An additional exit on I-79 would serve the M.I.P. Build an Exit and new companies will come.

To: Morgantown City Council, Tuesday, 2/15/22

My name is Duane Nichols, Coordinator for the Mon Valley Clean Air Coalition. We have been concerned about the air quality in this region since the Longview coal fired power plant was proposed back in 2003. I’m here to talk about a proposal from the Marion Energy Partners, LLC. These are the same people at the same address as Northeast Natural Energy that has drilled one vertical well and four frack gas wells in the Morgantown Industrial Park (MIP).

[They call the well that is only vertical a “science well” because it was used for only research as part of a seven year ($25,000,000) project called the Marcellus Shale Energy & Environment Laboratory (MSEEL). What have we learned from this project that makes for a better environment? The answer is elusive.]

A ‘Science Facility’ has now been proposed that would burn excess frack gas from existing vertical+horizontal wells. The only justification provided thus far is that surplus frack gas exists so Northeast Natural Energy wants to burn it to make electricity. (Anyone can make their own electricity anytime and anywhere? But, what if you pollute the neighborhood or region and create other nuisances like noises, vapor plumes, truck traffic, etc.)

I need to tell you that because of the location in the valley, near the Caperton trail, the Deckers Creek Trail, the Westwood and Skyview schools and even residential Morgantown, this facility could generate serious health effects. It will be running 24 hours per day 365 days per year. There would be four large engines of 3,000 horsepower each. The exhaust stacks would only be 20 feet tall with essentially no monitoring of the pollutants.

I have talked to Glen Adrian, manager of the Industrial Park and to Mike John, CEO of Northeast Natural Energy as well as twice speaking before the County Commission. I went to Charleston and met with the Secretary of the WV-DEP. They all are unaware of the actual purpose and seem to be in a state of confusion. Any of these individuals could stop this project by publicly stating what is obvious to me. This project is unacceptable at this particular location. It could easily be moved to the Boggess pad or another of the Northeast Natural Energy locations, if they would only do it.

The window of time for the WV DEP to evaluate and grant a “final air permit” has been exhausted, but DEP is still working thru all the public comments received at the public hearing on January 11th. If a revised permit is released, there will then be a 30 day period open for appealing this permit to the WV Air Quality Board (AQB).

I am here today to recommend that the City of Morgantown consider making such an appeal, a rather straight forward process that is outlined on the AQB web-site. A number of reasons to appeal exist, given that the proposed facility may well become a substantial nuisance due to excess air pollution, on-going noises, toxic and hazardous chemical emissions, excess greenhouse gases and unsightly vapor plumes from the four stacks. (It would generate 55,000 tons per year of carbon dioxide.)

Here are a few of the responsibilities of the WV-DEP that they appear to have neglected: WV Code § 22-1-1, b-10, viz. “ To promote pollution prevention by encouraging reduction or elimination of pollutants at the source through process modification, material substitutions, in-process recycling, reduction of raw material use or other source reduction opportunities.” Moreover, this project appears to not be in the public interest.

Thank you for this opportunity to address the Morgantown City Council.

Duane Nichols, Mon Valley Clean Air Coalition (MVCAC)

Aptude Consulting, Leslie, IL, has some ideas ...? ..? ..?

>>> From an Article by Ben Conley, Morgantown Dominion Post, January 12, 2022

MORGANTOWN — “Science Facility” & “Data Center” — These are the terms used to describe a project proposed by Marion Energy Partners for placement in the Morgantown Industrial Park.

What is known is that a 10,000 square-foot facility would pull natural gas directly from a nearby Northeast Natural Energy well pad to power four natural gas-fired engines around the clock, 365 days a year.

Beyond that, information about the project is very limited. It’s believed the engines will provide electricity for a cryptocurrency mining operation, but attempts to confirm that with Marion Energy Partners have been unsuccessful.

Cryptocurrency mining uses banks of specialized computers to validate blockchain transactions for a specific cryptocurrency in order to receive percentages of said currency in return. Popular examples include Bitcoin and Ethereum. As of this writing, one Bitcoin was worth $42,631.80.

