Our children deserve strict water quality standards

Opinion — Editorial by Eric Engle, Parkersburg News & Sentinel, March 15, 2021

The Parkersburg News and Sentinel publishes a piece every week from Greg Kozera, director of marketing and sales for Shale Crescent USA. Shale Crescent USA is a 501(c)(4) non-profit organization dedicated to oil and gas and petrochemical expansion in the Ohio River Valley around the states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. Mr. Kozera’s byline says he is a professional engineer with a master’s in environmental engineering and 40 years of experience in the energy industry. That’s great! That background should lead to more to offer than just oil and gas public relations.

Usually, Mr. Kozera’s pieces are fairly benign and hard to disagree with; that’s part of public relations. This past week, though, in the March 7 edition of the News and Sentinel, Mr. Kozera got downright insulting:

“Whenever there was a public hearing on an oil and gas issue,” Kozera said, “the ‘antis’ would show up in force. One of their standard lines was, ‘It’s all about the money.’ I would laugh because they had no clue. Oil and gas is not alone, the petrochemical and manufacturing industries are similar in their concern for people and communities.”

Is that so, Mr. Kozera? That’s interesting.

As I write this, a bill is advancing in the West Virginia Legislature’s House of Delegates that would, to quote from the Charleston Gazette, “remove tanks containing 210 barrels or less of ‘brine water or other fluids produced in connection with hydrocarbon production activities’ in zones of critical concern from regulation under the Aboveground Storage Tank Act.”

Zones of critical concern are defined by the WVDHHR as areas for a public surface water supply that are comprised of a corridor along streams within a watershed that warrant more detailed scrutiny due to their proximity to the surface water intake and the intake’s susceptibility to potential contaminants within that corridor.

The Aboveground Storage Tank Act requires registration and certified inspection of such tanks as well as submittal of spill prevention response plans, but industry doesn’t want to continue complying for many tanks.

According to the 7th Edition of the Compendium of Scientific, Medical, and Media Findings Demonstrating Risks and Harms of Fracking, a fully referenced 475-page compilation provided by Concerned Health Professionals of New York and Physicians for Social Responsibility, “the 2005 Energy Policy Act exempts hydraulic fracturing from key provisions of the Safe Drinking Water Act. As a result, fracking chemicals have been protected from public scrutiny as “trade secrets.”

Companies are not compelled to fully disclose the identity of chemicals used in fracking fluid, their quantities, or their fate once injected underground. Of the more than 1,000 chemicals that are confirmed ingredients in fracking fluid, an estimated 100 are known endocrine disruptors, acting as reproductive and developmental toxicants, and at least 48 are potentially carcinogenic.

Adding to this mix are heavy metals, radioactive elements, brine, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which occur naturally in deep geological formations and which can be carried up from the fracking zone with the flowback fluid. A 2020 study identified 1,198 chemicals in oil and gas wastewater, of which 86 percent lack toxicity data sufficient to complete a risk assessment.” The oil and gas industry doesn’t appear to see a problem here.

The WV Legislature is also considering water quality standards updates for West Virginia. In 2015, the U.S. EPA recommended 94 water quality standards updates, including on some standards that have not been updated since the 1980s. The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection decided to update 56 of these standards. When the matter came to the WV Legislature, industry stepped in and essentially said that West Virginians are fat and we don’t eat our fish, so we can handle more toxins. They can got kicked down the road and now the legislature is only considering 24 water quality standards updates and is seeking to weaken 13 of those, including for a contaminant that massively poisoned the water of Paden City.

The climate crisis rages, plastics pollution contaminates every part of the globe (and our bodies), and we can’t get industry to clean up its messes (see Preston County and the Cheat River, orphaned oil and gas wells, and Minden, W.Va., as examples). If this is communal caring and concern, I’d hate to see Mr. Kozera’s definitions of neglect and malevolence.

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>> Eric Engle is Chairman of the not-for-profit volunteer organization Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action, Board Member for the West Virginia Rivers Coalition, and Co-Chairman of the Sierra Club of West Virginia Chapter’s Executive Committee.

Above ground storage tanks need rules & regulations

Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (OVEC) Action Alert, February 19, 2021

Action Alert Comments. … be sure to respond as soon as possible!

The WV Legislature and industry lobbyists have brought back the bill for exemptions to the Aboveground Storage Tank Act as HB 2598, reintroduced this week and expected to make the House Energy and Manufacturing Committee agenda on Tuesday morning, February 23.

