Please note that David McMahon is also concerned about old gas wells!

The West Virginia Surface Owners Rights Organization, of which I am a cofounder, stands up for surface owners when the oil and gas drillers show up with bulldozers.

The common law says that if I own the surface, but someone else owns the minerals and leases them to a driller, I get no share of the value of the oil and gas that my surface land is used to produce. Only in the 1980s did surface owners finally even get limited compensation for the damage done to their land — the amount of the existing use such as growing hay was worth to the surface owners, not what use of their land is worth to the driller and mineral owner.

The Legislature has never regulated the deeds severing ownership of the minerals (usually to out-of-state owners) from the ownership of the surface in a way that might have given the surface owners more say over where well pads, pipelines etc. can be built — let alone what share the surface owner might get from the profits of drilling and producing using their land.
The Legislature has also never enacted regulations to protect mineral owners when signing leases to drillers (usually to out-of-state companies).

Almost every lease that I have seen drafted by the driller for the mineral owner to sign contains a “general warranty” clause. That means if the driller’s title work was wrong, the mineral owner has to pay for the driller’s lawyers when the driller gets sued by someone else who thinks the minerals were theirs and did not belong to the person the driller got to sign the lease.

So, if the driller is sued for the money the driller wrongfully paid to the person who the driller asked to signed the lease, then the person who signed the lease has to pay the driller’s attorney fees. I am not making this up. And many of the leases had provisions allowing free use of the surface for pipelines for wells that were not on the leased tract. And many of the leases had provisions that let the lease be held for decades by use for gas storage fields by paying the mineral owners only $1 an acre a year — again not a share of the money the driller made by using the storage field.

The Legislature never stepped in to regulate leasing, it only enacted forced pooling when mineral owners would not sign the drillers’ leases.

Now, finally, surface owners who got no share of the value of their land being used for oil and gas production have the opportunity to get paid for entering into carbon credit agreements that require scientific management of timber cutting. And now the Legislature is considering enacting regulation of transactions with landowners (Senate Bills 618 and 822).

Now, when the surface owner can get paid some money by persons or entities (usually out of state) who want to offset their carbon generation by paying us to manage our timberland in a carbon friendly way, now when we can finally get paid some money for scientifically managing our timber — now the Legislature is considering two bills that will at least inhibit and more likely eliminate West Virginia surface owners from getting this money.

Not everyone agrees that the buying and selling of carbon credits is a good idea.

But the Legislature cannot stop other states from authorizing it or stop private entities from purchasing the credits to enhance their image. All the Legislature can do is pass bills chasing the money out of West Virginia to surrounding states that do not interfere. The Legislature should prove its bona fides as advocating for a free market and less government and private property rights. Prove that West Virginia is not just a big company town. Don’t pass these bills.

David McMahon is a lawyer in Charleston. He is dedicated to the public interest.

NOTE ~ Please join the WV Surface Owners Rights Organization ASAP, that we definitely help!

See the Web Site ~ WVSORO.org. Julie Archer is the Executive Director, and needs your help!

URL: https://www.wvgazettemail.com/opinion/op_ed_commentaries/david-mcmahon-wv-looking-to-rip-off-surface-rights-owners-opinion/article_fdaeff14-8b0a-5b6b-8c77-41006ad17757.html

Our concern is the all lands, for example lot 7 here!

From Randi Pokladnik, Tappan Lake, OHIO, 44683, February 14, 2024

Have you ever noticed that every oil and gas drilling rig has an American flag anchored to the top? For most Americans, that flag represents a symbol of freedom. So, it’s ironic that Ohio’s pro fossil fuel Republicans cater to the oil and gas industry and usurp many of its rights and freedoms from Ohio’s citizens.

Have you ever noticed that every oil and gas drilling rig has an American flag anchored to the top? For most Americans, that flag represents a symbol of freedom. So, it’s ironic that Ohio’s pro fossil fuel Republicans cater to the oil and gas industry and usurp many of its rights and freedoms from Ohio’s citizens.

This industry, however, enjoys several freedoms and rights that many other industries do not. Because of the Haliburton laws, the oil and gas industry is exempt from most federal regulations, including the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, National Environmental Policy Act, and the Toxic Release Inventory under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act.

In 1980, the Federal EPA acknowledged that the billions and billions of barrels of produced water from fracking wells is hazardous, but it would be an economic burden for this industry to try to adhere to the laws. Therefore, “The Federal EPA exempted wastes from the federal laws written to protect the public from toxic waste.” In Ohio, these wastes are trucked up and down the roads of our rural communities to be injected into Class II injection wells.

Ohio’s Republican lawmakers have opened the state to fracking; allowing the industry to exploit every drop of oil and every molecule of gas that lies beneath southeast Ohio counties.

Countless laws have been passed to pave the way for fracking while thwarting renewable energy development (HB 52 HB6 and HB483). Additionally, pro fossil fuel laws have attacked our freedoms, limiting free speech and public protests. Ohio citizens, trying to protect their homes and rural communities from the horrendous externalities visited on them, have been essentially gaged by laws like SB 33, passed in 2021.

A prime example of the power that fossil fuels weld over Ohio’s citizens was obvious in 2023, when HB 507 opened up the state’s parks to fracking. The bill was passed during the 2022 General Assembly “lame duck” session, and was quickly signed into law by Governor Mike DeWine. The bill set in motion the ability of out-of-state oil and gas companies to propose leases under state parks.

A “puppet-like” public participation process was carried on throughout the year with public meetings in Columbus. Citizens were prohibited from asking questions or commenting. The public meeting on November 15, 2023 was a sad day for Ohio’s public lands. Democracy was fracked, and leasing was approved for several tracts of land, including all 20,000 acres of Salt Fork State Park.

The five-member Oil and Gas Land Management Commission ignored the nine criteria contained in the statue. They also ignored the vocal disagreement of over 100 informed, angry Ohio citizens and the peer-reviewed health and environmental studies in the over 5000 written comments submitted to them by Ohio citizens.

