7/9/14 - A Texas-based energy company is in the process of abandoning a controversial well it had dug last year on property in Livingston County. GeoSouthern Energy initially received approval from state officials last September to drill a test well in Conway Township on resident Jack Sherwoodâs Maple Grove Farm property. GeoSouthern wanted to see if it could possibly extract gas or oil resources trapped deep underground using a process similar to hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. That process pumps a mixture of sand, water and chemicals at high-pressure into the rocks to try and break them up and release the trapped resources. But after a month of testing, the company is now closing down that operation according to Geologist Shaun Lehman with the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. "They are in the process of plugging and abandoning that well...and it wasn't hydraulic fracturing per se. It was a type of completion called an acid fracture. That's something they've already done and have been testing the well ever since to see what they've got." Lehman says those tests indicated it wouldn't be economically viable to continue the drilling operations. That will comes as good news to many area residents who were opposed to the operation, both for environmental concerns, but also because of a strong odor they say was produced at the site on various occasions. Lehman says he knows of no other efforts by GeoSouthern to do similar drilling in Livingston County. A statement issued by GeoSouthern is attached below. (JK)
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