Guernsey Power Station construction site on 10/15/20. Young’s home and racetrack on left across railroad tracks.

From an Article by Julie Grant, Allegheny Front, December 11, 2020

Kevin and Marlene Young built their house in the country, so they had space for horses. “I was raised around horses, and that’s my love,” Marlene said. With names like Buckeye Blast and Creekside Pete, their horses aren’t just pets. They built a half mile track to train them as racehorses. “If you see my track, the polls out there are placed 1/8 mile apart, and that’s how you clock a horse to tell how fast you’re going,” Kevin said. Their horses have won tens of thousands of dollars in prize money.

Surrounded mostly by farmland here in Guernsey County, Ohio, 65 miles west of the Pennsylvania border, they have space to grow grass for hay. The Youngs also built their home into something of a tourist business. When a scenic railroad started running on the train tracks along their property, it would stop here. They opened an antique shop, and even hosted weddings in the outdoor setting.

Big trucks drive past the house throughout the day. The farm field next door has become an industrial construction site. The air is often filled with dust — there’s a thick layer of it on their new truck. Some nights, bright construction lights shine through their windows. “I mean, come on man, that’s unbelievable,” Marlene said.

In the summer of 2019, Caithness Energy started building one of the largest natural gas power plants of its kind in the nation. Thanks to fracking, cheap natural gas is replacing coal to generate electricity. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, this site is one of 30 natural gas-fired generators planned in Ohio and Pennsylvania. EIA expects 231 new utility-scale natural gas generators to be built in the U.S. by 2024.

There’s already a pipeline that will run natural gas from the region to this site. Once constructed, the Guernsey Power Station will generate 1,875 megawatts, enough power the company says for 1.5 million homes.

But the Youngs don’t want to live next door to it. Like others who live nearby, they say the construction has caused cracks in their walls. “My dishes shake. My bedroom is on the second floor, and it’s like you put a quarter in one of them beds,” Marlene said. “That’s how it vibrates.”

The land was known to flood, so the company is moving dirt in some spots to raise it 20 feet. But Kevin said when it rains, water now runs off, flooding his property. “This way, I’m taking all the water,” he said. “It’s like a lake.”

In November, Ohio EPA issued two notices of violation to Gemma Power Systems, the company building the plant for Caithness, for problems with erosion and sediment running off the property. But much damage has already been done.

One of their horses got startled by the construction equipment just over the fence, and injured itself. “And she was laid up for a month, and we had to dress this leg every day,” Kevin explained. The Youngs have stopped training their horses, sometimes even putting them on respirators. Marlene falls apart when she talks about her best horse, Creekside Pete.

“I had to sell him to get him out of here,” she sobbed. “I put big boards up so he wouldn’t come out of his stall because of the stuff going on. I sold him so he wouldn’t hurt himself.” Creekside Pete has gone on to win $68,000.

Caithness has bought out three families in this neighborhood for the plant. At this point, the Youngs want a buy out too, but so far they say the company hasn’t approached them.

Even a Buyout Can Be Difficult

One of the homeowners who received a buyout is April Ball. Until recently, she lived down the street from the Youngs. Ball grew up there, and inherited the house on an acre of land after her parents died. She thinks about the green fields and trees around it, and of walking barefoot to fish in the creek.

“It’s just sad. I think about it every day. It never goes away,” Ball said, sitting on the back porch of her new house in the town of Cambridge. “I think about it when I wake up, when I’m at work, after work, in the evening.”

When the gas plant was under consideration, Ball, a housekeeper at a nursing home, wasn’t able to get to a community meeting. She had no idea how much it would impact her life.

The construction company fenced around her house, and put up big trailers along the property line. Once the construction began, her ceiling cracked and water in her toilet started coming up black. “You can’t live like that,” she said.

An attorney for Caithness offered her fair market value for her house. She didn’t have money for her own lawyer, so even though it wasn’t enough to buy another home in the country, she took the deal. “Part of me wanted to leave, but then a part of me just wanted to stay. This is my home,” Ball said. “And how dare these people come here and do this?”

A Billboard for the Region’s Economic Development

But many people in the area see the new natural gas plant as a hope for the region’s future. When Caithness came here in 2016, Norm Blanchard, economic development director for the region, was thrilled by the idea of a $1.6 billion plant. “For us, it was almost like a carnival coming to town,” he said.

The company is spending $25 million to prepare the site, according to Blanchard, and has promised $42 million dollars to the local school system over 32 years.

It promised local workers would help fill a thousand construction jobs. But labor unions claim local people have not been hired, something Caithness denied in an email statement to The Allegheny Front.

Once it’s completed in 2022, the plant is expected to employ 30 high tech workers. Blanchard wishes it was more, but he’s not complaining. As he stood along the I-77 highway, looking at the huge construction site, he said the eight cranes are like a billboard for economic development here.

