Sent: Saturday, July 07, 2012 10:25 AM
Subject: FW: A SPLIT ESTATE RESOLUTION
 
Ms. Letty Butcher’s article in the Dominion Post today makes an excellent point.
 
As a WV constituent who has had more than 20 acres ripped from my possession, while still being required to pay property tax on the same, I am painfully and financially aware of the negative effects of split estate practices.  Two parties cannot own and possess the same piece of land at the same time.  My deed and tax ticket clearly say I own / possess the land. What does the mineral owner’s deed and tax ticket say about their ownership of my land – specifically?    
 
It’s simply indefensible to acknowledge from the Declaration, Bill of Rights and Constitution, that everyone has the right to acquire and possess property; has equal protection under the law; has the right to due process and compensation before any government Taking of property; yet, under the veil of oil & gas regulation, government denies landowners all of the same.  
 
The WVDEP OOG certainly can regulate oil and gas development but, before that can occur the landowner’s right to grant or exclude access must be enforced.  For the WVDEP OOG to exercise regulatory authority on private land by issuing access permits to private companies, in clear opposition to landowners authority to deny access, is a flagrant abuse of authority.
 
I have no respect for anyone, individual or politician, who violates the freedoms this nation was founded on and for which many good and great patriots have given their last measure to defend.
 
Rick Humphreys, USA-Ret.
858 Plum Run Road
Mannington, WV  26582

NOTE: The following email has been distributed to interested parties and published in the Morgantown Dominion Post as a Letter to the Editor.
 
As WVSORO addresses the split estate issue in its summer newsletter (see below), I would appreciate if you would consider this idea:  Require that a sellar who owns both estates must include the minerals in the sale of the surface, otherwise; the sale cannot take place.  If this type of sellar does not want to include the sale of the minerals with the surface, then that sellar simply doesn’t sell that property.  You say that’s unfair, but at least this type of sellar has an option which is more than can be said for the strictly surface owner who must accept a driller trespassing on that owner’s private property siting a gas well pad(s)s and access roads without any input from that surface owner, potentially devaluing and jeopardizing mortgage financing on that property plus putting that property owner’s water, air, soil and  health at risk.  This idea would at minimum, help level the playing field. 
 
Letty Butcher
multiflora123@yahoo.com