coffee in my travel mug, picked up my camera and went to find the location of oil wells. Based on looking at the map, it was within a 3 mile radius of my house, SW of me.

I drove over to Hwy 57 and headed south, keeping my eye out for the county road sign 275S and after turning left I was going to be watching for 275W but I didn't need to do that. Before I even made a turn onto 275S I could already see the small oil operation that was set up. Last month the paper said they were setting up 3 wells. Just last week they said they were setting up 3 new wells and that was the reason for the smell. I stopped the FJ, rolled down the window and counted 10 of them within eyesight. I guess they are turning  them up 3 at a time??

I didn't have a wide angle lens to capture all of them I could see, but I could see they went as far as the eyes could see ... more than 6 of them that the newspaper mentioned. I took a photo of a couple of them to show the distance between them. All the wells photo'd were pumping.

I have googled for more information on oil drilling in general. I am asking friends and blog readers that might know about the oil drilling process, how often can I expect that strong smell of petroleum (sulfur) whipping through my neighborhood in future months. A few local friends have said this is a "no brainer", they would move if they smelled it for just one day.

The problem I have is not only the smell but between the months of April to November, I have my windows open every day/night at the house. I hate to think that out of the blue I will have to put up with that strong petroleum smell during a beautiful summer day and evening.

Is this the point I put the "House For Sale" sign up and leave it up?