It takes a strong commitment to protect & preserve what we have!

An article of this title recently ran in the Wheeling Intelligencer. It represents a cave in by a significant environmental group that give the business oriented Intelligencer some thing to brag about. It is unlikely the report, “Improving Steep-Slope Pipeline Construction to Reduce Impacts to Natural Resources,” will meet the needs of our steep and rocky terrain.

It will be applied to the entire range of conditions from the soft soil and rock on the Appalachian Plateau through the folded Appalachian Mountains to the south and east. Through limestone karst, famous for caves and sinkholes and slopes up to and beyond 173% (60 degrees).

In places the fill will be the broken rock cut out to make the trench. This will make it impossible to divert the water off the right of way. It will divert water to flow down the broken rock in the ditches. In other places the long pipeline straight down the hill for hundreds of feet will have diversion ditches that deliver the diverted water off the right of way in additive fashion so large volumes will be aggregated in heavy rains. Pipelines in karst is asking for failure due to cave-ins and stream diversion.

If the pipe must go in, what is required is meticulous attention to local topography and geology and equally meticulous attention to small scale engineering. This is unlikely to occur due to the great cost involved.

The Nature Conservancy is doubtless well intentioned, but really not directed by people close to conditions involved.

>>> S. Tom Bond, Retired Chemistry Professor & Resident Farmer, Lewis County, WV

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Brief Comment on TNC Pipeline Project —

This is why I consider TNC foremost among the Shady Lady environmental groups, to put it politely.

They also collaborated with the gas industry on a study of how much methane leaks, with findings coming out much lower than independent studies. Looks to me like they aid industry much more than the environment, with this attitude that the pipelines must and will be built so we should do what we can to minimize the harm.

As far as I’m concerned, their main mission to collect funds to buy land which they then protect from development, is no better — I’ve seen allegations that they don’t always protect their lands and anyway this reinforces the idea that the rich legitimately own the Earth, and if we want any of it protected we have to buy it back from them.

>>> Mary Wildfire, Roane County, WV

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We might also consider this —

I believe TNC has a conservation easement that will be crossed by MVP and one of their motivators for this was to hold the company to a higher standard where they could, for their property.

Amy Mall, Land & Wildlife Program, National Resources Defense Council (NRDC)

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Letter to The TNC Magazine (August 13, 2018)

I am a retired mining engineer (B.S.; M.S.; P.E.) living in Rockingham County Virginia. I am writing in response to a “study” I just became aware of entitled “IMPROVING STEEP-SLOPE PIPELINE CONSTRUCTION TO REDUCE IMPACTS TO NATURAL RESOURCES” (link here).

This study was apparently a collaboration between the Nature Conservancy and 8 oil and gas companies. It’s unfortunate the input was so heavily weighted in favor of the companies that will profit from doing this type of work by externalizing the environmental costs to the public.

Your “study” seems to over simplify the issues involved in constructing a major natural gas pipeline through steep mountainous terrain, much of it containing karst. It fails to mention more active measures for monitoring pipeline stress and the installation of strain and displacement gages on and around the pipeline. Even with such measures, however, the construction of pipelines like the Mountain Valley and Atlantic Coast will cause significant and irreversible environmental damage. It will also cause significant economic losses to the people whose land is crossed by or near to the pipelines.

The installation of such fracked gas pipelines will also act as a driving force for further fracking of deep shale formations, which will cause even more environmental damage.

Your participation in the preparation of this document will be seen as a sellout and betrayal of the thousands of people who are opposed to such pipelines and whose lives will be so negatively impacted by them. I am disappointed in the position your organization has taken.

George M. Neall III, Rockingham County, Virginia

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Dear Friends,

I think any time you have a very large organization—and TNC is the largest environmental non-profit in the country if not the world—that does thousands of transactions and works globally, there are going to be problems that surface, whether they’re falsehoods, misunderstandings or actual wrongdoings. I know there have been misunderstandings when people have left land to TNC in their wills or by a donation while they’re living, with the incorrect assumption that TNC would manage the land as a nature preserve of sorts.

Like any company, TNC has to decide where to best devote its resources. Unless they’ve made a specific agreement with a donor to hold and manage their land a certain way, they are more likely to divest themselves of that asset and put the money toward higher-value conservation areas such as the rainforests or coral reefs.

They also have to make decisions regarding if and how they’ll work with industry. My experience has been that, right or wrong, they feel they can make more headway working with industry than against them. Their CEO is a former Goldman Sachs director, and not a conservation biologist, so that may sway how the organization makes decisions.

My gut tells me that TNC does far and away more good work than they get credit for.

Disclaimer: We have no relationship with TNC—and certainly no monetary relationship—besides jointly holding one conservation easement with them in Bedford County, VA, and running in some of the same professional circles as their Virginia staff.

David C. Perry, Executive Director
Blue Ridge Land Conservancy—An Accredited Land Trust
722 First St. SW Suite L, Roanoke, VA 24016
(540) 985-0000,
blueridgelandconservancy.org

Eastern Panhandle Officials Meet in Capitol

WV Senate Rules Committee Moves to Ban Marcellus Waste from Eastern Panhandle

From an  Article by the Editor, MorganCountyUSA.org, October 21, 2014

The West Virginia Legislative Rule Making Committee yesterday moved to close a loophole in state law that would have allowed radioactive Marcellus shale waste into the LCS Services Landfill in Hedgesville, West Virginia.

The Committee unanimously passed a rule that provides that “a commercial solid waste facility that is located in a county that is, in whole or in part, within a karst region as determined by the West Virginia Geologic and Economic Survey, may not accept drill cuttings and drilling waste generated from horizontal well sites.”

