‘I didn’t want to participate’

Lunell Haught, a resident of Spokane, Washington, and Barbara Wayne, who lives in Virginia, had decided that they didn’t want to take part in gas drilling under other people’s land. They had inherited shares of minerals in West Virginia, and both have relatives in the state, but neither wanted to profit from the controversial practice of drilling and hydraulically fracturing a well.

“I didn’t want to participate in people’s homes being impacted by forces that were not in their control,” Haught said.

In recent years, though, both women found that they didn’t have a choice. After ignoring multiple requests from gas companies asking them to sign a lease, the women were sued in separate partition lawsuits. They couldn’t believe state law could allow the companies to force them to sell the minerals.

“I was amazed to get that letter, but then again, this is West Virginia,” said Wayne, who grew up in the state.

At first, each woman considered fighting the lawsuits in court, but after seeking legal advice, each realized that cause looked hopeless. So, in acts of defiance, Haught donated her minerals to the surface owners’ rights association, in the hope of helping other property owners, and Wayne signed a negotiated lease and donated all of the money to an environmental organization focused on banning hydraulic fracturing.

Industry officials say holdouts like Haught and Wayne stop other mineral owners from profiting from drilling and inhibit state and local governments from making as much tax revenue as possible from the Marcellus Shale that underlies a large portion of the state.

Haught doesn’t begrudge anybody from making money from signing a lease, especially if it’s needed to make a house payment or to pay for groceries for their family, but she said it’s hard to understand how a company can buy a small percentage of the minerals and force anyone who won’t sign a lease off the property.

“If you let a camel put his nose in a tent,” she said, “pretty soon, he will be living there.”