Roy
and Louise Dearing
Retired oil & gas field worker and homemaker
We
bought the place about twenty years ago. We were in the desert
with mountains nearby and the Black River across the road. We
thought it was a great place to raise a family, where our four
boys could hunt, explore, and just be boys.
 There
was always a small compressor there, about 500 feet from the house,
but when Duke Energy bought the land a few years ago, they replaced
that little 100 horsepower compressor with one that has 1200 horsepower.
If it doesn't breakdown it runs twenty-four hours a day, everyday.
Until just a short time ago, they had four floodlights on all
night. It's like living next door to an airport.
The
thing is so big it shakes the house. You can feel it under your
feet. We used to like to sit out on the front porch, but we can't
do that now. We used to have friends come out and camp on the
weekends, but they don't come around anymore.
It
makes me so mad. Neither of us can sleep well anymore, and I've
been so rattled, I have to go to the doctor because I now have
high blood pressure. Duke Energy won't do anything about it. They
have land they could move it to, land more isolated, but they
won't do it.
We
had to hire lawyer. It's so expensive it's taking up our retirement,
but we're going to fight it. We'll probably die broke, with nothing
left for our kids, but we're not going to stop fighting. We just
can't.
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