After that decision, many citizens were devastated and realized that ordinary freedoms we took for granted have been eroded away by an industry that controls the state legislature in Ohio. Southeast Ohio is just a mineral colony open for business, regardless of how that “business” ruins our communities.

Sadly, my family has learned that our precious forested property has been targeted by the industry for a forced pooling or mandatory unitization action. “Ohio Revised Code § 1509.27 provides a mechanism to force Ohio landowners to participate in oil and gas development without their consent.” Once again, this process favors industry profits over private property rights.

Forced pooling is defined as when a “person who has obtained the consent of the owners of at least sixty-five per cent of the land area overlying a pool or a part of a pool submits an application for the operation as a unit of the entire pool or part of the pool to the chief of the division of oil and gas resources management”. If approved, the application will force the remaining thirty-five percent of landowners to become part of the unit.

The best way to describe this is by using a puzzle. Pieces of the puzzle represent various parcels of lands owned by different people. A drilling unit is a long, horizontal tract of land (rectangle drawn on that puzzle). If sixty-five percent of the puzzle pieces in that tract are agreeable to lease their land, then the other thirty-five percent who do not want to lease their land are forced into the process.

There are only three criteria to satisfy in order for the Chief of the Division of Oil and Gas at ODNR to approve a mandatory pooling application (see OHIO REV. CODE ANN. § 1509.27). They are: protecting correlative rights (those who have leased); providing for effective development and use; and promoting conservation of oil and gas. Any concerns over environmental harms or health effects are not considered.

Since 2014, we have been repeatedly contacted by oil and gas landmen trying to get us to sign a lease. We have refused for many reasons including health, environmental damage, and climate change. Now we are being forced to do something that goes against everything we believe.

We are learning about this process as we dig deeper into legal documentation. If we do not sign a lease agreement for our land, we are considered a non-consenting owner. There have been many amendments to the original laws written in 1965. In 2010, amendments were added to prevent liability from attaching to nonparticipant owners. “However, these amendments do not address one of the most critical aspects of the laws, the risk-penalty provision. Landowners subject to the order only have the choice between the following: (1) relent and become a participant in the drilling unit or (2) become a nonparticipating owner and pay a penalty of up to 200% of the reasonable costs and expenses of production.” This penalty is a way to encourage non-consenting owners to ultimately lease, and helps the well operators from undergoing additional application fees and paperwork.

In a conversation I had with another landowner who was also “force-pooled”, we discovered that by refusing to sign a lease, we may relinquish the ability to write legal protections for our land. If we sign a lease, we can at least list the various stipulations that limit the drilling company from surface access to our land. This would prohibit pipeline construction, the use of hydrocarbon storage tanks on our land, and the drilling of injection wells to inject waste fluids.
Basically, if we want to protect our property, we have no real options; we are forced to sign a lease. It is a horrible position. We built our eco-log home from salvaged forest-fire-killed trees; we have an 8.4kW solar system on our garage; and we have a new geothermal heating system. We have tried to reduce our carbon footprint as much as possible and now our land will be fracked.

In 2018, I was honored by being selected as the “Fractivist of the Year” by the West Virginia Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition. In 2020, that same group gave me another award, the “Passion for Justice award”. Those plaques hang on my wall as a constant reminder of why I keep fighting fossil fuel expansion. Unfortunately, the fight to save our property will not be won. The Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District leased 7300 acres around Tappan Lake to Encino Energy in June of 2022, which led to the mandatory pooling of our land. We recently received the notification that our land is no longer truly ours, but instead is now part of Encino’s Akers HN FRA East Unit.

Make no mistake, I am enraged by the fact that we, as property-owning citizens, have no rights to stop this heinous process. Encino’s monster horizontal laterals will snake under our land and steal our resources. But they cannot steal my resolve to continue speaking out against the harms of fossil fuels and the lack of democracy in Ohio’s government, which is not “of the people, by the people, or for the people.”

This industry, however, enjoys several freedoms and rights that many other industries do not.

Because of the Haliburton laws, the oil and gas industry is exempt from most federal regulations, including the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, National Environmental Policy Act, and the Toxic Release Inventory under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act.

In 1980, the Federal EPA acknowledged that the billions and billions of barrels of produced water from fracking wells is hazardous, but it would be an economic burden for this industry to try to adhere to the laws. Therefore, “The Federal EPA exempted wastes from the federal laws written to protect the public from toxic waste.” In Ohio, these wastes are trucked up and down the roads of our rural communities to be injected into Class II injection wells.

Ohio’s Republican lawmakers have opened the state to fracking; allowing the industry to exploit every drop of oil and every molecule of gas that lies beneath southeast Ohio counties.

Countless laws have been passed to pave the way for fracking while thwarting renewable energy development (HB 52 HB6 and HB483). Additionally, pro fossil fuel laws have attacked our freedoms, limiting free speech and public protests. Ohio citizens, trying to protect their homes and rural communities from the horrendous externalities visited on them, have been essentially gaged by laws like SB 33, passed in 2021.

A prime example of the power that fossil fuels weld over Ohio’s citizens was obvious in 2023, when HB 507 opened up the state’s parks to fracking. The bill was passed during the 2022 General Assembly “lame duck” session, and was quickly signed into law by Governor Mike DeWine. The bill set in motion the ability of out-of-state oil and gas companies to propose leases under state parks.

A “puppet-like” public participation process was carried on throughout the year with public meetings in Columbus. Citizens were prohibited from asking questions or commenting. The public meeting on November 15, 2023 was a sad day for Ohio’s public lands. Democracy was fracked, and leasing was approved for several tracts of land, including all 20,000 acres of Salt Fork State Park.

The five-member Oil and Gas Land Management Commission ignored the nine criteria contained in the statue. They also ignored the vocal disagreement of over 100 informed, angry Ohio citizens and the peer-reviewed health and environmental studies in the over 5000 written comments submitted to them by Ohio citizens.