A virtual public comment meeting held Tuesday, January 11th, by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection’s Division of Air Quality drew more than 40 participants.

For about two hours, participants, including local and state elected officials, offered comments and asked questions, including why so little information is available and who beyond Marion Energy Partners & Northeast Natural Energy would receive any benefit.

“I would propose this permit be rewritten in a way that people would know with transparency what is going to transpire as far as what the business actually is,” Morgantown Mayor Jenny Selin said. Morgantown City Councilor Bill Kawecki said the facility will offer no benefit, only environmental cost.

Delegate Evan Hansen, D-Monongalia, agreed. “Often there’s balancing acts and decisions that are made where there are pros and cons to a type of development that would bring jobs or economic opportunities or community benefits to the table,” he said. “But I don’t see any of those in this proposal. What I see is local air pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and noise.”

Air quality-related public comments can be submitted to the DEP at edward.s.andrews@wv.gov until 5 p.m. Thursday, January 13th. “Marion Energy Partners LLC” should be included in the subject line.

Non-air quality related comments may be emailed anytime to: depadvocate@wv.gov

Duane Nichols, who first brought this project to the attention of the Monongalia County Commission late last year, called on WV-DEP Cabinet Secretary Harold Ward to get involved. He challenged Ward “to look at this project and to make a public statement of whether there is any redeeming social value and whether there is any value to the public interest that can possibly justify polluting the Mon River Valley, the neighborhoods, and Mon County. Otherwise, this project stands as an insult to our community.”

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DIVERSE OPPORTUNITIES OFFERRED ~ Creating an Integrated Data Science Center of Excellence (COE) - Linda Atteo, Aptude IT Consulting & Support Services, Leslie, IL, June 19, 2020

A five (5) step process for creating an Integrated Data Science Center of Excellence (COE)

COE – Is a centralized data analytics hub surrounded by a selected group of highly intelligent experts that are like-mined and consistently aligned within business units to make better strategic decisions. A company’s success is established by managing resources conclusively, processes efficiently through ambitious data science projects, data-focused mindset, and a strategic technology roadmap to grow its business. (How much electricity is required for planning, data reduction, analysis and presentation? How many road maps are needed to conduct business? DGN).

Climate change due to fossil fuels now dominates overall impacts

Opinion Editorial by Rev. Mitch Hescox, Evangelical Environmental Network, Harrisburg Patriot-News, PennLive.com, November 21, 2019

It’s no secret that many in our Pennsylvania General Assembly are wildly supportive of the natural gas industry, which remains a powerful economic force in our Commonwealth. However, the industry’s promises of good paying jobs, royalties, impact fees, and campaign donations does not absolve its responsibility to be a good steward of our state’s common resources.

Nationally, Exxon Mobil, Shell, and BP have supported strong federal standards to reduce the leakage of natural gas and other toxins such as benzene, a carcinogen, from natural gas infrastructure. We expect Pennsylvania’s natural gas industry to do the same, and for the General Assembly to ensure that when it doesn’t, the industry will be held accountable for cleaning up its mess.

Yet our Pennsylvania House has passed or is considering bills collectively known as “Energize PA” that simply subsidize the natural gas industry without considering the threats to the health and lives of our children. HB 1100 has been passed and the rest — HB 1102, HB 1106, and HB 1107 — could be brought up as early as this week.

The Senate has been just as disappointing, passing SB 790, which allows Pennsylvania’s conventional natural gas drilling industry to pour radioactive waste water onto roads, pollute our streams without reporting spills, and preempt local governments’ ability to protect their own schools and playgrounds from toxic emissions.

