Gas From Orphaned Well Turns Home into Bomb

Their home is right on top of an abandoned gas well.

As officials from the city, county and state traipsed through their home over the course of several months, taking readings and trying to find solutions, the Leathermans tried their best not to think about the implications of owning a home filled with methane gas.

The couple went from hearing “we’re going to fix this thing, put you back in the house, to we need to walk away from it and let the bank take it, which the bank wouldn’t do,” Robert Leatherman said.

Someone suggested removing the house from the foundation to gain access to the well, which would have cost more than the house was worth” and we would be bankrupt for the rest of our lives,” he said.

“It was a roller coaster, trust me. There were days we weren’t as patient as everybody keeps giving us credit for,” Barb Leatherman said.

So, they’ve been dealing with this for a year and finally it seems that they lose the equity in their home, time off from work and made payments on a home they couldn’t live in.

Gas accumulation at Rittman home put it too close to an explosive level