Looking at Land Near Frack Sites

Hello all, I'm considering purchasing some land and the area is littered with oil activity. I'm looking at one of the warmer places in Saskatchewan just west of Estevan. Torquay is right on the northern tip of the Bakken reservoir and drill sites are everywhere. I'm sort of worried that even if I find some land my neighbours will still make life difficult but surrounding me with frack wells. I was after something the size of a hobby farm and hoped to set up an apple orchard for myself. I checked with Fracker Tracker and while the I'm a good distance away from the flags the situation is changing daily with new wells coming up continuously. It sort of is a free for all there as Estevan is overrun with redneck rig workers and wildcatters.

On the plus side the jet stream has made that place exceptionally mild in comparison to regular Sk weather (mainly 2a-2-b with some 3a) so I wanted your thoughts plus my mother is from there and knows the land well. I can't just pack up and choose another place without readjusting my plants to a typical 2a - 45C environment with a growing season around 95-100 days. In other words, sucky. lol

Is there anything special I should look at when doing water tests on the site or should I just walk away? Thanks.

Collin

do a radon test too.
after they finish with the high pressure stuff, the methane will keep floating up for decades.
check up on the southwestern colorado areas that are being abandoned.
if it is bringing lots of radon too, you don't want to be there at all.

otherwise, the big hazard is the pits. will you have an area that can be dammed up for a waste pit above you?

Will do. Was going to check for radon anyways. The land is quite level. As in salt flats-flat. Supposedly the elevation runs high to the SW and lowers gradually to the E-NE. I haven't seen a lot of pits near the area I am looking at but I wasn't looking for them. I'll have to recon before I can answer that one.

The radon is not a big issue if you do not have a basement or slab. A vented crawl space should be good enough. There are bigger issues like contaminated ground water and other stuff. Water and waste are the biggest issues in my opinion.

Water pollution, waste from mining, bright lights on all night, loud booms, high truck traffic, and increased earthquake activity. Google fracking in Pennsylvania. That is a good starting point.