Over 90 percent of the peer-reviewed medical research states that natural gas emissions threaten Pennsylvania’s children (both born and unborn), pregnant women and other vulnerable populations. Those living within a half-mile radius of production and transmission sites are at significant risk for health issues, including: a 25 percent increase in low birth weight infants and significant reductions in infant health, which predisposes individuals to lifelong health concerns; increased brain, spine, or spinal cord birth defects; congenital heart defects; up to 25 percent increase in children’s asthma; up to 86 times greater exposure to known cancer-causing chemicals such as benzene and toluene, and; increased anxiety and depression in pregnant women living near natural gas production sites.

According to the American Lung Association, the cities of Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Johnstown, Lancaster, Harrisburg, and York are already among the 25 dirtiest in the country. Today, more than 236,000 children and 945,000 adults in Pennsylvania have asthma. The fugitive emissions from natural gas operations increase smog (ground-level ozone), resulting in tens of thousands of additional asthma attacks each year. A new paper just released by researchers at Carnegie-Mellon adds to the mounting evidence that natural gas pollution is also one of the leading sources for increased soot (PM2.5) in our air. Soot already results in over 16,000 preterm births in the United States, causing over 5,000 infant deaths and is a leading cause of cardiac and respiratory diseases.

But you don’t have to live near a well to feel the health impacts of the natural gas industry. Leaking toxins threaten all of Pennsylvania’s residents. Methane (the primary component of natural gas) is a powerful greenhouse gas that is more than 86 times better at trapping heat than CO2 over its first 20 years in the atmosphere. Methane represents approximately 20 percent of the greenhouse gases that are currently warming the earth, resulting in more extreme weather, hotter temperatures, and increased smog.

Legislators in Harrisburg may want to think twice before rubber stamping Energize PA. Across the commonwealth, over 100,000 pro-life Christians have acted in support of responsible methane standards. We are conservative Christians who value human life and are strong believers in the tradition known as the “Protestant Work Ethic.” As such, we are quite tired of the long-standing special favors given to this now mature industry and believe it is well past time for both conventional and non-conventional natural gas firms to exist on market principles, be responsible for cleaning up their messes, and control their leaking poisons.

The Evangelical Environmental Network does not stand against Pennsylvania’s natural gas industry. We simply wish for the industry to operate safely, stop threatening our children’s health, clean up its messes, and stop seeking and receiving government handouts. For decades, natural gas, coal and other fossil fuels have received subsidies from our commonwealth, but the cost has been too steep. Our kids have paid the lion’s share of these costs with their lungs, hearts, minds, and even their lives. It’s time to defend our children and stop giving away Pennsylvania’s future.

It is simply immoral to keep offering handouts to an industry while our children suffer. We hope our General Assembly puts our kids first and rejects the Energize PA package.

Rev. Mitch Hescox is President/CEO, Evangelical Environmental Network.

Note the pipeline construction barrier in the backyard of Paula Brandt, Exxon, PA

From an Article by Claire Sasko, Philadelphia Inquirer, July 6, 2019

The ongoing battle over the Mariner East project is taking place in the backyards of Chester and Delaware county residents, who live in fear of a catastrophe.

CASE STUDY — It was dark outside, around 5 a.m., when the flames took over the sky. Neighbors described it like this: a loud hissing noise. A massive ball of fire. A jet, or a meteor, crashing into the earth. Night turning into day.

On September 10, 2018, a section of the Revolution Pipeline — which had begun carrying natural gas just a week earlier — leaked and ignited in rural Beaver County, Pennsylvania, northwest of Pittsburgh. The rupture shot flames 150 feet into the air, destroying one house, collapsing several overhead power lines, and forcing the evacuation of nearly 50 residents.

Fortunately, no one was injured; the couple who lost their home had fled in the nick of time.

But for residents living along the thousands of miles of natural gas pipelines in Pennsylvania — second only to Texas as the nation’s largest producer of the fossil fuel and home to the newly booming, energy-rich Marcellus Shale region — the fire and the charred earth it left behind serve as a haunting reminder: Something like this could happen in our backyards.

That dread is perhaps nowhere more evident than 300 miles southeast of Beaver County, in the dense suburban neighborhoods west of Philadelphia, a city that energy industry leaders have, in the past decade, eyed as a global processing and trading hub. Here, tensions surrounding the cross-state Mariner East pipelines — a project much larger than Revolution and owned by the same parent company, Dallas-based Energy Transfer — are only intensifying.