After that decision, many citizens were devastated and realized that ordinary freedoms we took for granted have been eroded away by an industry that controls the state legislature in Ohio. Southeast Ohio is just a mineral colony open for business, regardless of how that “business” ruins our communities.

Sadly, my family has learned that our precious forested property has been targeted by the industry for a forced pooling or mandatory unitization action. “Ohio Revised Code § 1509.27 provides a mechanism to force Ohio landowners to participate in oil and gas development without their consent.” Once again, this process favors industry profits over private property rights.

Forced pooling is defined as when a “person who has obtained the consent of the owners of at least sixty-five per cent of the land area overlying a pool or a part of a pool submits an application for the operation as a unit of the entire pool or part of the pool to the chief of the division of oil and gas resources management”. If approved, the application will force the remaining thirty-five percent of landowners to become part of the unit.

The best way to describe this is by using a puzzle. Pieces of the puzzle represent various parcels of lands owned by different people. A drilling unit is a long, horizontal tract of land (rectangle drawn on that puzzle). If sixty-five percent of the puzzle pieces in that tract are agreeable to lease their land, then the other thirty-five percent who do not want to lease their land are forced into the process.

There are only three criteria to satisfy in order for the Chief of the Division of Oil and Gas at ODNR to approve a mandatory pooling application (see OHIO REV. CODE ANN. § 1509.27). They are: protecting correlative rights (those who have leased); providing for effective development and use; and promoting conservation of oil and gas. Any concerns over environmental harms or health effects are not considered.

Since 2014, we have been repeatedly contacted by oil and gas landmen trying to get us to sign a lease. We have refused for many reasons including health, environmental damage, and climate change. Now we are being forced to do something that goes against everything we believe.

We are learning about this process as we dig deeper into legal documentation. If we do not sign a lease agreement for our land, we are considered a non-consenting owner. There have been many amendments to the original laws written in 1965. In 2010, amendments were added to prevent liability from attaching to nonparticipant owners. “However, these amendments do not address one of the most critical aspects of the laws, the risk-penalty provision. Landowners subject to the order only have the choice between the following: (1) relent and become a participant in the drilling unit or (2) become a nonparticipating owner and pay a penalty of up to 200% of the reasonable costs and expenses of production.” This penalty is a way to encourage non-consenting owners to ultimately lease, and helps the well operators from undergoing additional application fees and paperwork.

In a conversation I had with another landowner who was also “force-pooled”, we discovered that by refusing to sign a lease, we may relinquish the ability to write legal protections for our land. If we sign a lease, we can at least list the various stipulations that limit the drilling company from surface access to our land. This would prohibit pipeline construction, the use of hydrocarbon storage tanks on our land, and the drilling of injection wells to inject waste fluids.
Basically, if we want to protect our property, we have no real options; we are forced to sign a lease. It is a horrible position. We built our eco-log home from salvaged forest-fire-killed trees; we have an 8.4kW solar system on our garage; and we have a new geothermal heating system. We have tried to reduce our carbon footprint as much as possible and now our land will be fracked.

Low level radioactive wastes are a long term problem for society!

From an Article by Kristina Marusic, Environmental Health News, October 10, 2023

PITTSBURGH — Some 800,000 tons of radioactive waste from Pennsylvania’s oil and gas industry has gone “missing” due to poor recordkeeping and other problems.

Waste from the oil and gas industry contains toxic and radioactive substances. Disposal of this waste is supposed to be carefully tracked, but 800,000 tons of oil and gas waste from Pennsylvania oil and gas wells is unaccounted for, according to a recent study.
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and Duquesne University initially set out to investigate whether sediment in rivers and streams near landfills accepting higher volumes of oil and gas waste contained higher levels of radioactivity. But they discovered significant problems with the records meant to track this waste.

“We set out to write a different paper,” Daniel Bain, an associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh and one of the authors of the study, told Environmental Health News (EHN), “but once we got into the records, we realized there was no hope of being able to meaningfully do this kind of assessment.”

The study, published in the journal Ecological Indicators, compared records on Pennsylvania’s oil and gas waste from 2010-2020, and uncovered significant gaps between what oil and gas operators reported they’d sent to landfills and what the landfills reported receiving. The records were so different, the researchers couldn’t find a single case where the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) Oil & Gas Report figures on this hazardous waste matched reports from the landfills receiving it.

This type of waste often contains toxic chemicals and carcinogens, including high levels of heavy metals like arsenic, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, and radioactive materials. Previous research has shown that radioactive contaminants from fracking waste can linger in local waterways and wildlife for decades.

“You assume the people regulating hazardous waste would be double-checking these records,” Bain said. “We thought they could be off by maybe 10% — we didn’t expect anything like this.”

What’s going on with these records? ~ The oil and gas waste evaluated in the study originated at wells in Pennsylvania and was sent to landfills in Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York.

The industry self-reports how much waste it sends to landfills, and the DEP collects that data in its annual oil and gas reports. Landfills that receive the waste weigh it and keep their own records. In some cases, the differences between these two sets of records were vast.

For example, the 2019 oil and gas report said that 29,221 tons of waste were sent to the Arden landfill in Washington County, Pennsylvania, but the landfill’s records showed that it received 269,480 tons of waste that year — a difference of 240,259 tons. In total, the study found that around 800,000 tons of hazardous oil and gas waste was unaccounted for in official records.

“Everything is self-reported and the [Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection] is understaffed and doesn’t have the resources to double-check,” John Stolz, coauthor of the study and director of the Center for Environmental Research and Education at Duquesne University, told EHN.

A spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection told EHN the agency was looking into these discrepancies, but did not respond to numerous follow-up requests for additional information sent over several months.

Carl Spadaro is an environmental manager for MAX Environmental Technologies, Inc., which accepts oil and gas waste at its Yukon facility, about 29 miles southeast of Pittsburgh. Spadaro, who previously worked for the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, said accurate records are important, but that differences in reporting formats could explain the gaps.

