In one county in Michigan, an experiment is taking place. Old, abandoned oil wells are being subjected to a new process called vapor extraction, or Vapex, and residents in this county had no idea this testing was taking place on 46 wells that had not been used since the 1980’s.
Vapex has never before occurred in the United States, until Michigan decided to let Cass County be the country’s guinea pig. The State of Michigan says there’s no problem with Vapex, but listen to what the chief of Michigan Department of Environmental Quality’s Office of Oil, Gas and Minerals, Hal Fitch, has to say about fracking:
“Honestly, we think hydraulic fracturing is safe. There’s a long history of that in Michigan, too. We’ve had over 12,000 oil wells hydraulically fractured and we’ve never had an incident of environmental contamination related to hydraulic fracturing itself.”
And when he says Vapex is safe, we should totally believe him, too.
So, what exactly is Vapex, you ask? According to WSBT:
Instead of blasting water underground, like in fracking, Vapex injects gases like propane, methane and butane into the ground. It’s done at a very low pressure, even lower than your backyard barbecue’s propane tank.
This process turns the crude, sticky asphalt found in the ground into liquid, which is much easier to pump out of the ground.
But, it’s not fracking, the co-owner of Columbus Oil and Gas, Ted Kuhns says. What else does Mr. Kuhns say?
It’s groundbreaking technology that Kuhns hopes will turn a massive profit. Kuhns says Columbus [Oil and Gas] isn’t the only one that benefits. People who own the land that’s being drilled, altogether, get 20 percent of the cut.
Golly, gee, 20 whole percent to inject my land with gas? Thanks! As you can imagine, residents in this small county are not thrilled about Vapex in their back yards. One woman lives just a thousand feet from a well, and she had no idea what was going on. Let me repeat that:
She had no idea what was going on.
“You can see it out there,” Karen Dotson says. “I thought they was drilling for oil.”
Resident Cathy LaPointe says of the process:
“It’s pumping propane, it’s pushing propane under the ground, this causes all kinds of consequences – unknown consequences.”
Sure, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality’s Office of Oil, Gas and Minerals office can tell us it’s safe and we have nothing to worry about, but the oil companies have bought and paid for most of our politicians. What does some small county on the Michigan/Indiana line mean to them?
And, sorry oil companies, we don’t believe anything that comes from you anymore. We know you’re only in it for the bucks, and people be damned.
Vapex should never have been implemented in the U.S. without at least a public discussion, especially with those who are directly impacted. Oh, and how much oil will come from this unknown process? In the next thirty years, the project is expected to extract enough oil to quench the United State’s oil appetite for one day.
I’m sure it’s worth it.