The pipelines (Mariner East 1 and 2 and the not-yet-completed 2x) carry highly compressed natural gas liquids. Once they are fully operational along a 350-mile route from their Marcellus Shale source to a revitalized former oil refinery in Marcus Hook, they promise to be vastly lucrative for Energy Transfer — and for the state, which, the company boasts, could see an economic impact of more than $9 billion from the project. But since work began in February 2017, Mariner East has been plagued by nearly 100 state Department of Environmental Protection violations, multiple sinkholes, service shutdowns and construction chaos. Glaring gaps in state regulatory oversight have been exposed, and opposition has grown into significant pushback from neighbors and a bipartisan group of lawmakers who say Pennsylvania communities are at risk of — and unprepared for — a potential pipeline disaster.

Mariner East is headed for an inflection point: Construction could continue despite opponents’ pitched efforts, or officials could take steps to pause, end or remedy a project that’s been embattled since its inception. In the meantime, those at the heart of the Mariner East conflict zone live in fear of an incident like Beaver ­County’s — or worse.

In April, a fortress-like metal barricade was erected across the center of Paula Brandl’s quiet, grassy backyard in Exton, Chester County. The scene outside her kitchen window is almost dystopian.

Brandl says land agents connected with Sunoco Pipeline LP, the Energy Transfer subsidiary that’s building the lines, told her the wall was installed as a noise barrier. For roughly two weeks after it went up, she says, she and her family members were “in shock.” Brandl contacted the agents and various state agencies to inquire about vibrations caused by the hidden construction as well as diesel exhaust in the air in and around her home, but she says no one she spoke with was helpful or informative.

“I have every right to know what is going on back there,” Brandl says at her dining room table one late-April day. “It’s just as if I don’t even own that land anymore.”

Energy Transfer is able to occupy Brandl’s backyard (and yards in 17 Pennsylvania counties) through what a recent New Yorker story termed a “legal loophole” linking the Mariner East project to the route of a 1930s pipeline that formerly transported heating oil. The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, the main state agency tasked with overseeing oil and gas projects, has deemed the project a public utility, stressing that state code “recognizes the intrastate transportation by pipeline of petroleum products.” Doing so grants the pipelines right-of-way, which is typically reserved for utilities offering some sort of benefit to the general public, like schools or highways.

Energy Transfer spokesperson Lisa Dillinger says that putting additional pipelines into an existing right-of-way is a common practice that “helps to reduce our environmental footprint.” But the pipelines’ public utility status enrages Brandl and other residents, especially since a significant quantity of the product the lines carry is to be shipped overseas to make plastics.

“The PUC failed us,” Brandl says. “This is not a utility. This is not a gas line that’s serving the benefit of Pennsylvanians. And that’s basically the root of this entire issue.”

In Pennsylvania, there’s no state agency responsible for approving the routes of intrastate hazardous-liquid pipelines — nor does federal law require that oversight. David Hess, who served as Pennsylvania’s DEP secretary under Republican governors Tom Ridge and Mark Schweiker from 2001 to 2003, says the lack of any such authority puts Pennsylvania “in a very disadvantageous position … because the pipeline route is critical. If the law was different, I don’t think you’d ever approve a route through populated areas like these, given the risks with some of these materials being carried.”

Dillinger says that Energy Transfer goes “above and beyond what is required to ensure the safety of our lines.” But it’s clear that the state agencies left to regulate the massive Mariner East project — the Pennsylvania DEP and the PUC — have an unprecedented situation on their hands, with what Hess calls “unanticipated impacts” in areas “overgrown with development.” Chief among those impacts are sinkholes that have opened in yards along the pipeline construction route in Chester County, twice exposing the buried pipe of the 1930s line (now repurposed as Mariner East 1) and prompting pipeline shutdowns to avert what the PUC called a potentially “catastrophic” risk to public safety.