“We report the volume of waste we receive and also the volume of landfill airspace consumed each year,” Spadaro told EHN. “I don’t think this is cause for any environmental concern. Inconsistency in reporting is more of a regulatory management issue.”

Radioactive hazards in rivers and streams ~ Despite the hurdles with the landfill records, the authors of the study did detect higher levels of radioactive materials in waterways near municipal wastewater treatment plants that processed liquid runoff from landfills accepting oil and gas waste.

This landfill runoff, called leachate, often goes to municipal sewage treatment plants, but when it comes from landfills accepting oil and gas waste, it can become radioactive. That’s because materials dredged up from deep in the Earth during oil and gas extraction — particularly during fracking, which requires more drilling — contain radium.

Exposure to radioactive radium increases cancer risk, particularly for lung and bone cancers.

“This waste is getting into our surface waters and streams,” Stolz said. “We found evidence that there’s up to four times as much radiation downstream from discharges from the municipal sewage treatment plants as upstream.”

Bain said better record-keeping would allow them to better assess whether the quantity of oil and gas waste accepted at a landfill predicts the level of radioactivity in leachate and nearby waterways, but that better record-keeping isn’t a solution to the larger hazards posed by these practices.

“This type of waste should not be going to municipal landfills or sewage treatment plants,” he said. “If there’s all this wealth being generated by this industry, they should be able to spend a little money to make sure they’re not exposing people to hazardous materials that can cause cancer.”

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Related: How the “Halliburton Loophole” lets fracking companies pollute water with no oversight.

Briefing for Agency

From an Article by Steven Allen Adams, Parkersburg News and Sentinel, July 27, 2023

CHARLESTON — Two FirstEnergy subsidiaries in West Virginia hope to have small-scale solar power plants up and running between 2024 and 2026.

Members of the West Virginia Public Energy Authority received a briefing Wednesday morning from Douglas Hartman, director of energy services for Akron-based FirstEnergy, on new solar projects being built by MonPower and Potomac Edison. MonPower and Potomac Edison are constructing five solar sites on nearby coal ash disposal sites it owns in its service areas. Solar locations in phase one of the project include Wylie Ridge in Hancock County, Rivesville in Marion County, Fort Martin in Monongalia County, Davis in Tucker County and Marlowe in Berkeley County.

The effort is being made possible through Senate Bill 583 passed in 2020, which is designed to support economic development for solar projects targeting brownfields and other low-value sites. The bill allows each utility to develop 200 megawatts of solar generation, though the utilities are limited to only 50 megawatt increments to start. The bill also requires an 85% subscription rate and includes options for energy storage.

The sites at Fort Martin, Marlowe and Rivesville are building on reclaimed coal ash piles. The Davis site is being built on a reclaimed strip mine. The Wylie Ridge site is being built adjacent to a MonPower substation.

The Fort Martin site is expected to go online at the end of 2023 or the beginning of 2024, followed by Marlow, Wylie Ridge and Rivesville in 2025 and Davis in 2026. “The nice thing about them being smaller is we can interconnect directly into our distribution grid and distribution system, which obviously is a MonPower or Potomac Edison system,” Hartman said.

“Interconnection is a little different than having to go through the PJM-Q process, which may be a (2026-2027) agreement that we would be able to execute. That was very important for us and certainly a good outcome.” The Fort Martin site alone is more than 94 acres, which equates to about 5 megawatts per acre. The Fort Martin site will produce 19 megawatts when completed and produce 33 gigawatt hours of energy annually.

FirstEnergy also offers a solar renewable energy credit program for MonPower and Potomac Edison customers. Customers can enroll with FirstEnergy, which gives customers the ability to purchase renewable energy produced by the company.

The program costs 4 cents per kilowatt hour, with subscription levels in 50 kilowatt blocks, ranging from an additional $2 per month on residential bills to $40 per month for 1,000 kilowatt hours, the average amount of power used by customers. Hartman said the program has more than 720 residential customers to date.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Agency, renewables make up 21.5% of the nation’s electricity generation as of 2022 while coal makes up 19.5% now and is likely to keep decreasing. West Virginia is one of the few states that receives the vast majority of its power from coal-fired generation.

Nick Preservati, an energy attorney and the former vice chairman of the Public Energy Authority, was appointed by Gov. Jim Justice two weeks ago as director of the state Office of Energy. Preservati presented his goals for the office to authority members. “West Virginia is embracing alternative energy sources, such as wind and solar, the Legislature has lifted the ban on nuclear energy and the (Inflation Reduction Act) and the (Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act) will provide significant opportunities that are consistent with West Virginia’s objectives,” Preservati said. “The critical part of that is supporting existing energy sources. That means supporting coal. That means supporting natural gas in the state. That is what I believe is going to help us.”

James Bailey, cabinet secretary for the Department of Commerce and chairman of the Public Energy Authority, made a motion to also appoint Preservati as director of the Public Energy Authority. While the authority doesn’t require a director, Bailey said State Code doesn’t prohibit the appointment of a director. “The Office of Energy is statutorily tasked with providing administrative support for the Public Energy Authority,” Bailey said. “We have not utilized that over the last year or so since we’ve been reactivated for different reasons. But with Nick’s enthusiasm and expertise in this office, I believe it’s time to start utilizing that and maximize the effectiveness of this authority.”

PHOTO ~ Douglas Hartman, director of energy services for FirstEnergy, briefs members of the state Public Energy Authority on upcoming solar energy projects.

PA Governor & CNX officials sign agreement

From an Article by Anya Litvak, Pittsburgh Post Gazette, November 2, 2023

Every new natural gas well that CNX Resources Corp. drills from this day forward will come with a real-time public portal into its air emissions. The Canonsburg-based gas producer said that it will place air monitors at or near well pads and compressor stations that will transmit readings to a public website, like a scaled-down version of fence-line monitors required at large industrial facilities like refineries.

The same will be true for water quality sampling done before and after drilling, upstream and downstream of a well — it will be publicly posted and, according to CNX and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, will serve as a basis to evaluate whether stricter regulations on shale gas development are needed.

