VIGO COUNTY, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) — Keyrock Energy held a public hearing Monday to address community concerns in an informational format regarding methane wells in West Terre Haute.
The public voiced their concerns in previous meetings when the rezoning of two properties in West Vigo were discussed. The properties include wells that Keyrock hopes to extract methane gas from.
The rezoning of the properties was tabled at the last meeting and at the request of Keyrock Energy.
Monday night, residents and landowners came for answers.
Those in attendance heard from a mining and geotechnical consultant as well as a salesman for combustors before Keyrock addressed the crowd.
Concerns over water, sink holes, property values, as well as noise pollution were voiced.
Rick Stevens, a West Terre Haute landowner, said they’ve been through this before as a community.
“As I’ve dug into it and done my research, like I did back in 2001, It seems like a fly by night company,” Stevens said. “When you don’t have a webpage for your company, how do people find out about who you are, what history do you have, who can we contact to find out all your 50 mines that are working so well. So, we were not impressed by the presentation at all tonight. So, I think by the people there it’s thumbs down all the way.”
Stevens went on to say that the people are counting on the county commissioners to really stand up for the West Terre Haute residents and landowners.
Vigo County Commissioner, Mark Clinkenbeard said, “It’s just tough when you’re talking about somebody’s water. Where somebody lives, they’re worried about noise, we get that. We’ve done our research and everything and we’ll make that decision on the 20th. But we are taking everybody’s input into our decision.”
County commissioners plan to vote on the project at their next meeting at 9:00 AM on June 20.