Long story short, the bill would deregulate certain aboveground tanks that store hazardous oil and gas waste near public drinking water intakes. For a deeper dive and more information check out West Virginia Rivers’ Fact Sheet.

We need you to take action before the House committee meets at 9 a.m. on Tuesday!

WV Rivers has set up a tool to send all committee members an email, and we suggest also pairing that with a phone call to both the Committee and its Delegates. If you aren’t already on your cell phone, make the switch now so you can just click to dial!

Here’s the example script:

“Hello, my name is _________ and I’m calling to ask you to please say no to HB 2598. All citizens deserve access to safe, clean drinking water, and HB 2598 exempts certain oil and gas tanks closest to our public drinking water intakes from the Aboveground Storage Tank Act, which requires regular inspections and crisis response plans.

Please say no to HB 2598.“

And below is who you can call on the House of Delegates Energy and Manufacturing Committee:

There are a lot of them. We suggest prioritizing delegates from your district or close-by, followed by the chairs and vice chairs.

Happy dialing, and stay warm out there!

-– Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition —

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Chair: Del. Bill Anderson: 304-340-3186; Vice Chair: Del. John R. Kelly: 304-340-3394

Minority Chair: Del. Ed Evans: 304-673-2969; Minority Vice Chair: Del. Dave Pethel: 304-775-5472

WV Rivers Coalition supports regulations to protect our water

From West Virginia Rivers Coalition, Charleston, WV

In preparation for the 2021 WV Legislative Session, the Legislative Rule Making Committee will meet on Wednesday, 12/9, and water quality standards are on the agenda.

The committee needs to hear from you today about the importance of clean water!

This is the second time we are sharing this action alert with you. In September, the Committee met and Water Quality Standards were on the agenda. But your messages got committee members attention and the Water Quality Standards Rule was removed from the agenda. Your messages make a real difference!

You may recall that it was during a meeting of the Legislative Rule Making Committee in 2018 that essential updates to human health protections were stripped from the 2019 proposed water quality standards rule. This act by the Rule Making Committee triggered years of industry-led delay tactics and attempts to weaken drinking water protections. All the while, West Virginia’s water quality standards remained outdated.

Now, after years of delays, the Legislative Rule Making Committee will once again consider much needed updates to our water quality standards. We’ve reviewed the proposed water quality standards rule and sadly, the rule would rollback protections for 13 toxins.

It is extremely important that members of the Legislative Rule Making Committee hear from you before they meet. Tell members of the committee that you oppose any weakening of water quality standards.

WEST VIRGINIA RIVERS COALITION
3501 MacCorkle Ave SE #129
Charleston, West Virginia 25304
wvrivers@wvrivers.org

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Dear Friends ~~~ December 8, 2020

Thank you so much to those who contacted me about the Water Quality Rule on the agenda for the December 9th Legislative Rule-Making Review Committee meeting.

I don’t see why this has become a partisan issue — no one should want our standards to be lowered for water quality. The huge number of emails I’ve received opposing weakening requirements is so encouraging – there are only four Democrats on this committee, and you are helping to demonstrate that the recent election does not reflect how West Virginians feel about clean water.

West Virginia is unique among the states in requiring Legislative approval of agency regulations. That process begins during interim meetings (like the ones today and tomorrow) and continues during the regular session. Our agency rules are put into bills, they must go through various committees, and must be passed by each House, then signed by the Governor – just like any other law. So there will be many more opportunities to weigh on this issue.

Please stay involved and help us protect our drinking water and public health!

Sincerely,

Delegate Barbara Evans Fleischauer

http://www.friendsofbarbara.com/

Friends of Barbara · 235 High St, Suite 618,
Morgantown, WV 26501,

E-Day Activities In State Capitol In Charleston

Invitation from WV Environmental Council, Charleston, 1/23/20

You are invited to attend E-Day at the Legislature on Tuesday, January 28 from 9 am to 2 pm at the West Virginia State Capitol.

Activists and other visitors will have the opportunity to engage in hands-on civic engagement during our day at the Legislature! Our informational tables will be set up in the Upper Senate Rotunda. You can discover the importance of civic engagement, take part in citizen lobbying, and learn about our member organizations, resources, and initiatives.

Join us for a press conference beginning at Noon to hear from our lobbyists, legislators, and Tracy Danzey. Tracy, our keynote speaker is environmental activist from Parkersburg, now residing in Jefferson County. Tracy contracted hip cancer at age 21 which resulted in loss of her leg from the hip down, attributed to C8 in her water sources growing up. She recently walked across Denmark in protest of Rockwool.