CNX’s CEO Nick DeIuliis and Gov. Shapiro, who have been tossing this around for months, signed a statement of mutual interests on Thursday memorializing these and other voluntary steps CNX has pledged to take, based on the recommendations of an investigating grand jury convened by then Attorney General Shapiro.

Of the eight recommendations that have lingered only in the public imagination since the report’s release in 2020, CNX committed to some version of five of them.

The company said it will: disclose all drilling and fracking chemicals before they are used at each site; increase the no-drill zone between its wells and buildings from the mandated 500 feet to 600 feet, and to 2,500 feet from schools and hospitals; monitor the air for fine particulates and benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes; increase the number of water well tests it performs before and after fracking and widen the radius of testing to 2,500 feet of a well, wastewater tank or impoundment; publicly post its radiation protection plans and annual self-assessment of waste handling; and agree not to hire any former Department of Environmental Protection staffer that had oversight over CNX for two years after they leave the department.

The company will also open up two yet-undeveloped well sites to the Department of Environmental Protection for a comprehensive air quality study before, during and after drilling and fracking.

Standing on a well pad in Claysville where an air monitor is already recording emissions (a website will go live with the data next week, CNX said), Mr. Shapiro called his partnership with Mr. DeIuliis a ‘historic collaboration.’ “You can be profit-minded and you can meet your obligations to your shareholders and employees and also protect public health and public safety. CNX is proof of that,” he said.

Mr. DeIuliis, a vocal and frequent critic of government, climate advocates and those he says get in the way of the “doers,” said he hoped the open sourcing of data would create the basis for mutual trust. “We’re asking regulators and policy makers to now follow the data,” he said. “It’s imperative for us as CNX to be able to use radical transparency to make the recent rhetoric, speculation and the sensational headlines … obsolete; to definitively confirm for all stakeholders that there are no adverse human health issues related to responsible natural gas development,” he said.

The data CNX plans to make public is unique. “I think they are going further than any other company,” said David Woodwell, president of the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, even if the kinds of steps CNX has agreed to are what has been needed and discussed for many years, he said. “Are they earth shattering? No. But are they still important? Yes.”

Companies adopting voluntary industry practices that go beyond what is currently required was also the idea behind the now-defunct Center for Sustainable Shale Development, which Mr. Woodwell helped convene in 2013. The center offered certifications to companies that voluntarily met certain standards as a means of building public trust and either informing or warding off regulation.

Critics said that environmental compliance needs to be ubiquitous, not self-selected, and called for the Legislature and regulators to craft stricter limits on the entire industry. But there has been little appetite for that in Harrisburg. Mr. Shapiro lamented that the General Assembly has yet to take up any of the recommendations in the jury report, which also recommended aggregating air emissions and assessing public health.

Earlier this week, the Pennsylvania House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee in Harrisburg held a hearing on a bill that would expand the mandatory setbacks between gas infrastructure and buildings from the current buffer to a minimum of 2,500 feet for wells, and 5,000 for features like compressor stations and gas processing plants near schools and hospitals.

The Marcellus Shale Coalition, a group that represents the industry, estimated that expanding no-drill zones to a radius of 2,500 would put most land out of reach. In Washington County, the group’s president Dave Callahan testified, drilling is prohibited on 43% of acreage. With expanded setbacks, that would rise to 99%. He called it a de facto ban on the oil and gas industry. The bill is unlikely to advance — State Sen. Eugene Yaw called the idea “stupid” and said “it would not be considered in the Senate.” Still, its introduction has spooked the industry.

However, Mr. Shapiro’s compact with CNX states: “The administration will follow the facts and data provided through this air and water quality monitoring, along with all other relevant facts and data, to inform the necessity of any additional setbacks or other future policy changes.”

The study period for this collaboration is two to three years. Environmental and community groups were split on the announcement on Thursday. Some praised the collaboration and welcomed Mr. Shapiro’s actions, which also included directing the DEP to craft new rules for chemical disclosure, methane emissions and gathering pipelines.

Others chaffed at the sight of Mr. Shapiro, the voice behind a grand jury investigation that did not look kindly on the gas industry’s conduct and impact in the state, echoing some of the same points that natural gas companies have been making for the past 20 years — that there’s not enough data, or not the right kind of data, to support environmental and health concerns and regulations.

While CNX’s real-time public data will be a first in the region, air-monitoring studies and water-quality analyses have been done before, including by university researchers, the National Energy Technology Laboratory, and Pennsylvania’s own DEP. A number of health studies have also been performed, many showing links between adverse health outcomes and proximity to shale gas.

The most recent were the cancer and asthma analyses done by the University of Pittsburgh on behalf of the Pennsylvania Department of Health. They concluded there was a higher likelihood of certain types of childhood cancers and an increase in asthma severity near oil and gas infrastructure.

But the research wasn’t particularly well received by either the residents of shale fields or the industry. Although their objections diverged, both groups complained about the lack of direct measurement of pollution and exposures — or even direct engagement with people living next to shale gas infrastructure.

CNX’s voluntary disclosures are intended to address the emissions part of that equation. Mr. DeIuliis and Mr. Shapiro said they hope other companies will join as well.

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IN OTHER NEWS ~ CNX Resources pulls out of Adams Fork ammonia project, Reuters News Service, December 15, 2023

CNX Resources said on Friday it had pulled out of the Adams Fork ammonia project and is evaluating several alternative sites in southern West Virginia for clean hydrogen projects. The natural gas producer cited delays and increasing uncertainty over implementation tax credit provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and an inability to reach final commercial terms with project developers, for ending its participation in the project.

Adams Fork was an anchor project in the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub (ARCH2) and its construction was expected to begin in 2024. The project would have initial annual ammonia production capacity of 2,160,000 metric tons, with an optional additional production capacity.