“Something like this, to be able to locate it here, puts you on the map,” Blanchard said. “We’re hoping that others will ride the coattail. They’ll say, ‘that kind of development is coming to Guernsey County, there’s other things that we can do.’ ”

Few Protections Exist for People in the Path of Development

Like many areas near power plants, the poverty rate here is high. In Byesville, where this plant is being built, the poverty is more than twice the national average.

According to environmental attorney Dave Altman, many communities jump at the money and jobs offered by deep-pocketed energy companies. “Local governments, somewhat understandably, at times will blindly accept promises and really operate in denial of the collateral damage to the people who are left behind,” Altman said.

Kevin and Marlene Young said they haven’t gotten help from local officials. They shouldn’t expect the state government in Ohio to protect them either, according to Altman.

“There are definitely laws, that’s for sure, and the law should be protecting people,” he said. “But I’m not kidding you, the agencies that you think are protecting you in Ohio often see their primary client or customer as the regulated entity.”

US EPA Removing Pollution Protections for Ohioans

On December 20, the Trump administration will eliminate a 1974 rule approved as part of Ohio’s federal air quality plan, officially called the State Implementation Plan or SIP. The rule allows people to take polluters to court to stop environmental nuisances like dust and odors that endanger health and property.

“They would have been able for 40 years to take that evidence [of a nuisance] into court, and now they won’t be able to do that directly anymore,” Altman lamented. “I think that it’s one of the great travesties that people don’t even know happened to them.”

Without the nuisance provision in the SIP, Altman said that people will only be able to sue polluters for damages, something he said is difficult. “They need to recover large damages to give lawyers an incentive to take the case. People want to live their lives, not wait until they have large damage cases.”

In an email statement, Ohio EPA spokesperson Heidi Griesmer said Ohio did not request removal of this rule, but does not oppose it being withdrawn by US EPA. “Many other states across the nation, including all Great Lakes states, had their nuisance rules withdrawn from their SIPs, or never had them in their SIPs in the first place,” she said. “Ohio EPA retains full authority to ensure compliance with the rule and can initiate enforcement action when necessary.”

But that hasn’t proven helpful to people experiencing pollution problems, according to Altman. “Every citizen I know who has used the provision to reduce or stop the pollution tried to get the O[hio] EPA to enforce the rule for years and got nowhere,” he responded.

No Adverse Health Effects Expected

The Guernsey Power Station received air permits from Ohio EPA, and has limits for pollutants like volatile organic compounds, carbon monoxide, and particulate matter. “[C]omputer modeling was completed before permit issuance, and no adverse health or welfare effects are expected,” Griesmer said.

But the Youngs don’t want to wait to find out. Marlene recently started having serious health issues. Kevin wants to protect them both. “I’d just assume get us a little trailer or something, and clear out of this whole state, and not have to deal with any of this,” he said. They’ve recently retained a lawyer.

Marcellus shale drilling is vertical then horizontal for thousands of feet

From Staff Report, Parkersburg News & Sentinel, January 16, 2019

PARKERSBURG — The West Virginia Supreme Court Tuesday heard arguments in an appeal of a lower court decision by residents who claimed Marcellus shale drilling has denied them the enjoyment of their property.

Deborah G. Andrews, Rodney and Katherine Ashcraft, Gregg D. McWilliams, Mary Mikowski and Robert and Loretta Siders filed a complaint in October 2013 alleging nuisances such as noise and odors against Antero Resources Corp. and Hall Drilling.

The claim was transferred from Ohio County Circuit Court to the West Virginia Mass Litigation Panel in November 2014, which eventually ruled in favor of the defendants in October 2016.

At issue is horizontal well drilling and hydro-fracturing in the Marcellus Shale, which has caused the industrialization of rural West Virginia and noise, truck traffic, odors, dust contamination, light pollution and vibrations, among other things, the petitioners brief to the Supreme Court said.

Antero and Hall said the Mass Litigation Panel did not abuse its discretion by holding that petitioners failed to show they are entitled to relief and that the panel applied the correct legal standards concerning mineral owners’ and surface owners’ rights under West Virginia law.

“From what began as a toxic contamination case, petitioners now only claim annoyance, discomfort and inconvenience caused by noise, traffic on public roads, odors, dust, lights, and vibrations (collectively, ‘conditions’) allegedly resulting from horizontal drilling activities located in the vicinity of petitioners’ surface estates,” the Antero brief said.

Two friends of the court briefs were filed in support of Antero and Hall from the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association and from the Independent Oil and Gas Association of West Virginia, and the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce, the West Virginia Business and Industry Council, the West Virginia Coal Association, the Contractors Association of West Virginia, West Virginia Chapter of Associated Builders and Contractors, the West Virginia Manufacturers Association and the West Virginia Poultry Association.

“The issues petitioners seek to appeal would significantly impact the well-settled theories of property law and the sustainability of the Marcellus shale industry in West Virginia,” the chamber brief said. “Because such issues necessarily implicate West Virginia’s economic viability overall, including direct and indirect impacts on other industries … all have significant interests in the issues raised by the petitioners in this appeal.”