The residents who owned those once-quaint yards — on Lisa Drive, just outside Exton — said they were terrified for their lives. Then, in April, Energy Transfer bought two of the homes, and the families moved out. Now, the properties sit eerily quiet and mostly empty, save for construction equipment and a small sign in one of the yards: notice: audio and video recording in progress. When I visited the area in early May, a man who identified himself as a relative of one of the former homeowners told me that in the neighborhood, “Everybody wants to get out.”

Paula Brandl and other residents who have endured the complications of hosting Mariner East construction on or near their properties — water contamination, spills of drilling mud, intimidating contractors — say those side effects pale in comparison to their biggest fear: a pipeline leak.

Natural gas liquids can rapidly change to an explosive gaseous state during a leak, and the gas can be ignited by sources as small as static discharge from using a cell phone, flicking a light switch or ringing a doorbell. Leaks, which can be caused by welding failures, material defects, pipeline corrosion, shifting land and other factors, have already happened along Mariner East 1 — three since 2014, though none resulted in an explosion. Energy Transfer’s Dillinger says the 88-year-old pipeline underwent “integrity testing and major upgrades” when it was repurposed for natural gas liquids service, and in April, two years after a high-profile leak in Berks County, the company said it would conduct a “remaining life study” of the line.

Energy Transfer’s safety record is, however, bleak in general. Between 2002 and the end of 2017, pipelines affiliated with the company across the country experienced a leak or an accident every 11 days on average, according to an analysis of federal pipeline data compiled by environmental advocacy organizations Greenpeace USA and Waterkeeper Alliance. In an evaluation by NPR affiliate StateImpact Pennsylvania, the same federal data showed that Sunoco Pipeline is responsible for the industry’s second-highest number of incidents reported to inspectors over the past 12 years.

“When it comes to number of accidents, Sunoco’s not just an outlier; they’re sort of an extreme outlier,” Eric Friedman, a Delaware County resident who lives steps from the Mariner East pipeline route, tells me.
Friedman, a former airline pilot who has worked for the FAA since 2006, sees Mariner East through a risk-management lens. (“Everything we do in commercial aviation is based on risk,” he says.)

He learned of the pipelines in 2013 — a year after buying his home in an affluent Glen Mills ­neighborhood — and has been researching the project ever since. He’s in regular contact with the offices of lawmakers like U.S. Rep Mary Gay Scanlon and Chester County State Senator Andy Dinniman — the politician widely considered to be the pipelines’ most vocal opponent — and he’s one of the leaders of a nonpartisan residents group called the Middletown Coalition for Community Safety.

In November 2018, seven residents of Chester and Delaware counties filed a complaint with the PUC against Sunoco Pipeline LP, alleging that the subsidiary hasn’t provided the public with a sufficient emergency notification system or management plan in the event of a pipeline-related disaster. The petitioners (nicknamed by residents the “Safety 7”) argue that as a public utility operator, Sunoco is tasked by federal regulations enforced by the PUC with providing an emergency-preparedness plan for potential disasters, like a possible leak along the Mariner East route. The failure to release a satisfactory plan, they say, places residents in the pipelines’ blast zone “at imminent risk of catastrophic and irreparable loss, including loss of life, serious injury to life, and damage to their homes and property.”

Energy Transfer has disputed the residents’ claims, saying that its emergency-response professionals “work and train with local first responders” and that it has shared a written public-education program specific to the area with emergency-response professionals along the line. Still, residents say the company hasn’t sufficiently involved the public in its preventative plans; the complaint is scheduled for hearings before an administrative law judge in July.

Meanwhile, the PUC has said it won’t release information about the potential impact of a leak or an explosion for several reasons, including that the state’s Right to Know law prohibits the disclosure of records that are “reasonably likely to jeopardize or threaten public safety.” Sharing the hazard assessments, the PUC argues, could compromise pipeline security by revealing information “which could clearly be used by a terrorist to plan an attack … to cause the greatest possible harm and mass destruction to the public living near such facilities.”

