New Plymouth Natural Gas Sites 9-22-12

Between our mid-day and evening Global Frackdown! in Boise actions at the Idaho Capitol, Idaho Residents Against Gas Extraction (IRAGE) led Occupy Spokane and Wild Idaho Rising Tide fractivists on a tour of Hamilton Field natural gas wells and their environs around New Plymouth in Payette County. Within a landscape full of floodplains, wetlands, irrigation canals, and streams, we noticed gravel berms in the Payette River and uncovered well heads. All four of the already drilled (but not fracked) gas wells that we visited were out of their usually locked (for safety and security) protective yellow metal cages.

The Payette River flowing downstream near a bridge

Gravel berms from dredging or like those around natural gas wells in the middle of the Payette River, noticed after the state of Idaho leased tracts around and under the river for natural gas exploration and production

The second of four observed natural gas wells mysteriously outside their protective yellow cages without drilling rigs

The second observed natural gas well in relation to human size, outside and in front of its yellow cage

The second observed, drilled but not fracked natural gas well head outside its usually locked yellow metal cage (Alma Hasse photo)

Railroad tracks and wetlands across the road from the second observed natural gas well

A water wheel in an irrigation ditch between the second and third observed natural gas well

The third observed natural gas well also inexplicably outside its protective yellow cage without a drilling rig, at the end of a dirt access road, within a half mile of a middle school