CNX said on Friday it remains committed to ARCH2, adding that “final investment decision(s) remains contingent upon tax credit guidance that unambiguously supports low carbon intensity feedstock projects that will facilitate development of the regional clean hydrogen hubs, including ARCH2.” The ARCH2 project includes several partners, and the consortium was selected by US DOE to develop a multi-state clean hydrogen hub.

Salt Fork State Park is Ohio’s largest state park … and it is now at risk!

In the lawsuit, filed in Franklin County Common Pleas Court, the groups Save Ohio Parks, Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, Buckeye Environmental Network and Ohio Environmental Council claim that the commission failed to properly consider the proposals.

State law requires the commission to consider nine factors when deciding whether to approve a nomination to drill under state lands. These include the impact of drilling on the environment, geology, current property uses and economics. “There are at least four criteria that there was no discussion during the meeting itself for each parcel,” said attorney Megan Hunter of EarthJustice, who represents the groups.

“The commission blatantly violated its own procedures and the law when it voted to open state public lands to the oil and gas industry,” said Nathan Johnson, senior attorney for land and water at the Ohio Environmental Council, in a written statement. “It failed to publicly consider potential harm fracking will have on our parks and wildlife areas and on the people who enjoy these beloved places. Ohioans deserve better,” he said.

The public comments issue ~ The groups also say the commission did not adequately consider comments by residents of Ohio or others who use the state lands.

“We do not feel that the owners of this land are being given proper consideration in deciding how it will be used. This rushed and chaotic process will not lead to an outcome that benefits Ohioans, nor the hunters and anglers of Salt Fork and Zepernick and Valley Run,” said Dustin Lindley of the Ohio chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers.

One example of that “chaotic process” is the controversy around the public comments. Save Ohio Parks found nearly one hundred comments submitted to the commission by supposedly pro-fracking citizens, who when contacted said they did not knowingly send them. News outlets found an additional 38 disputed public comments.

“The commission disregarded all of this evidence and voted to frack our beloved parks and wildlife areas anyway,” said Cathy Cowan Becker of Save Ohio Parks, noting that citizens were not allowed to speak at commission meetings.

The Ohio Attorney General’s office has said it is investigating the questionable public comments.

What’s next? The commission has until late December to respond to the lawsuit in court.

In a lawsuit filed last spring, environmental groups claim the law expediting oil and gas leases under state lands, itself, was unconstitutionally approved by the state legislature last December. That case is also being considered by the Franklin County court.

Meanwhile, leases in Salt Fork and the wildlife areas are expected to go out for bid in January.

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With stroke of his pen, Gov. Mike DeWine defines natural gas as green energy ~ By Jake Zuckerman, Cleveland dot Com, January 6, 2023

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Gov. Mike DeWine signed legislation that broadly expands the ability to drill for oil and gas in state parks and also legally redefines natural gas as a source of “green energy.” A 2011 state law gave state agencies the authority, if they choose, to lease out state lands for oil and gas exploration and production. The bill signed by DeWine would change that language to say a state agency “shall” accept a lease that meets certain conditions, instead of saying it “may” do so. In other words, it forces an agency to grant the lease application from oil and gas drillers.

The term green energy typically refers to energy derived from the sun and wind, not fossil fuels. Natural gas is a fossil fuel released by digging into the earth that acts as a greenhouse gas via leakage during transport and when it’s combusted. Its main component is methane, a potent heat-trapping gas.

….more ….

The McClain’s road became a torrent. (This and other photos are in the main Article.)

View this posting by Michael M. Barrick, Appalachian Chronicle, December 10, 2023

BIG ISAAC, W.Va. – When the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) started surveying in the mountains of North Central West Virginia in 2015, landowner and farmer Robert McClain wrote the MVP – twice – warning of catastrophic flooding and other dangers to his farm and surrounding community if the MVP stuck to its plans. (Excerpts from Mr. McClain’s letters are near the end of this article).

He never received an answer from the MVP to those letters, but McClain, 77, now looks to be a prophet. Or perhaps he is simply a West Virginian who knows that water flows downhill. Because even though the MVP never answered McClain’s letters, a flash flood that occurred on Sept. 9, 2023 has demonstrated that MVP can’t ignore gravity.

That was made evident on that Saturday evening, when Mr. McClain and his son, Justin, returned home about 8 o’clock in the evening from an outing that day to find their farm was flooded. Justin recalls, “It had rained that day before we got home. It had stormed about 6 o’clock.” He adds, “We couldn’t get up the road to the house. Water was running down it. Fish were flopping in the road from where the water had run down the hill over a neighbor’s pond.” Slowly, they made it out of the swift water up the road and into their driveway. The water had gotten nearly four feet high where they first come onto their land, Justin found the next day. The gravel from the county roadbed had been largely swept away. The neighbor’s pond is up the hill from the McClain family farm and directly below the MVP Right-of-Way (ROW) – the path the pipeline follows.

It isn’t the first time such an event has occurred said Justin. “It’s an ongoing thing. This has been going on since they started construction.” He added, “These are floods that supposed to happen once in a lifetime. Now they’re happening regularly.” Indeed, Robert’s wife Ann took photos in May of this year of a similar event. Another happened in early October, 2018 and at other times as well. A neighbor also took photos the evening of Sept. 9. They capture the gravity of these events.

So on Sunday, the cleanup began – by Justin, Robert, and a neighbor. Not present to help were MVP employees, or any local or state officials. Justin shares, “We were raised not to work on Sunday. But we had to. Forty feet of the county road was washed out. The neighbor used the tractor to shovel for three to four hours and then another two hours with his backhoe. I just had to pile it up. I don’t have a dump truck to haul it. It looked awful.”

Justin explains, “We had to clean the road so that kids could be driven to the road for the school buses. We worked five more hours on Monday.” In the process, his side-by-side was damaged. “We got into some sort of muck or sediment. It caused $300 of damage to the clutch and belt to pick up the debris.” He continues, “There were loose posts. Lots of them. We found a stick that said MVP on it.”

