Scenic, struggling Southern Illinois braces for oil rush

Peoria Journal Star ^ | May 05, 2013 | TAMMY WEBBER The Associated Press

[mdittmar]

VIENNA, Ill. —

This is the Illinois that many people never see — the sparsely populated southern tip where flat farmland gives way to rolling hills, rocky outcrops, thick forests and cypress swamps.

Blacktopped county roads wend through no-stoplight towns. Locals speak in soft drawls and talk of generations who've lived on the same land or in the same villages. The remote and rugged Shawnee National Forest attracts hikers, campers and horseback riders, and offers a stark contrast to the rest of a state that largely has been plowed, paved or suburbanized.

But many here are beginning to brace for change as the Illinois Legislature considers regulations that could set off a rush among energy companies to drill deep in the southern Illinois bedrock for oil and natural gas. The crews would be using a process known as high-volume hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," that has transformed the landscape in places like North Dakota and Pennsylvania.

After drilling intensively in a handful of states in the Midwest and Southwest in the last few years, the industry is now preparing to push into new territory, hoping to tap deposits long considered out of reach. Residents here — and some in New York and California that also are part of this next frontier — have heard the angry clamor over fracking elsewhere, but most have little experience with the oil industry.

Already, drillers have leased hundreds of thousands of acres throughout southern Illinois, including in scenic Johnson and Pope counties, which hasn't seen conventional drilling and people aren't sure what to expect if a fracking rush becomes a reality.

[Carriage Hill]

Brace yourself, folks. Stoplights, stop signs and lots more housing are just the beginning. Your bucolic way of life is about to end.

[FlingWingFlyer]

Funny how the libs don’t seemed concerned when they destroy the scenery by putting up hundreds of oscillating white fans all over the place.

[Mamzelle]

Don’t forget about the King of Chicago.

[Carriage Hill]

How’s “Dead Fish Bath House Faggot Boy” going to involve himself in this? Just wondering...

I’d think the EPA/DER/DEP/DNR/ACoE would kill it faster than The Murder City King.

[berdie]

later

[bray]

Brace yourself for less communism.

Pray for America to Wake Up

[elcid1970]

I remember visiting an aunt & uncle in Mt. Carmel in the late 1950’s. Walking beam oil derricks dotted the countryside everywhere then.

Good luck to them & their fracking boom. At least the Chicago gangster environmental “enforcers” will be easy to ID.

[RightGeek]

Southern Illinois has had an oil industry for years but that has slowed way down. Perfect candidate for fracking. See: http://www.isgs.illinois.edu/maps-data-pub/publications/geobits/geobit9.shtml

Illinois has about 650 oil fields, primarily in the southern half of the state. You can recognize an oil field by the presence of "rocking" oil pump jacks and clusters of large storage tanks. Deep beneath this equipment—typically about ½ mile deep—lie one or more layers of porous rock called "reservoirs" that contain the "black gold." Oil flows from the reservoir into the 4- to 8-inch-pipe in the oil well.

Drilling for oil has always been a risky financial venture because fewer than half of the holes drilled in Illinois actually strike enough oil to repay the drilling costs. Unsuccessful wells, called "dry holes," are filled with cement and plugged to protect the groundwater.

Illinois' drilling boom was in the 1940s and 1950s when the state was one of the nation's leading producers. In 1996, Illinois produced over 15 million barrels (630 million gallons) of oil; about 500 new wells were drilled, mostly to continue the development of known fields. In 1998, the average daily oil production from an Illinois well was only 1 to 2 barrels (42 to 84 gallons); but with 30,000 active wells, that adds up!

[rwa265]

They still dot the country side. I have seen several oil derricks driving along I-64, I-57, and I-20 in southern Illinois.

[SeminoleCounty]

Saw oil wells along I-64 in IL on my return to Florida from my trip... thought for a moment I was in TX or OK

[Joe Boucher]

Been there.
The roads are in disrepair and the folks are in despair.
Cause all the states money goes to Chicago and its crime syndicate.

[Figment]

,” and I-20 in southern Illinois.”

I wasn’t aware that Illinois stretched that far south

[VanShuyten]

A lot of horizontal drilling fron Indiana.

[rake]

My grandparents had a farm in Dongola, a very tiny town. Such beautiful country and great people.

[glorgau]

Maybe they’ll just drill above the reclaimed strip mines. ;-)

I used to live by Carbondale and rode my bicycle all over the back roads. It is definitely not unspoiled wilderness.

[Carriage Hill]

There’s definitely gonna be a legal fight with the corrupt, criminal, marxist, commie, racist gov’t scumbags. They want to keep us dependent upon the ME filth.

[virgil]

Southern IL has oil, but not the big gushers like TX. It will probably be arranged so that most of the profits will go to the oil companies and the rest to the state through taxes (that is to say, Chicago). Not so much to the landowners.

[rwa265]

Sorry for the typo. I-24 in southern Illinois.

[curdogman]

wow I had no idea there was oil in Ill. my father was raised at Cave-in Rock. I might unretired just to move there and work and hunt...a lot of tree game there and folk there don’t get nicer