Our member groups participating include: Eastern Panhandle Sierra Club, Eastern Panhandle Green Coalition, Buckhannon River Watershed Association, Cheat Lake Environmental & Recreation Association (CLEAR), Citizens Climate Lobby West Virginia, Citizens for Clean Elections, Friends of Cheat River, Jefferson County Foundation, Mountain Lakes Preservation Alliance, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, People Concerned About Chemical Safety, Sierra Club Student Coalition WVU, Solar United Neighbors, Sierra Club — WV Chapter, WV Citizen Action Group, WV Climate Action, WV Rivers Coalition, WV SORO, WV League of Women Voters.

Don’t miss this unique opportunity to learn more about the West Virginia Environmental Council & our involvement at the Legislature.

After E-Day, head on over the the Empty Glass for our GREEN JAM to further support the E-Council. it’s from 5-9 pm.

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See also: WV Environmental Council, GREEN Digest, Volume 30 Issue 2, 1/17/20

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Science journalist to talk radioactivity in Ohio Valley oil & gas industry

News Report by Brittany Grego, WTOV News 9, January 23, 2020

BELMONT COUNTY, Ohio — Barnesville resident Jill Hunkler has been working with a writer from Rolling Stone Magazine.
Science Journalist Justin Nobel will be coming to Belmont County Friday, Jan. 24, to talk about a recent article he wrote on radioactivity and the oil and gas industry in the area.

“These are very serious issues, Justin has found in government documents and early industry reports that link oil and gas to radioactive exposures and also court cases that involve oil and gas industry cancer deaths have been linked to radioactivity on the job,” said Hunkler.

The event will take place this Friday from 5:30 to 7:30 PM inside Ohio University Eastern’s Shannon Hall Theatre.

Anyone is welcome to attend.

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2020 Barbara Danko Political Forum, Sunday, Chatham University

14th Ward Independent Democratic Club and the Chatham University College Democrats to hold the 2020 Barbara Daly Danko Political Forum:

“The Petrochemical Build-Out: Not What It’s Cracked Up To Be?”

Sunday, January 26, 2020, Doors Open 1:00 P.M, Forum 1:30 P.M.,

Eddy Theatre, Chatham University, Woodland Rd., Pittsburgh 15232

FREE TO THE PUBLIC

Call WV Governor’s Office 304-558-2000

From an Article by Sean O’Leary, WV Center on Budget and Policy, March 10, 2019

On Crossover Day, the West Virginia House of Delegates passed two bills that have the intended purpose of boosting coal production and putting coal miners back to work. Unfortunately, they chose to do so in a very ineffective and expensive way, through cuts and rebates to the severance tax.

HB 3142 would cut the severance tax on steam coal from five percent to three percent. The bill, which had originated in committee just a few days prior to passage, had virtually no analysis. A fiscal note was produced just hours before the bill was up for a final vote, showing a price tag of $60 million in lost revenue, with at best only 500 jobs created, with 100 more likely, meaning the tax cut would cost between $120,000 to $600,000 per job created.

Why so few jobs for such an expensive tax cut? Just look at the math. If every penny of a two-percent reduction in West Virginia’s severance tax on steam coal went to reducing its price, the price would drop by only $1.08 per ton. Currently, West Virginia’s steam coal is currently $7 per ton more expensive than coal from Ohio, $13 per ton more than Pennsylvania, and $10 per ton more than Kentucky. West Virginia steam coal is nearly $15 per ton more than the national average. And there is no guarantee that the coal companies will use the tax savings to lower the price.

Besides that, West Virginia’s biggest competitors in the coal market aren’t our neighboring states, they’re western states like Wyoming and Illinois. Since 2001, eastern states like West Virginia have lost significant market share to western states with greater productivity like Wyoming. And Wyoming’s market share has grown, even with significantly higher taxes than West Virginia.

But beyond competition from coal in other states, West Virginia coal faces even stiffer competition in its own backyard from natural gas. Booming natural gas production, which is subject to the same five-percent severance tax in West Virginia as coal, has hurt the coal industry as well. The Marcellus and other shale plays have led to a glut of natural gas, driving energy prices down, making gas-fired electricity often a better deal than coal.

West Virginia coal has already enjoyed a significant tax cut in recent years. A 56 cents per ton tax on coal production went into effect in 2005, with the revenue it generated going to pay down old debts associated with the state-run workers’ compensation system. The tax was terminated in FY 2017. Before its termination, the tax produced $64.4 million, roughly the same value as the reduction in severance tax in HB 3142. But since 2017Q3, coal mining employment has been flat.