Brandl and other residents stress that living next to a “mass destruction” target is terrifying, with or without a disaster plan. To make matters worse, a recent report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office found major weaknesses in how the Department of Homeland Security’s Transportation Security Administration — which is responsible for addressing terrorism risks along the nation’s 2.7 million miles of oil and gas pipelines — manages its pipeline security efforts.

“I don’t think I’d be living 25 feet away from that pipeline,” Hess, the former DEP secretary, says. “But again, the question is, why was someone allowed to live within 25 feet of this pipeline in the first place?”

In December, Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan announced a criminal investigation into conduct related to the Mariner East project, saying that potential charges against individual Energy Transfer employees or corporate officers could include causing or risking a catastrophe, criminal mischief and environmental crimes. More recently, Delaware County DA Katayoun Copeland and Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro launched a joint investigation into Sunoco Pipeline LP and Energy Transfer over allegations of criminal misconduct related to the project, with Copeland stating that there “is no question that the pipeline poses certain concerns and risks to our residents.” (At press time, both investigations were ongoing.) Energy Transfer’s Dillinger says that the company remains “confident that we have not acted to violate any criminal laws in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and are committed to aggressively defending ourselves.”

After years of pressure, residents might finally be getting through to the state. At a Pennsylvania Senate committee meeting in June 2018 — before, even, a number of critical developments regarding Mariner East — former Republican State Senator Don White of Indiana County made a surprising statement: If issues raised at the committee’s meetings regarding pipeline safety consistently involve one project — referring to Mariner East — then “we have the ability in this state to find a way to deal with this company and put them out of business.”

David Hess, the former Republican DEP secretary — he was also executive director of the state Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee in the ’90s — says that for a “Republican senator to say that is astounding … [it] really underscores the problems this company is generating.”

As frustration and fear about Mariner East spread to constituents in red and blue districts alike, lawmakers who are typically supportive of the oil and gas industry (like north-central Pennsylvania State Senator Gene Yaw) are voicing concern. White’s proposition poses a question that residents are forcing officials — particularly Governor Tom Wolf, who has positioned himself as an ally to environmentalists and residents but has received tens of thousands of dollars in donations from oil and gas industry ­affiliates — to consider: How should they deal with the Mariner East pipelines?

Several months after the Revolution Pipeline incident in Beaver County, Wolf released a statement calling on state lawmakers to “address gaps in existing law which have tied the hands of the executive and independent agencies charged with protecting public health, safety and the environment.” His suggestions included giving the PUC authority over the routing of intrastate pipelines, ordering companies to work with local emergency coordinators, and requiring the installation of remote shutoff valves to contain leaks.

But the GOP-dominated legislature has yet to move any bills that would allow for those reforms. And none of that changes the fact that Mariner East has been unfolding on Wolf’s watch.

The Governor has yet to visit Delaware or Chester counties to speak firsthand with residents living near the pipelines about their experiences. (Lieutenant Governor John Fetterman visited before the 2018 primary; a spokesman for Wolf’s office said the Governor has met with residents and lawmakers about the project in Harrisburg.) Constituents say Wolf is simply not doing enough to prevent a potential disaster. Whether his administration will adopt a firmer stance toward Mariner East — as residents and local lawmakers have requested — remains uncertain.

Meanwhile, the project continues to highlight the limitations of both the DEP and the PUC. After all, there were warning signs before the Beaver County leak, which Energy Transfer has said resulted from a landslide that followed heavy rains. (Both the company and the PUC are still investigating the incident.)

The DEP had fined Energy Transfer three months before the Revolution Pipeline explosion for failing to mitigate erosion on a hillside about a mile from the site; the DEP says that at the time, it was “unaware of the issues associated with the blast site.” Critics have also questioned the agency’s decision to allow Sunoco Pipeline to use relatively new and potentially disruptive drilling methods that geologists say may have increased the risk of sinkholes along Lisa Drive in Chester County.

