Why Help from Charlestion is "A Bridge Too Far"

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Martin Saffer Aug 22, 2011 5:04 am	Why Help from Charlestion is "A Bridge Too Far" Delegate Slams Senate for Not Addressing Marcellus Staff State Capitol State lawmakers are not only failing to produce comprehensive legislation addressing natural gas drilling in the Marcellus shale, they're not putting in the effort, Delegate Tim Manchin, who co-chairs the joint Marcellus shale committee, told MetroNews recently. Manchin slammed state senators for leaving Charleston during the second special session on redistricting. Acting Senate President Jeff Kessler, D-Marshall, said keeping senators in Charleston with nothing to do would cost the state too much money. But Manchin argues senators had plenty of issues to address, despite an essentially blank agenda. The Marion County Democrat said the time could have been used to develop rules governing Marcellus drilling. Instead, the joint House-Senate Marcellus committee failed to meet. During the first special session, the committee met twice. Manchin said they should have met every day. At this point, no one is happy, Manchin said. "We're very frustrated, our constituents are frustrated, and the House members are frustrated," he said. "It's disappointing to say the least." Acting Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin has proposed emergency rules in an executive order, but those rules haven't gone into effect yet. Moreover, Manchin says the rules don't adequately deal with drilling issues. To top it off, Manchin says the committee isn't making any progress on creating new rules. "We've got nothing, and we're not getting anywhere," Manchin said. Manchin says issues related to the rights of surface and mineral owners, as well as water well placement are among the most urgent. He says companies are drilling too close to residences. "Right now, they can put a well 200 feet from a house," Manchin said. "When you include the pad, the pad can be on the back porch." On Monday, several environmental and public interest groups have planned two press conferences focused on the need for regulations on drilling. The events will be held at 2 p.m. in Charleston and Morgantown. The participants say hydraulic fracturing and other practices need to be better regulated. Manchin says he's still hopeful for progress during interim meetings in September. "If (senators) want to meet, we can come to a meeting of the minds and get something done," he said. Manchin also encouraged residents to put pressure on their local lawmakers to get rules in place.
RML Aug 22, 2011 2:02 pm	Re: Why Help from Charlestion is "A Bridge Too Far" The last thing we need is for the legislature to act based on their initial draft legislation. Inaction is better than a law which could void any Marcellus-related County ordinance. We need time and public involvement to force the legislators to back off and let the County act in the people's interest. For the record, Delegate Manchin's son is a registered lobbyist in Charleston. His sole employer is the gas industry. Would any father want to anger the company that pays his son's salary? -- Rich
Martin Saffer Aug 23, 2011 6:23 am	Re: Why Help from Charlestion is "A Bridge Too Far" Dennis and Tammy Hagy of Jackson County said they cannot live in their home because of fracking. By Paul J. Nyden CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- On the same day that state environmental officials put forth an emergency rule to regulate Marcellus Shale gas drillers, advocates said more is needed. "We want the Legislature to do its job and give West Virginians the protection they deserve. Our health, our homes and our well-being should come first," Carol Warren of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition said at a Monday afternoon event outside the state Capitol. Supporters of drilling for natural gas from Marcellus Shale reserves -- among the largest gas reserves in the world -- say it promises to create thousands of well-paying new jobs in West Virginia. Critics believe drillers have already begun to damage the state's water supplies, largely by using hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," to open up huge fissures in rocks often a mile or more below the surface. They said the millions of gallons of water, laden with possibly harmful chemicals, used in fracking threatens our future water supplies and health. "Drilling being conducted in this and other states is causing harm to people's health and to their livestock and property and to their well water and streams and contaminating the air they breathe," said Leslee McCarty of the West Virginia Environmental Council. "We need to look at the inaction of the Legislature, especially on the Senate side. We need to hold this Legislature accountable," McCarty said. The emergency rule filed Monday was ordered last month by state Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin, who is acting as governor. The rule is meant to provide some regulatory oversight while lawmakers try to craft permanent and more wide-ranging rules for Marcellus Shale drilling, after they failed to do so earlier this year. Among other concerns, activists at Monday's event in Charleston and a similar one in Morgantown say that Monday's rule doesn't address light or noise pollution from well sites, spacing between wells and homes or the rights of surface owners. Tammy Hagy and her husband Dennis raised two sons in their home on 90 acres of rural land along a hollow near Romance in Jackson County. Today, the Hagys live in a mobile home 45 miles away, in Palestine in Wirt County. "We lived there for 22 years," Dennis Hagy said. "Now we can't live there ... we were nauseated, had headaches and my wife was throwing up." After their sons moved away from home, they continued taking water from the wells on their family's farm to drink in their new homes. Then one day in October 2008, their son Clark "said he was spitting up blood. Clark told me he couldn't drink our well water anymore," Tammy Hagy told the press conference.
