page_title: Broad form deed
section_title: Legacy: the split estate
hierarchical_section_title: Broad form deed / Legacy: the split estate
caption_attribution_description: English: Texas Barnett Shale gas drilling (fracking) rig near Alvarado, Texas, just off of state highway 67.
context_page_description: As a legal document, the broad form deed severs a property into surface and mineral rights. This allows other individuals or organizations other than the land owners to purchase rights to resources below the surface. These parties also receive use of surface resources-such as wood or water- to facilitate gathering the resources below ground. Based on English legal theory but an American creation from the early 1900s, the broad form deed was used by land and coal companies in many states within the Appalachian Region.
context_section_description: The broad form deed is no longer used today, but many similar agreements were and still are created to separate mineral and surface rights. Today, a split estate occurs when one person or group owns the surface rights and another person or group owns the mineral rights. Often, in these situations, the right to access the minerals holds precedence over the surface owner's rights. The U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management has policies for split estates, applying only if the surface rights are privately owned and if the mineral rights are publicly owned and regulated by the Federal Government. If the mineral rights are not managed by the Federal Government, a lease agreement is arranged between the land and mineral owners and sometimes a surface use agreement is also created.             
  Resources including oil and shale gas are commonly extracted, but depending on the technology used, come with a high risk of contaminating the surface owner's land. Older oil and gas wells were less complicated than modern mining and fracking methods, used less water, and were not as harmful to the environment because of less waste production. However, shale gas fracking techniques produce wastewater which can be worse for the land above. The wastewater produced from fracking often contains salt, industrial chemicals, hydrocarbons, and radioactive material. The main concerns for the waste produced from shale gas fracking is for the water quality, human health, and the overall quality of life.
  The waste produced from fracking has affected land and water on the surface. In 2009, seventeen cattle were found dead near a fracking site in Louisiana, resulting in a fine to the company. The conclusion of this case stated that waste had leaked from the mining well and contaminated the pasture. There have been more cases of spilled fracking fluid in 2009 in Hopewell Township and Dunkard Creek Pennsylvania, both resulting in the death of many fish and amphibians, to name a few. As of 2011, some shale gas had been discovered in highly populated areas, therefore creating a higher chance of pollution to the water supply.
  Safely disposing of large amounts of wastewater from natural gas and oil production is often difficult because it often contains significant amounts of "salinity, toxic metals, and salinity." In a study by the Division of Earth and Ocean Sciences published in 2013, the water quality of surface waters near a wastewater treatment plant in Pennsylvania was tested. The plant, along with others, sometimes would treat oil and gas wastewater at brine treatment facilities and releasing it into nearby streams. The water tested was shown to contain high levels of "chloride and bromide, strontium, radium, oxygen, and hydrogen isotopic compositions."
caption: Oil and gas drilling rig
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