There’s little evidence to support a severance tax cut or tax credit for coal as a tool to increase production and employment. Overall, the state has little ability to influence the forces affecting the coal industry, be they competition from natural gas, environmental regulations, productivity, or transportation issues. The severance tax is important to West Virginia’s budget, and it’s important that we keep it.

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Urge Veto of Coal Tax Cut, Urgent Appeal to WV Governor

From the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, March 12, 2019

House Bill 3142 is a massive giveaway to coal company executives that will do little to stop the decline of the coal industry.

Instead of handing more than $60 million to mostly out-of- state coal operators, Governor Justice should veto this irresponsible legislation and invest in things that working families need, like expanded access to child care, an earned income tax credit, and pay raises for our struggling public employees.

Read more in this editorial and this post on why this is such a bad proposal for West Virginia.

Call (304-558-2000) or email Governor Justice today and urge him to veto House Bill 3142.

WV repealed a renewable energy portfolio standard in 2015

Letter by Joey James and Evan Hansen, Charleston Gazette, March 18, 2018

For many years, private and government forecasts have predicted sharp declines in Central Appalachian coal production in southern West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, southwestern Virginia and northeastern Tennessee. These declines have occurred, largely as predicted, and our region has suffered.

Even after Donald Trump’s election, headlines tell stories of miners losing their jobs, mines closing, companies filing for bankruptcy and decreases in severance tax revenues — which have significant impacts on local economies and the wellbeing of Central Appalachia’s people.

Meanwhile, in what seems like an entirely different world, investment across the country in renewable energy is at an all-time high. While our coal-fired power plants are closing, new plants fueled by natural gas, wind farms and solar arrays are being built in large numbers. In recent years, global investments in renewables were more than double those for new coal and natural gas generation.

There is no silver bullet to solve Central Appalachia’s economic woes, and modernizing our region’s generation portfolio is only part of the solution. However, when taken together, three state-sponsored incentives have been proven to attract significant investments, and at this point, that is what we need — significant investments.

If Central Appalachia wishes to promote growth in the renewable energy industry, the following policies should receive support:
• Renewable portfolio standards.
• Renewable portfolio standards require
• electricity producers to integrate a certain amount of renewable energy. Most states have an RPS, and in 2016, the 29 states with an RPS and Washington, D.C., accounted for nearly 75 percent of our nation’s GDP. States without an RPS contributed just over 16 percent. The rest have enacted voluntary goals rather than standards. No Central Appalachian states have enacted mandatory standards, and only Virginia has enacted a goal.
• Net metering.
• For electric customers that generate their own electricity, net metering allows for the flow of electricity both to and from the customer — typically through a bi-directional meter. When generation exceeds use, electricity from the customer flows back to the grid, offsetting electricity consumed at other times. All Central Appalachian states, with the exception of Tennessee, have enacted legislation that enables net metering.
• Property-assessed clean energy financing.
• Property-assessed clean energy financing allows commercial property owners to borrow money for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects and repay the amount borrowed through an assessment added to their tax bill. Kentucky and Virginia have passed PACE-enabling legislation. West Virginia and Tennessee should follow suit.

Worldwide, private sector champions of the 21st century economy are making vigorous commitments to sustainability and renewable energy. Google, for example, powers 100 percent of its operations, including many data centers, with renewable energy through power-purchase agreements.

Amazon, another quintessential 21st century business, is committed to achieving 100 percent renewable energy across its global infrastructure and is currently constructing wind and solar farms in Ohio, Virginia, Indiana and North Carolina. When completed, these installations will deliver more than 1.6 million megawatt-hours of renewable energy into the electric grids that power Amazon Web Services’ cloud data centers.

Attracting investments, jobs and tax revenues from these types of companies will require new policies like the three presented above, and legislatures, state agencies and local governments should act now. New energy jobs are being created across the country — why not here?

NOTE — Joey James and Evan Hansen assist communities across Appalachia on issues related to sustainable economic development. They work for Downstream Strategies and are based out of Morgantown.

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Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a collection of 17 global goals set by the United Nations for achievement by 2030 (next 12 years). … The SDGs cover a broad range of social and economic development issues. These include poverty, hunger, health, education, climate change, gender equality, water, sanitation, energy, environment and social justice.