Martin Saffer Aug 23, 2011 7:59 am	Re: Why Help from Charlestion is "A Bridge Too Far" The Associated Press August 22, 2011, 5:07PM ET text size: TT W.Va. Marcellus rule filed amid inaction criticism By LAWRENCE MESSINA CHARLESTON, W.Va. West Virginia regulators filed an emergency rule Monday that would temporarily require Marcellus shale natural gas drillers to detail how they will protect area land, manage the large volumes of water involved, respond to accidents, and notify the public in advance of operations. Ordered by acting Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin last month, the rule would last 15 months once approved by the Secretary of State. The rule is meant to provide some regulatory oversight while a special legislative committee attempts to craft permanent and more wide-ranging rules for Marcellus drilling. With the industry at odds with environmental and surface rights groups over what those rules should say, a compromise bill eluded lawmakers during the year's regular session. Those groups held events in Charleston and Morgantown on Monday to blast both Tomblin and legislators. Among other concerns, they say that the executive doesn't tackle light or noise pollution from well sites, spacing between wells and homes or the rights of surface owners. "(Tomblin's order) is nothing but political bluster, which provides no authority that the DEP didn't already have, anyway," Frank Young president of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, said at the Charleston event. "It only serves as political cover for doing nothing." The natural gas industry believes a huge reserve sits trapped in the mile-deep Marcellus shale, a massive rock formation that stretches beneath West Virginia and other states. Tapping it can require an unconventional horizontal drilling method as well as hydraulic fracturing. Also known as fracking, that process relies on water drawn from area sources that's mixed with chemicals and sand and then pumped into wells to crack the rock. Operators face considerable up-front costs, but promise that developing the field will yield jobs and economic activity for West Virginia. Critics question those boasts. They also cite the potential threat to area land and water supplies from fracking fluid. Related concerns include water sources depleted for fracking, the storing and disposing of frack fluid, and damage to rural roads by convoys of drill rigs and water trucks. Monday's rule calls for drillers to supply engineer-certified plans for building well sites and for controlling erosion and sediment runoff. Operators that will frack with more than 210,000 gallons of water in a month must describe where they will get the water from and when, what chemicals they plan to add to it, and how they will dispose of the fracking fluid afterward. Once drilled, operators must sheath the well's walls in cement for at least its first 300 feet. This casing must extend at least 50 feet below any underground water sources, which typically sit much closer to the surface than the Marcellus field. The casing must be strong enough to withstand the pressure from hydraulic fracturing, and at least 1,200 pounds per square inch of pressure. Soddy casings have been blamed for the tainting of water supplies in neighboring Pennsylvania by methane leaking from Marcellus wells. Well sites that disturb three or more acres require safety plans. These must detail the chemicals and other materials at the site, identify all schools and public facilities within one mile, and provide contact information for those locations as well as for the operator, local inspectors, DEP and area first responders. They must also explain how a well site and surrounding area would be evacuated during an emergency. Operators seeking to drill within a municipal boundary must give 30-day notice to the public through a newspaper legal ad before they can receive the needed permit. Four West Virginia communities had enacted Marcellus bans. A lawsuit has blocked one of those, while a second has been rescinded and a third is facing repeal as well. The various stakeholders in this issue appear to agree that the DEP rule cannot go as far as legislation. Lawmakers must update legal definitions of drilling, for instance, and increase permit fees or otherwise create revenues for the additional gas field inspectors needed. But speakers at Monday's Charleston and Morgantown events argued that Tomblin's order could have gone farther but didn't. Each drew about a dozen people. Held at the state Capitol, those at the Charleston event included members of a Jackson County family suing over the alleged contamination of their well water by gas wells. Speakers there cited other families -- a couple in Taylor County, for instance, and a sheep farming family in Wetzel County -- who allege drilling has ruined their water or land. Those at the Morgantown event, held at a riverfront park, included Dr. Larry Schwab of the Mon Valley Clean Air Coalition. He said the International Journal of Human and Ecological Risk Assessment will soon publish a peer-reviewed study that he says has identified more than 600 chemicals associated with Marcellus drilling operations. A fourth of those have known adverse health effects, Schwab said. "We're dealing in a giant human biological experiment with this exercise," Schwab said. ------ Associated Press Writer Vicki Smith in Morgantown contributed to this report.
Martin Saffer Aug 23, 2011 4:59 pm	Re: Why Help from Charlestion is "A Bridge Too Far" Associated Press W.Va. landowners criticize new gas drilling rules By VICKI SMITH , 08.23.11, 04:14 PM EDT MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- A group critical of West Virginia's new emergency rules for Marcellus shale gas drilling said Tuesday the rules take only baby steps to protect the environment and do nothing to help landowners. The Department of Environmental Protection issued the rules Monday at the urging of Acting Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, who had called for interim measures until legislators can agree on permanent and wider-ranging regulations for the fast-growing industry. The rules will remain in place for 15 months once approved by the Secretary of State. But the West Virginia Surface Owners' Rights Organizations says they largely mirror what the previous administration was doing in practice and allow huge regulatory gaps to continue unaddressed. "They are inadequate to ensure safe, responsible development of the Marcellus shale," said spokeswoman Julie Archer, "and more needs to be done to protect citizens and the environment." Gas companies can still sneak onto private property to survey well sites and roads without contacting the owners first, and landowners get no notice of plans to drill until the permit is filed, the group complains. Even then, they have only 15 days to object, with no right to a public hearing. People who live in rural areas, outside a municipality, would still be blindsided by operators, the group says, and wells could still be drilled within 200 feet of homes. Many residents worry not only about noise, lights, road damage and air pollution, but also the potential for fires and explosions.

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