LET’S TALK COMMUNITY ISSUES — Two Hour Discussion

HOST: WV House of Delegates, Del. Evan Hansen (D – Monongalia County)

SHARE YOUR IDEAS & NEEDS TO HELP REVITALIZE OUR COAL COMMUNITIES

Free and Open to the Public — Wednesday, November 10th, 6:30 to 8:30 PM

WHERE: Shack Neighborhood House, 537 Blue Horizon Drive, Pursglove, WV 26545

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Morgantown: Coal Community Listening Session on Nov. 10, WV House of Delegates, October 6, 2021.

WHY:The Coal Communities Workgroup, announced by House Speaker Roger Hanshaw and Minority Leader Doug Skaff in early June, was created for lawmakers from both parties and throughout the state to work together to develop policy recommendations to help revitalize West Virginia’s coal communities. Members of the workgroup already have hosted initial virtual meetings with the federal Interagency Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities and Economic Revitalization, as well as local economic development representatives, Ret. Maj. Gen. James Hoyer, Appalachian Regional Commission Co-Chair Gayle Manchin and representatives from the U.S. Economic Development Administration and West Virginia’s Congressional representatives.

The workgroup’s goal is to go into communities and talk with local residents as well as local community and business leaders, to determine what our coal communities specifically need to succeed and what tools are already available.

Attorney Thornton Cooper among the solid waste bill's critics

Citizens speak against frack waste bill

From an Article by Rachel Molenda, Charleston Gazette, February 17, 2014

CHARLESTON, WV — Of 20 speakers at a House hearing Monday, only one — an industry representative — spoke in favor of a bill that would exempt natural gas drilling waste in the Marcellus Shale region from the state’s landfill tonnage limits.

Charlie Burd, executive director of the Independent Oil and Gas Association of West Virginia, said the bill — supported by the state Department of Environmental Protection — “recognizes the reasonable approach” of disposing such material.

“West Virginia’s commercial landfill regulations are among the strongest and most comprehensive in the country,” Burd said. “Disposal of these materials in commercial landfills will assure that these materials are handled in a highly regulated and environmentally positive manner.”

But in some instances, this exemption would surpass existing monthly landfill waste limits set by solid waste authorities. Six landfills in Brooke, Harrison, Ohio, Wetzel and Wood counties hold the gas-drilling material, which accounts for about one-third of the material accepted at each, according to DEP data from July 2012 to July 2013.

Thornton Cooper, a South Charleston attorney once employed by the state’s Public Service Commission to defend its solid waste laws in federal court, called the proposed bill “a wrecking ball that would undo an amazing amount of work that the Legislature did in the 80′s and 90′s.”

Cooper said both private and public landfills are underused and that “There is plenty of space in our landfills right now to let Marcellus Shale store the drilling contents,” throughout the state, not only in places like Wetzel County that have exceeded their limits.

Solid waste authorities are worried the bill (HB4411) would limit their ability to monitor and control these waste restrictions. The bill is pending in the House Judiciary Committee after passing the House Energy Committee.

Bill Hughes, of the Wetzel County Solid Waste Authority, told members of the House Judiciary Committee and DEP Secretary Randy Huffman Monday night that a “three-legged stool” was created more than 20 years ago requiring the DEP, the state’s Public Service Commission and local solid waste authorities “to work together in deciding sizing and environmental restrictions” of landfills.

“Unfortunately the recent memos from the DEP undid over 20 years of standing law and has now allowed our landfill in Wetzel County to exceed its legal limit by anywhere from 200 and 300 percent,” Hughes said. “The legal limit is 10,000. It’s been taking up to 40,000 tons a month.”

From a surface owner perspective, housing such waste in a landfill is better than the alternative, said Julie Archer of the West Virginia Surface Owners’ Rights Organization.

“Until recently it was actually common practice for the drillers to store their waste in open pits in the ground and to bury their drill cuttings on site on the surface owners’ land,” Archer said.

That changed in 2011 when Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin’s “Horizontal Drilling Act” was passed during a special session. The law said solid wastes from drilling had to be sent to permitted landfills or could be disposed of at drilling sites if the surface landowner consented.

The concern for Archer, she said, is that municipal landfills are not designed to hold “hazardous materials.” While a state-sponsored study was meant to address potential pollution from natural gas drilling, it never addressed waste from the Marcellus Shale formation, as reported by the Gazette last month.

“It’s well known that the Marcellus is radioactive,” Archer said. “Now, how radioactive, unfortunately we just don’t know because the state has insufficient data to fully understand the levels of warmth that are released from the Marcellus in the process of drilling and fracking.”

Residents in places that already receive fracking waste also expressed concern and disapproval of the bill. Fayetteville resident Mary Rahall referenced a renewed injection well permit that allows a pit near Wolf Creek to hold fracking fluids. Rahall said she worries about potentially negative health effects of such wells on West Virginians.