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Supreme Court to rule on natural gas drilling nuisance question

From an Article by Jeff Jenkins, WV Metro News, January 16, 2019

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The state Supreme Court will make a much-anticipated decision in the coming months on the issue of natural gas drilling and whether the process is a public nuisance.

The Court heard an hour of oral arguments Tuesday on an appeal by a group of Harrison County property owners that claim horizontal drilling by Antero Resources is a nuisance. The plaintiffs lost in the lower court. The state’s Mass Litigation Panel found summary judgment in favor of Antero.

Plaintiff’s attorney Anthony Majestro argued Tuesday normal life has been disrupted. “These trucks are going by 100-a-day, 24-hours-a day. They are parked in front of my clients’ houses. Their engines are running, the big 18 wheelers, the hisses and noises, fumes coming off. That’s one of the primary causes of the nuisance,” Majestro said.

Monongalia County Circuit Judge Russell Clawges, appointed as a temporary justice for the case, asked Antero attorney W. Henry Lawrence if the panel’s ruling basically gives the drilling company a green light no matter what.

“Does not the panel’s order basically give your clients carte blanche to do whatever they want to, whenever they want to, however they want to, no matter what affect it may have on these plaintiffs?

“No,” Lawrence said. “The panel looked at the evidence presented to them and said the plaintiffs have not offered expert testimony that indicates that these activities are unreasonable or unnecessary in development of these minerals.”

Majestro said because it’s horizontal drilling, there’s no guarantee property owners are being properly compensated for what they have to endure. “Most of this drilling that’s being done and this nuisance that’s being created is being conducted to get gas that is not under my client’s property,” Majestro said.

The plaintiffs want their nuisance claims to go before a jury.

Lawrence said the panel looked through hundreds of pages of discovery in the case before making its decision. He said there were initial claims of contamination, physical damage and personal injury. He said the plaintiffs eventually withdraw their negligence claim. There were originally 22 plaintiffs and now there are seven. “None of these plaintiffs had well pads on their properties. There were several plaintiffs in the initial case (that did),” Lawrence said.

Majestro said the case should go before a jury and let it decide if drilling activities can cause a nuisance. He said there’s no doubt his clients have been negatively impacted. “There’s testimony the clients can’t sleep. There’s testimony they can’t sit on their front porch and talk. In addition, we have odors, fumes from these trucks that are burning diesel while they are parked around my client’s house and driving by,” Majestro said.

Lawrence said the wells in question are about 10 years old and represent some of Antero’s first wells in Harrison County. The lawsuits were originally filed in late 2013.

Two members of the Supreme Court, Justice Tim Armstead and Justice John Hutchison disqualified themselves from hearing the case. They were replaced by Clawges and Cabell County Circuit Judge Greg Howard.

MVP pipeline construction on private land under protest

From an Article by Matt Combs, Beckley Register-Herald, August 1, 2018

Becky Crabtree, a 64-year-old Monroe County grandmother, was arrested Tuesday for blockading herself in a 1971 Ford Pinto in order to stop construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) near Peters Mountain.

Crabtree, whose home sits at the base of the mountain, is a retired school teacher and author. “I have talked to elected officials, signed petitions, written letters, submitted reports and gone to court. I have exhausted the ‘usual’ methods of fighting injustice and have gotten no relief,” stated Crabtree in a news release before her arrest. “Officials have failed us in this fight; we need to fight for ourselves and each other.”

In a phone interview with the Register-Herald, Crabtree said that the Pinto was her first car and the vehicle that she took on her honeymoon in 1975. “We just felt like it would be a nice send-off for the car to go out with honor and also make a statement about how we feel about the Mountain Valley Pipeline and the powers that be that have allowed it,” Crabtree said.

The grandmother’s home was in clear view to tree-sitters who attempted to block construction of the pipeline near the ridge of the mountain earlier this year. The pipeline itself runs through her land. Crabtree and a group of other local protestors have joined with people around the region and nation against the pipeline.

If completed, the pipeline will run over 300 miles from the northern part of the state, through 11 counties in the Mountain State, before crossing over Peters Mountain into Virginia, where it will run through an additional six counties.

The project has faced multiple legal challenges with construction across several rivers in West Virginia halted along with construction on national lands very near to Crabtree’s protest.

According to the protestor, she installed herself in the Pinto and along the route in the early hours on Tuesday and was removed around 11 a.m. A few dozen supporters arrived at Crabtree’s property, along with a group at the Monroe County Magistrate’s Office when she was arrested.

“I appreciate their support,” Crabtree said. The protestor was charged with obstructing a police officer and quickly released.

“I hope this action underlines the fact that this pipeline is not needed and that eminent domain is being misused to take people’s land,” Crabtree said. Pintos are obsolete and so are fossil fuels. We need to be exploring renewable sources of energy.”

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SEE ALSO: “Mountain Valley Pipeline Protests Continue” | Bluefield Daily Telegraph, November 28, 2018

SEE VIDEO: “Destruction Zone” Video by Paula Mann, Monroe County, WV