Five Senators Named to Select Committee on Marcellus Shale Development

Duane Nichols — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 15:10:15 +0000

Acting Senate President Jeff Kessler, D-Marshall, has appointed five WV Senators to the Select Committee on Marcellus natural gas development, namely senators Douglas Facemire, D-Braxton, Sen. Orphy Klempa, D-Ohio, Corey Palumbo, D-Kanawha, Herb Snyder, D-Jefferson, and Karen Facemyer, R-Jackson.

Kessler’s own constituents are in Marshall, Wetzel, Tyler, Marion and Monongalia counties which are experiencing a flurry of drilling activity. Senator Klempa of adjoining Ohio county wants to make sure the Mountain State maintains its natural beauty throughout the drilling activity. “There are a lot of good players out there, but it only takes one or two bad players to make us all look bad. We have to make sure we are going to protect our air, our water and our roads.”

In speaking about the Marcellus drilling legislation, acting Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin recently said during a visit to Wheeling, “I will call a special session of the Legislature as soon as we can get an agreement reached.”

The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection needs more gas inspector positions than the current 17. Natural gas companies drilled 58 horizontal wells in the state last year, but regulators issued permits for 433 wells in 2010. With land leasing and permitting still taking place, there is going to be even more drilling, which will call for more inspectors.

Leakage, Spills, Breaches, and Blowouts of Growing Concern in the Natural Gas Industry

Duane Nichols — Sat, 30 Apr 2011 02:39:00 +0000

Dominion Transmission is working with the WV-DEP to address environmental conditions at the Hastings Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) Tank Farm, which is located along state Route 20 in Wetzel county. The main Chemicals of Concern (COC) at the site are petroleum products used by the former operators at the facility to produce gasoline. Additional COCs may be identified as the investigation continues. The WV-DEP is negotiating a voluntary remediation agreement, which includes provisions for identifying human health and ecological risks associated with current and potential uses of the site, to establish appropriate cleanup standards.

A gas drilling company’s truck spilled mineral oil early Saturday April 23^rd, causing a road to be shut down and headaches for drivers in Marion county. Officials say a valve frack truck spilled mineral oil on Little Bingamon Road just after seven in the morning. Crews were working all day to clean up the mess. Officials from the WV-DEP and Department of Transportation were on scene.

A federal judge blocked Chesapeake Energy last week from removing contaminated soil from a waste pit in Wetzel County. The ruling came in a lawsuit filed by Larry and Jana Rine who claim Chesapeake unlawfully disposed of drilling wastes in the pit. The pit is located near the Rine drilling pad at Silver Hill, east of New Martinsville. The Rine’s are seeking a more comprehensive cleanup plan.

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When Chesapeake Energy lost control of a Marcellus Shale gas well in Bradford county (Pennsylvania) on April 19, an emergency response team from Texas was called in to stop the leak, according to news reports. By the time the team arrived more than 13 hours later, brine water and hydraulic fracturing fluids from the well had spewed across nearby fields and into a creek. Why did a team have to be called in from Texas? According to a plan that the PA-DEP announced in August 2010, a Pennsylvania-based emergency response crew should have been available to handle the blowout. It would seem that an in-state emergency crew could have handled the blowout in a timely manner.

Frack Check WV » Natural gas development

Five Senators Named to Select Committee on Marcellus Shale Development

Leakage, Spills, Breaches, and Blowouts of Growing Concern in the Natural Gas Industry