First, the concern was all about getting enough per acre from the natural gas drilling companies. But recent news stories have some landowners in bucolic Leelanau County fearing fracking – a process that pumps millions of gallons of water and chemicals underground – not to mention the coming and going of huge, heavy trucks on county roads.
Here's an excerpt:
"I have four contracts sitting on my office desk right now. All look very similar," says Ed Krupka.
He grew up on his 80-acre farm in Leelanau County. As sheets of mist blow through the tops of trees on high hilly ground, Krupka waits for the weather to clear so he can harvest his cherries.
And he's weighing the pros and cons of leasing mineral rights. If a gas well were to be drilled on his land, he says it would mean scraping away the topsoil and removing fruit trees from about seven acres.
"They have to take care of my fears about this is a working farm and they say they're going to put things back to working status. And I'm very skeptical that that's possible even," he says.
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