Breaking News — Governor Announces End to Strike

Breaking News from The 74 Million, February 27, 2018

Update: At a press conference Tuesday night, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice announced an end to the four-day teachers’ strike that had closed schools across the state. Teachers and school personnel will receive a 5 percent raise next year, he said, and all other state employees will get a 3 percent increase.

Schools will be back in session Thursday; Wednesday will be a “cooling-off day,” because some schools had already canceled class. Justice also said he will create a task force to evaluate the teachers’ insurance program, which, in addition to low pay, was a cause of the walkout. Union leaders said they reserve the right to pull teachers out of class again if the state legislature does not sign on to the plan.

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U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos had chimed in on the West Virginia teachers’ strike on its fourth day, saying that good teachers “deserve better pay” but students should not miss school due to adult disagreements.

Across the state, teachers had refused to work since Thursday, affecting about 270,000 students.

Teachers called for higher pay and better benefits, NPR reported. The teachers also oppose laws they say would make it harder for the state to hire good teachers. Teachers have rallied at the capitol in Charleston, West Virginia, and at their schools.

Union leaders demanded to meet with the governor and legislative leaders to discuss the teachers’ concerns. The state’s two teachers unions had rejected a proposed 2 percent pay raise with further 1 percent increases for the next two years, calling it insufficient when health care costs for teachers are on the rise.

“Our issues are clear — our commitment to finding a solution has been consistent; we stand together for our students, our community, and our state,” Christine Campbell, president of the West Virginia chapter of the American Federation of Teachers, said at the rally. “We challenge the House leader, the Senate leader, and the governor, to bring us to the table today.”

The strike, which some called a “work stoppage,” could be against the law. State Attorney General Patrick Morrisey tweeted last week that the work stoppage is “unlawful and should come to an end.”

Average teacher pay in West Virginia ranks near the bottom nationally, at $44,701, according to the West Virginia Education Association.

Teachers Work Stoppage for Information Picketing at West Liberty, WV

By Duane Nichols, Retired Chemical Engineer, Stewartstown, WV

This is the Second Day of work stoppage protest by the WV educators. This is important because we ALL benefit from a strong and comprehensive system of education. Education in West Virginia is under funded. There are over 700 openings in the 55 counties, because the salaries and benefits are too low.

The teachers held an incredible rally at the State Capitol in Charleston yesterday, very well attended and very active! The State Legislature, bent on tax cuts year after year, has a responsibility to fully fund education. It’s even specified in our State’s Constitution.

There is money in our natural resources, coal, oil, natural gas, timber, wind, and solar. These sources need to be tapped as necessary to achieve a strong and vibrant state government. We are overdue for an increase in the gasoline tax.

We are overdue for a new tax called a “carbon fee.” Such a carbon tax can supplement education and be used for infrastructure in our state. It’s primary purpose is to reduce the impacts of climate change. Lord knows it is time to start a real response to the effects of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The main effect is called “global warming” that influences our earth in many and various ways.

My education started in 1940, in a one room school for eight grades. Change is inevitable. Later, I was in a three room school until the eighth grade. My high school building had over 12 rooms, but the wood inner structure burned a few years after. The community had such pride in the schools that new and better facilities were constructed. West Virginians have very great pride in our educational system and our educators. Community spirit is high across the State.

We have always had a plentiful supply of coal and natural gas in West Virginia. These can and should be taxed. The coal and gas industries use our land and water (public water), and they dispose of their wastes on the land and in the air and water. These industries should pay for education!

Our teachers are becoming active and they are to be admired for that, as they care deeply! Information picketing has been underway statewide. I saw them in person in Baker in the far East of WV off US Route 48, and in Mount Storm on US Route 50, and in Morgantown on WV 857 near I-68. I known they were out all across the State. See the photo above from West Liberty in Brooke County.

One chant of the educators is “Tax Our Gas.” When deep natural gas is recovered from depths of approximately one mile, it actually belongs to the earth and to the people in general as much as it belongs to mineral owners or surface land owners. So, let’s continue to say Tax Our Gas!

Change continues world-wide. We need education at all ages! We need to learn about the Food-Energy-Water Nexus. We need to learn about “the limits to growth” and the threats to the future of mankind. In education we have hope for the future, so let’s fully fund education and support education in our work day lives and in our leisure time.

Most poems contain ideas to make us think:

“Don’t tax you, don’t tax me; Tax that fellow behind the tree!”

Access roads & land disturbances are real problems

From the WV Rivers Coalition, January 16, 2018

A bill to allow commercial logging in West Virginia’s State Parks, Senate Bill 270, was introduced in the WV Legislature at the request of Governor Justice. This bill would end an 80-year ban on logging in West Virginia’s State Parks. Contact the Governor now, tell him you oppose lifting the logging ban!

