Idaho activists are concerned that Alta Mesa Services (AMS) of Houston, Texas, could hydraulically fracture rocks almost a mile underground to obtain natural gas and oil.  AMS submitted an application to the Idaho Department of Lands (IDL) on April 30, for a permit to directionally drill a natural gas well under Highway 52 in Payette County, Idaho, using a lease to the mineral rights under Smoke Ranch.

Like the 11 wells sunk by Bridge Resources in 2010 and 2011 through the “tight” gas sandstone formation of the Hamilton field under Payette River bottomlands (at about 1,400 to 1,750 feet), this well represents another incursion into the Willow gas field.  This deeper of two potential plays in southwestern Idaho lies beneath the lowlands, hills, and buttes surrounding the agricultural communities of New Plymouth and Fruitland, below the Hamilton sandstone and underlying shale, at depths between 4,500 and 5,800 feet in sands over basalt.

Read more: Stop the Frack Attack, Idaho

(By EcoWatch, from a Wild Idaho Rising Tide media release)