The water flooded their front pasture, leaving rocks, debris and sediment behind. Debris littered the road and was caught in their fence. The extent of the water overflowing their pasture on Sept. 9 is captured in the two photos of the same barn, seen below. A neighbor took a photo of the flooded pasture.

The McClain family is not strangers to local, state and federal authorities as they’ve dealt with the MVP’s tactics for eight years. So, Justin and Robert McClain started calling every relevant authority that they could think of starting on Sunday. Beginning locally, they spoke with George Eidel, the Floodplain Manager and Director of the Office of Emergency Services for Doddridge County.

He visited the McClain family residence on the Monday following the Saturday rainstorm. While Justin claimed that Eidel said the MVP ROW was responsible, in an interview with me a few days later, Eidel said, two inches of rain fell and he blamed the flooding on a culvert adjacent to the county road. “This was a very, very isolated rain storm, he said.” Because the culvert is on private property (of a McClain neighbor), the MVP and the West Virginia Department of Transportation (DOT) are not responsible for cleaning or replacing the culvert said Eidel; it is the responsibility of the landowner. The culvert in question is about 20 inches in diameter. The volume of water seen in the photos by Ann McClain is far beyond what that culvert – full or empty – could be expected to handle.

Above is the top end of the culvert, and below is the bottom end that the MVP and emergency officials say caused the flash flood on Sept. 29, 2023, are both shown in the main Article.

WV DEP Inspector Timothy Wine inspected the MVP ROW on September 13 and found “no deficiencies” in the MVP Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP). He also wrote in his report, “I was met on the site by Rodney Minney, Environmental Inspector for MVP, and had informed him that there were no deficiencies noted on the site. He had informed me that the area had received between 3” and 3.5” of rain in a short period of time over the weekend and the streamway of Meathouse Fork had discharged out of its bank and flooded out into fields, including flooding onto a portion of the company’s LOD located near Meathouse Fork Rd that 3.5 inches fell based on a rain gauge reading.”

Natalie Cox, spokesperson for the MVP did not return questions sent by email. J. D. Hoyle with FERC said, “I can’t respond.”

DOT workers did bring some gravel over at Justin’s urging the day he was clearing the road, and several days later, DOT had come down and graveled and graded the road towards the McClain’s driveway. DOT has since done it again.

According to Justin McClain, MVP employee Steve Randall also came by on Sept. 14 and saw that the state had fixed the road. Randall told the McClain’s that the MVP was not responsible for the flooding. No water was running off the ROW he insisted, according to Justin.

The McClain family farm is adjacent to Meathouse Fork, just downstream from the creek’s headwaters. As a consequence, a small portion of the McClain farm – the low point of the front pasture mostly – is in a floodplain according to the FEMA website. However, the property also rises nearly 500 feet in elevation. The elevation at the creek is approximately 935 feet at the front (north) end of the McClain family farm. It sits in a natural bowl below tall steep ridges that curve around their property to the east and south, with the MVP ROW surrounding them from the ridges above at 1400 feet. On the southern end of the property is a hollow that rises to a narrow, steep valley that rises that 500 feet to just below the MVP. To the east is the pond that sets above the McClain family farm.

The creek, 20 miles long, is a tributary of Middle Island Creek, which flows 77 miles to the Ohio River. Meathouse Fork did overflow its banks on the McClain farm. However, the Ann McClain photos demonstrate that the water pouring over the driveway in May is much more sediment laden, indicating it was coming from above their land – where the MVP ROW is. Also on the map, the culvert in question is not in the floodplain, but within feet of it. The sheer force of the water coming off the two hillsides and the county road next to the farm simply overwhelmed the culvert.

So, where did all that water come from?

An Independent Assessment ~>West Virginia Rivers worked to make sure that question is answered. The organization commissioned an independent assessment on behalf of the McClain family called a Surface Flow Analysis. Downstream Strategies of Morgantown conducted it. It leaves no doubt that water is channeling off of the MVP ROW onto the McClain property. The report states, in part, “Downstream Strategies completed a geospatial analysis to determine surface water flow pathways from the MVP’s limits of disturbance (LOD) in the vicinity (of the McClain family property) Results of the model demonstrate that water flows from the MVP LOD toward the … property. Flow paths predicted by the model are presented below.

Note: This is a continuation of my ongoing reporting of the Mountain Valley Pipeline and its destructive impacts upon the people and environment in West Virginia and Virginia.

>>> The flow analysis shows the flow path from the ROW onto the homeowner’s property. The MVP ROW has been denuded. So there’s more water coming off the hillside. There are no more trees there. This is lot of water with no vegetation to soak it up. ~ Program Director Autumn Crowe of WV Rivers

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FLASH FLOOD WARNING (MGN), By Michael Moranelli, Published: Sep. 9, 2023 at 7:40 PM

BRIDGEPORT, W.Va (WDTV) – A Flash Flood Warning is in effect for parts of Harrison, Lewis, Doddridge and Gilmer counties until 10:15 PM, as thunderstorms are dropping heavy rain and resulting in the potential for flash flooding. There is also a Flash Flood Warning in effect until 9:30 PM for Central Randolph County. If you see a flooded area, avoid it. Turn around, don’t drown! Be sure to stick with 5 News for more updates tonight.

Gas field operations consume many acres across West Virginia

In this issue of the WV SORO Newsletter:

§. Surface Owners Can Sue Drillers to Plug Non-Producing Wells

§. Advocacy on Federal Regulations including the Third Payout of Federal Methane Reduction Funds, EPA’s Methane Rule, and Federal Leasing;

§. 2023 Legislative Update & 2024 Legislative Priorities

§. Kanawha State Forest Gas Well Tour with WV Legislators and Staff

§. Farmland Preservation Now An Option for Surface-Only Owners

§. Citizen Air Monitoring Project

If you are a member and we have your current mailing address, you should be receiving a copy in the mail soon, if you haven’t already. If you don’t receive one and would like to get mailings from us in the future, please use the link at the bottom of this email to update your contact information.

We hope you enjoy reading the latest news and updates from the WV Surface Owners’ Rights Organization.