Send a Letter

The bill is an ill-conceived plan to log our parks, presented as a way to pay for park maintenance — but it risks destroying the Wild & Wonderful places we love.

Take action now! ASAP send the Governor a letter. After you’ve sent your letter, amplify your voice by calling the Governor’s Office at 304-558-2000 and share your concerns about logging our state parks.

For more information, check out the Save Our State Parks webpage, and email info@wvpubliclands.org.

Oil and gas industry is not overregulated in West Virginia

Letter from Dave McMahon, Charleston Daily Mail, August 3, 2017

As a long-time lawyer and lobbyist for surface owners, I have always said that I like almost everybody I meet in the oil and gas industry. But like dogs that form a pack when they all get together, I find the oil and gas industry as a whole difficult to trust. It is driven by its internal competition, dynamics and profit motives.

So I must strongly disagree, based on facts, with the executive directors of the two organizations representing West Virginia drillers and their assertions in a Daily Mail Opinion column of July 27 (Anne Blankenship, Charlie Burd; Oil and gas industry getting greener).

Despite their statements, the industry is not one of the most rigorously regulated, and on its own it will not be environmentally responsible.

Starting on the federal level, the oil and gas industry is exempt from relevant parts of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), the principle law that governs regulation of solid and hazardous wastes. Fracking is also exempt from the federal Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA).

At the state level, absent imminent danger, oil and gas inspectors are required by statute to give drillers a chance to abate violations found by inspectors before a final violation is issued. I wish our State Police were required to give me a chance to slow down before giving me a ticket every time I get pulled over for speeding.

And unlike the Department of Environmental Protection’s enforcement power over any other industry in the state, the Office of Oil and Gas has no power to issue its own fines on drillers. It must go to the circuit court of the county where the problem occurred; and the fines are so low, it is often cheaper to ignore the laws than to follow them. Inspectors must have previous work experience in the industry, and there are simply not enough of them.

For all those reasons, I once told a crowd in a county impacted by Marcellus Shale drilling that to get a problem fixed with a condensation tank they should call an oil and gas inspector. The crowd broke into laughter. Again, I like the inspectors I meet, but there is an enforcement problem.

One obvious demonstration of the industry’s unregulated nature and lack of environmental responsibility is this: There are 12,664 old, non-producing wells that operators should already have plugged, including 4,693 that have been allowed to go unplugged for so long that the driller is out of business and there is no operator to plug them.

And the Marcellus Shale tsunami is driving small operators who do still own most of those wells out of business, so the problem will get much worse. And “blanket” bonding requirements for oil and gas drilling is inadequate to cover the state’s costs of plugging abandoned wells.

Another state level example is the claimed regulatory effect of the state Horizontal Well Act. It was passed in a three-day special session in 2011.

For the most part, instead of surface owner protections, the Act required the WV-DEP to do studies on surface owner impacts. The studies were done by West Virginia University. The WV-DEP reported to the Legislature that the studies showed the need “to provide for a more consistent and protective safeguard for residences in affected areas,” and “[T]o reduce potential exposures.”

The WV-DEP cannot implement those protections by rulemaking because the 625-foot setback from the center of the pad is in the statutory Act. We have introduced a bill every year since to implement the protections the studies said were needed, but the bill has never moved.

Of all the problems documented by the studies, the easiest example to explain is noise. The WVU studies found average noise levels from drilling activities dangerous for public health at the minimum setback distance at almost every pad they studied at almost every drilling stage.

The Act requires well pads and water impoundments to be designed by engineers. Yet many impoundments studied were not built according to plans. When WVU tested the soil compaction on the impoundment dikes of the 15 impoundments it studied; only 8.5 percent of the 70 tests met proper standards.

Yes, the industry is starting to recycle frack flowback water, and it is piping fresh water to well sites instead of overloading the state’s roads.

But hiring trucks and drivers, and using new water each time costs more; we say recycling and pipelines would not be developed if they were more expensive than trucks.

The industry is not rigorously regulated, and it is not on its own environmentally responsible.

I know of one well pad with nine wells that will produce a quarter billion dollars worth of gas: One pad. There is enough money at stake now to make them do it right environmentally and to make them pay surface owners what the use of their land is worth to the drillers and operators.

>>> Dave McMahon is a lawyer and a co-founder of the West Virginia Surface Owners’ Rights Organization. See also: WV-SORO web-site