“I don’t feel like I can’t trust the West Virginia DEP anymore, and I’m relying on our government to protect the water and protect the people,” Rahall said. “Honestly, I never in my lifetime imagined that I would be at a hearing asking my legislators to protect me.”

Dr. Vicki Wolfe, of the West Virginia Environmental Council, said those “existing landfill caps should be maintained,” and that separate facilities should be constructed to hold drilling material at the expense of those companies, not the public.

The Rev. Jeff Allen, executive director of the West Virginia Council of Churches, said the bill “potentially externalizes the cost of fracking from a private entity to the public purse.”

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Marcellus Shale waste trips more radioactivity alarms than other products left at PA landfills in 2012

From an Article by Anya Litvak, Pittsburgh Post Gazette, August 22, 2013

Last year, nearly 1,000 trucks hauling 15,769 tons of Marcellus Shale waste were stopped at Pennsylvania landfill gates after tripping radioactivity alarms.

The trucks were pulled to the side, (checked) with hand-held detectors and some of the material was sent to laboratories for further evaluation. In the end, 622 tons were shipped to three out-of-state landfills specifically designed to dispose of hazardous and radioactive materials.

But most of the flagged waste was eventually allowed past the gates. It was safe enough to be buried along with other waste as long as it stays below the annual limits set by the PA Department of Environmental Protection and landfill operators.

“Of all the bills that we saw during [the legislative session], they’re starting with the weakest one,” said David McMahon after today’s meeting of the Select Committee on Marcellus Shale.  The joint House/Senate committee is working to write the legislation that should have been passed during the regular legislative session earlier this year.   Senate Bill 424, the weaker of the two bills that were drafted, is being used as the basic framework.  The house passed a larger bill with stronger regulations, but it failed to pass the senate on the final day of the session.

Read more in the Charleston Gazette…

Speaker  of the House of Delegates Rick Thompson, D-Wayne, has appointed five members to serve on the Legislature’s Select Committee on Marcellus Shale. Thompson designated Delegate Tim Manchin, D-Marion, as the chairman. Other members of the committee will include: Delegate Barbara Fleischauer, D-Monongalia; Delegate Tom Campbell, D-Greenbrier; Delegate Woody Ireland, R-Ritchie; and Delegate Bill Anderson, R-Wood.

“Both the House and Senate made significant progress on legislation earlier this year, but the issue proved too complex to finalize during a session that involved around 1,800 other pieces of legislation,” Thompson said. “I know the House has been very deliberative in working on guidelines for the relationship between oil and gas extractors and the owners of surface rights and mineral interests that protects the environment and ensures proper labor practices. This Select Committee will continue that effort in preparation for a special session.”

Manchin currently serves as co-chairman of the Joint Oversight Commission on State Water Resources and a member of the House Finance Committee. Acting Senate President Jeff Kessler, D-Marshall, named five senators to the Select Committee on June 17.

The WV-DEP has issued 1,602 Marcellus permits, with 942 of those already completed. The remaining 660 have either not been drilled, are in process, or awaiting fracking to begin. The agency expects to approve another 400 permits this year.  The DEP says they are permitting at a greater capacity than the industry can drill.

This Thursday, February 17 at 3:30 pm the House Judiciary Committee will hold a  public hearing on the two bills (HB 2878 and HB 3042) that would regulate Marcellus gas drilling in West Virginia.

This is a tremendous opportunity to tell the committee what you think should be included in this important legislation.  Anyone can sign up to speak, though your comments will probably be limited to 2-3 minutes.  The sign up period will be just prior to the hearing.

If you are unable to attend, but have testimony you would like to have submitted (and perhaps read) on your behalf please e-mail Nicole at nnncole@yahoo.com before 5 PM Wednesday, February 16.  Even if you don’t wish to speak, please try to attend and show your support for the bills and the speakers. You can come earlier in the day to meet with your legislators– making an appointment with them ahead of time is strongly recommended.  You can also show your support with emails and phone calls to legislators, and letters to the editor.  The “Take Action” link at the top of this page can help you with this.

Click here to download a list of essential elements for any Marcellus Shale regulatory bill as identified by the WV Environmental Council and WV Surface Owners’ Rights Organization.

Here is a list of suggested items that are not included in either bill:

1. A public notice and comment period for each permit application to drill a well

2. An actual water withdrawal permit system

3. Elimination of the General Permit for land application of pit water

4. Prohibition of the disposal of oil and gas well wastewater in underground mines

5. A ban on, or additional protections for, drilling in Karst geology

6. No burying of drilling pits on site

7. Testing of all flow-back water and drill cuttings for the presence of radioactiviy

8. A comprehensive statute and rules governing seismic exploration

9.Regulation of air quality at drilling sites