Thanks for your support! WVSORO.org

West Virginia Surface Owners’ Rights Organization, 1500 Dixie Street, Charleston, WV 25311

info@wvsoro.org 304 346 5891

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NEW MINERAL RIGHTS OWNERS GROUP, Meeting Held 12/2/33 in Tyler County.

Seventy concerned citizens met in Middlebourne yesterday to discuss Senate Bill 694 that has brought forced pooling to West Virginia. Also discussed was the substantial reduction in royalty payments that has occurred since June of this year. The primary speaker was Nate Cain, Candidate for the US Congress from WV Second District. (Source: Tyler Star News & Wetzel Chronicle.)

Subscribe to this daily news blog for news on this and other related information in West Virginia. (See the entry point for your email address in the upper left corner of this page.)

Duane Nichols, Chemical Engineer (Retired), Morgantown, WV

Delegate Evan Hansen has an exceptional background for participating in COP28.

From an Article by David Beard, The Dominion Post, Morgantown, December 2, 2023

MORGANTOWN – Delegate Evan Hansen, D-Monongalia, heads to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates on Monday to participate in the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP28. He’ll be participating in two panel discussions, on Wednesday and Friday. He told The Dominion Post he’s been involved in energy transition issues in the Legislature, making sure people in impacted coal communities have new investments and opportunities, which is how he came to be invited.

Also, he said, he’s been participating for a couple of years in a series of meetings organized by the Jackson Hole Center for Global Affairs – based in Jackson Hole, Wyo. – that connects West Virginia and Wyoming (another coal state) state leaders with leaders in China to discuss mutual energy transition issues.

He was among a small group of people from both states invited to participate at COP28, and the only West Virginia representative, he said. The Wednesday panel is called “The Elephant in the Room: Just and Inclusive Transitions in Fossil Fuel Regions.”

Friday’s panel concerns the China-U.S. Track II Dialogue on Climate Finance and follows on the heels of the mid-November announcement that the United States and China reached new agreements to work together on greenhouse gas emission reductions and the rollout of renewable sources of energy. They countries agreed, the White House reported, “to sufficiently accelerate renewable energy deployment in their respective economies through 2030 from 2020 levels so as to accelerate the substitution for coal, oil and gas generation.”

Reuters reported that much of the focus on China at COP28 will be on its ongoing program to build more coal-fired power plants, and Beijing’s reluctance to commit to a concrete target to cut fossil fuel use as it tries to guarantee energy security and economic growth.

Reuters said China envoy Xie Zhenhua told diplomats in September that phasing out fossil fuels was “unrealistic” while key technologies like energy storage remained immature. Hansen acknowledged that China is pressing ahead with coal-fired plant construction, in order to reach areas of the country without electricity.

“They are in a different place than we are in terms of climate policy,” he said. But the U.S. and China are the world’s two largest economies and largest carbon emitters. “In order for real progress to be made in addressing climate change, both countries have to eventuality reduce their emissions.” But China has pledged, he said, to achieve peak CO2 emissions by 2030 and be carbon neutral by 2060. And while China is still building out its coal infrastructure, it also has made massive investments in renewable energy, especially solar.

Hansen said he’ll be part of a small group traveling together. Apart from the panels, they’ll talk together about some successes they’ve had in diversifying their state economies and the challenges they face. They’ll also be preparing questions to learn about what other countries are doing.

Hansen talked about China frequently being mentioned, in the Legislature and at the U.S. Capitol, as the world’s leading CO2 emitter, and about cynicism regarding its sincerity on change. “I think that’s a legitimate question that there’s a lot of good debate about,” he said. But, “We’re all on the same planet and we’re all impacted by the effects of climate change no matter how much we emit. … China and the United States both need to make significant progress, and I think world leaders understand that.”

Hansen noted that while he’s participating as a delegate, no public money is funding his trip. When Hansen returns, The Dominion Post will talk with him again to learn about his time at COP28.

Hellbenders are native creatures but rare and need protection

From the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources, January 30, 2023

SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. — In an effort to learn more about the distribution of hellbenders and mudpuppies, the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources has launched a citizen science project to track sightings of these important but declining salamanders around the state.

The project, which will take two years to complete, gives anglers, science enthusiasts and members of the public a chance to help WVDNR biologists map the distribution of hellbenders and mudpuppies and protect these unique amphibians and their habitats.

Anglers, members of the public are encouraged to report observations using the Survey123 app.

“While hellbenders and mudpuppies might look fearsome and strange, these salamanders are harmless to humans and sportfish populations and play a big part in keeping our waterways healthy,” said Kevin Oxenrider, project leader. “As we track sightings over the next two years, we want to encourage everyone to keep their eyes open, report their sightings and help us protect these important salamanders and their habitats for future generations.”

Anglers and members of the public who see a hellbender or mudpuppy in their local waterway or inadvertently catch one while fishing can report their sighting to the WVDNR by completing a short questionnaire, which includes questions about the date and location of the observation. Submitting a photo is encouraged. To learn more about the survey visit WVdnr.gov/hellbender-mudpuppy-survey.

Hellbenders and mudpuppies are the only two fully aquatic salamanders native to West Virginia. Neither species is poisonous or venomous, and they eat mainly crayfish, worms and insects, but occasionally eat small minnows or other smaller amphibians. Hellbenders and mudpuppies have not been shown to negatively impact sportfish populations.

Anglers who inadvertently hook a hellbender or mudpuppy should immediately release the animal into the water by cutting the line as close to the hook or extracting the hook (taking care to remove the barb with pliers before extracting). State law prohibits the possession or taking of a hellbender or mudpuppy.

WVDNR biologists will use data collected during the survey to better understand hellbender and mudpuppy distribution and status in West Virginia, and to inform future conservation efforts.

“Every observation counts,” said Oxenrider. “You don’t have to be an angler to participate.” For more information about hellbenders, mudpuppies and other citizen science projects, visit WVdnr.gov/surveys.