Let's Look at Property Rights and Community Rights

Your property is just that....yours. Your property is in a community....yours and ours.
Actions on your property are totally under your control. But when those actions require huge community support and infrastructure, then it becomes a larger dialogue. No person can drill a Marcellus well on their property unless it is part of a gas field with a huge industrial base of operations and supporting pipe lines etc. in the community. So such a thing is a community decision too. That is where we now. This is a really new thing for the county as far as the property rights dialogue. The second part of the view is that most of what the community would be required to do represents a cost or burden...such as vastly increased truck traffic and road use, deafening noise, air pollution, water usage, water contamination, loss of property value, negative impacts on tourism and farming. These are a "takings" of community assets. The "private property drilling" can not exist without this community impact. So which is it? Property Rights or Community Rights? This is a very difficult decision we are looking at. The Court House Meeting last week was a shinning example of how a community can talk and discuss with passion and heart difficult issues and be proud for the conversation afterwards.

Jim, I am being rhetoric as Marty would suggest. Of course, you can't come up with the money. The only route to go is to not take the property. Don't take what you can't afford! The CC couldn't afford one farm let alone a hundred. So the best they can do is to not pass a ban. Don't take what you can't afford! Don't gamble with my property unless you have the $$$ to back you up.

The Reality of the Morgantown Decision--Counties Bug Out!

Judge Tucker noted that West Virginia statutes declare that "The state has the primary responsibility for protecting the environment; other government entities, public and private organizations and our citizens have the primary responsibility of supporting the state in its role as protector of the environment." Another statute declares that the purpose of the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection ("WVDEP") is to "consolidate environmental regulatory programs in a single agency, while also providing a comprehensive program for the conservation, protection, exploration, development, enjoyment and use of the natural resources of the state of West Virginia." State law also requires the Director of the WVDEP to maintain an office of oil and gas under his supervision, with that office being charged with a duty of administering and enforcing the West Virginia Oil and Gas Act. In addition, a state statute indicates that it is within the sole discretion of the WVDEP to perform all duties relating to the exploration, development, production, storage, and recovery of West Virginia's oil and gas.

Thanks for your response, Marty. We both know that the DEP isn't doing its job. (Just look at Howes Leather and Jacob Meck) But that is where this battle must begin. There is a legal presumption that a state approved method is bona fide. The state DEP approved putting the salts on the road. How do you rebut that presumption? Attack this issue at the roots (which are the code approved designation of the DEP as the agency which regulates oil and gas drilling. Or do as Alabama did and challenge federal preemption as in immigration. You should be encouraged by that decision.