'Grand Canyon of the South' wants to pay to keep drillers away

[ridgerunner]

By ROGER ALFORD
Associated Press Writer

ELKHORN CITY, Ky. (AP) -- Fallen leaves crunch underfoot. Birds sing. A squirrel chatters in the distance. And water babbles along in the rock-strewn stream that carved out what is billed as the largest canyon east of the Mississippi River.

Breaks Interstate Park is a place of quiet solitude, except for the music of nature, and the commission that operates the remote getaway on the Kentucky-Virginia border is willing to pay to keep it that way.

In a move intended to keep drill rigs out of what some call the Grand Canyon of the South, caretakers want to buy "disturbance rights" so people who own underground deposits of natural gas and oil can't dig through park property to get to it.

>snip

Ken Hall, manager of Blue Flame Energy in Pikeville, the oil and natural gas exploration company that proposed drilling in the park, did not return telephone calls to his office seeking comment. Charles Baird, a Pikeville attorney representing the owners of the underground deposits, also did not return telephone calls.

more:http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/SOU_PARK_DRILLING_KYOL-?SITE=KYLOU&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

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Blue Flame Energy Corporation
498 Town Mountain Road
Pikeville, KY, 606-437-5010

They've been after the Breaks for years.
http://64.233.179.104/search?q=cache:jAnc35gGnUkJ:www.surfbwa.org/bowlines/novdec01.pdf+Blue+Flame+Energy+in+Pikeville&hl=en