08/18/2008 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Regular Council Meeting 8-18-08 Page 15 Mayor Rinker replied that the short answer to that is yes they can because the state does not particularly regulate it, but he does not know this for sure. He does not know if they have to go down and then over. He does not know at what point that vertical line extends as far as the state guidelines are, but he believes the answer is yes, they can drill in laterally under properties as long as they avoid utilities. Mr. Marrotte asked if they can drill under anyone's property whether they signed on or not? Mayor Rinker said pretty much. That's why they have a separation requirement. That's why they have 600 feet because the strata underground that they tap into, whether your straw goes straight down or your straw goes down at an angle, the best the state can do is approximate on the surface locations and in an urban area such as ours they space them a little bit differently than they do in a rural area. The state has concluded however arbitrarily, the state said this is the standard and we will apply this across the state as far as how you aggregate surface acres of land in order to negotiate the drilling rights underground. Mr. Marrotte asked the law department to make sure they are allowed to drill underneath the three houses that have not signed up. Ms. Calta will look into this. Dr. Parker said the other understanding was they could force the other properties to be a part of the 20 acres. You don't need all 20 acres, you just need a certain key percentage and at that point if someone does not want to sign up they have no choice, they are part of that group because of that, correct. Ms. Calta replied that there is something called forced pooling. That is a possibility. Ms. Calta would say it is not a mechanism that is used unless the driller feels that they absolutely have to. There is one on Beta that was forced. Mr. Marrelli said they tried to but it did not happen. Ms. Calta said that is the only one she is aware o£ There was only one attempt and it did not work out to the driller's advantage. Mayor Rinker stated that the point Dr. Parker brings up is a good comparison with the law on assessments for public improvements. A best example he can give is if enough property owners come together and say they want to go from wells to city water, they want those public improvements, they have the right under state statutes to get together, sign a petition and if you define the area that is going to be served, let's say it is a 20 acre area and for assessments it is two-thirds of the property owners, not 100%, but two-thirds could sign those petitions and they could force the connection. The way the assessments work is they are done on a pro rata basis based on the cost of the improvement. It is a procedure state law allows property owners to do. Why? Because of the expression public improvement. The state promotes public improvements but there is no free lunch. It costs money. It sets up a due process procedure for property owners to petition their government to bring in that improvement. They all agree that they are going to pay. Even if they don't get 100% in the area that is going to be improved that is all it requires. People have a chance to combat it. They can go into court. There is a whole process for that. It sounds to Mayor Rinker that forced pooling operates on that same principle because of the state policy promoting this as a good thing, not as a bad thing. Mr. Marrotte said this is a commercial enterprise. Mayor Rinker said this country is built on private enterprise and property ownership. Mr. Marrotte said they are drilling these wells