The Eastern Panhandle is a karst region.

Karst topography is a landscape formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks and is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes, dolines, and caves. It is porous and exceptionally vulnerable to water contamination and pollution.

Clint Hogbin, chairman of the Berkeley County Solid Waste Authority, said that the passage through the committee was a “giant step forward,” but warned that the rule was not final until the full Senate and House pass it. They will take it up when the new legislature convenes in January 2015.

Hogbin says that the LCS Services landfill has yet to accept Marcellus waste and that it is unlikely that it will before the legislature takes up the measure in January. Hogbin attended the Committee meeting yesterday along with William Madert of the Jefferson County Solid Waste Authority.

The Committee is comprised of six Senators and six members of the House of Delegates. The Committee is chaired by Senator Herb Snyder (Jefferson County). Senator John Unger (Berkeley County) also sits on the committee.

Hogbin said he was concerned about Pennsylvania fracking waste finding its way down I-81 into the LCS Landfill in Berkeley County. He said that fracking waste from West Virginia is currently being disposed of in five landfills. Hogbin said that the Waste Management landfill in Harrison County takes in more Marcellus waste than the rest of the state landfills combined take in regular garbage waste.

Earlier this year, the West Virginia legislature passed a law – HB 107 — that allowed the industry to dump unlimited amounts of drilling wastes in segregated cells at certain municipal waste landfills. The law also allows municipal waste landfills without special cells — like the Eastern Panhandle’s only landfill — the LCS Services Hedgesville landfill — to accept Marcellus waste — but it cannot exceed its tonnage limits.

Hogbin says that the Hedgesville landfill has yet to accept any drilling waste, but it nevertheless has the legal authority to do so, even though its sits atop a significant karst region. Hogbin said that Senator Donald Cookman (Hampshire) first identified the loophole and tried to close it earlier this year, but his efforts were turned back by the House of Delegates.

Cookman then began pushing for a rulemaking fix. Yesterday, Cookman praised the work of the rules committee. “It was imperative that the Legislative Rule-Making Committee pass the provision in order to further protect West Virginia’s water,” says Cookman. “I vow to continue working with my fellow lawmakers and the citizens of this great state to make sure West Virginia’s waters remain pure and free of pollution.”

The Joint Select Committee on Marcellus Shale is scheduled for meetings Monday at 8 a.m. and Thursday at 3 p.m. during the November interim sessions, according to Co-Chairs Tim Manchin (Delegate-Marion) and Douglas Facemire (Senator-Braxton). This committee is currently working on four amendments that still remain pending for proposed regulation of the industry.

According to the state legislative Web site, four amendments to the Marcellus shale legislation are still pending while more than 20 have already been adopted. The four amendments remaining for consideration are (a) inspector qualifications, (b) karst (limestone) formations, (c) permit considerations, and (d) surface owner issues.

Date Set for Marcellus Hearings

The House Members of the Select Committee on Marcellus Shale announced the dates and locations for three public hearings: Wheeling on July 21, Morgantown on July 25, and Clarksburg on July 27.  Check our calendar early next week for times and exact locations.  Please attend with suggestions on legislation.

Small Victory for Surface Owners

A judge in Doddridge county granted a surface owner the go-ahead to appeal a gas well permit in court– a first.  Currently by state law, surface owners are limited to a comment period during the permitting process and suing after their land is used and the drilling is done. The ruling will likely be appealed to the state Supreme Court.

Read the article in the Charleston Daily Mail…

Putting a Well Pad in Oglebay Park… Maybe Not Such a Good Idea

A contract signed by Wheeling Park Commissioners in late 2009 allows Chesapeake Energy to place wells on Oglebay Park property.  The original plan called for the stables to be closed to allow for a drilling pad.  Now the commission has realized that this would cause a “significant disturbance,” and is engaged in a dialog with the drilling company to instead have the gas accessed through a horizontal well at an off-site location.

Read more in the Wheeling Intelligencer…

Revisiting the Fernow: Will DEP Reconsider Land Application?

Berry Energy drilled and hydrofracked a natural gas well in the Fernow Experimental Forest in 2008, and the rest is history: a quarter acre of the forest was killed after being legally doused with waste water, resulting in the DEP banning the practice for Marcellus wells.  David Berry, president of the company, revisited the incident this week saying it was a learning experience for the company, the forest service, and regulators.  Would he do it again? Sure!  Berry says the problem was not having enough real estate (2 acres or more), and the DEP is now reviewing the general permit that covers land application.

Berry Energy also drilled through three caves underlying the forest.  This, Berry says, should not be repeated.   ”We learned that the risk of drilling through limestone and communicating with any cave system is just too great,” he said. Though the 2008 job didn’t affect any springs, “we’re not going to take that chance again.”

Berry Energy holds the mineral rights to 7,000 acres under the forest and a nearby wilderness area and has identified two formations that could support 4-6 wells.

Read the full article in Bloomberg Business Week…

For generations, Monroe County, WV has enjoyed a quiet, rural way of life.   It’s an area rich in multi-generational farms, scenic byways, historic sites, and a unique geology called karst.  The residents are proud of the lack of industry and generally happy with the fact that there is no fast food chain outlet.   Gordy Oil’s's plans for Marcellus shale drilling in Monroe County bring concerns that the special way of life cultivated there may be at risk.  The Save The Water Table group is fighting to prevent hydraulic fracturing in their area.  Karst is a “swiss cheese” limestone geologic formation that is characterized by caverns and interconnecting underground waterways; it is highly susceptible to water contamination. The Monroe County Historical Society has also stepped forward  and written letters to lawmakers expressing concerns about the impacts of industry on historical sites.