The PUC and state DEP have penalized Energy Transfer for many of the company’s missteps, at times (and increasingly) seriously. Revolution Pipeline remains out of service, and since February, the DEP has suspended all Energy Transfer permit applications (including for Mariner East) until the company reaches compliance in Beaver County. To Hess, the agencies are “working in the best way they can.” But, he argues, lawmakers need to consider more stringent regulation, especially of pipeline routes.

The question for residents is whether officials or Energy Transfer will act before an emergency. Until then, Eric Friedman says, they’ll continue to feel unprotected.

“I think at some level, the most important function of government is to reasonably provide for the public’s safety,” he says. “And how can you have a project like this, that could kill hundreds or thousands of people in the worst-case scenario, and hope for the best and not plan for the worst?”

>>> Published as “What Lies Beneath” in the July 2019 issue of Philadelphia magazine.

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PUC Hearing for Wilmer BAKER

Public · Hosted by Faith Alliance for Pipeline Safety

Two Dates · Jul 17 – Jul 18
>>>>> JUL 17 Wed 10:00 AM
>>>>> JUL 18 Thu 10:00 AM

Keystone Building 400 North St, Harrisburg, PA 17120

Show Our Public support for Wilmer Baker at his PUC hearing JULY and 17 and 18th . Wilmer has an important case !

He is asking for SIRENS and SAFE Replacement PIPE- and appropriate installation practices. As a retired welder, Hazmat trained and former Union President, Wilmer has meticulously built a case against Sunoco /ET. Come and show your support. Most other cases have been delayed.. till next summer.

Please SHARE widely. RSVP to this site.

https://www.facebook.com/events/869984080045327/

Concerned & disturbed residents are ignored or worse

From the Blog of Michael M. Barrick, Appalachian Chronicle, August 14, 2018

It is Duke, Dominion and EQT that are terrorizing people

Photo: Myra Bonhage-Hale, then of Alum Bridge, W.Va. holds signs with questions she had for Consol about pipelines. This “activist” eventually moved out of state.

RALEIGH, N.C. – The North Carolina’s surveillance and counter-terrorism unit has conducted a “threat assessment” of opponents to the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP), which is scheduled to be built in eastern North Carolina, according to North Carolina Policy Watch: “State Bureau of Investigation unit prepared “threat assessment” of Atlantic Coast Pipeline protestors.”

According to the article, “The state’s surveillance and counter-terrorism unit, the Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAAC), warned law enforcement officials that the Atlantic Coast Pipeline could attract “violent extremists” who are opposed to the natural gas project in North Carolina … .” If approved, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline will run more than 170 miles through North Carolina roughly parallel with I-95 east of Raleigh.

The law enforcement analysis could not be more misguided.

Photo: Joao Barroso makes a point with neighbors in Randolph County, W.Va. He became an “activist” to protect hundreds of acres of his pristine land.

There are terrorists involved in fracking and related pipeline development – if that’s the word the law enforcement wishes to use – but they are not the opponents to the pipeline; rather the ones terrorizing people and the environment are the corporations building the pipelines. These include Duke Energy of Charlotte, Dominion Resources of Richmond, and EQT of Pittsburgh. The latter company is the primary developer of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), another controversial pipeline being built through West Virginia and Virginia.

The ISAAC would be well served to listen to this excellent interview of Ellen M. Gilmer, a legal reporter with E&E News by West Virginia Public Radio. Gilmer offers an analysis of the court battles involving both pipelines. One listening to it will see that pipeline opponents don’t have to resort to “terrorism.” Why? They are enjoying many victories in state and federal courts. Victories, in fact, that for now have shut construction of the pipelines down.

Opponents are not wide-eyed radicals and Gilmer knows it. How do I know? In 2015, I gave her a tour of the area in northern West Virginia where both pipelines originate. While living and reporting from there, I was covering construction of the Stonewall Gas Gathering line, a 36” diameter, 55-mile pipeline. Because it did not cross state boundaries, it did not need federal approval. Nevertheless, the pipeline’s builders were terrorizing people along the entire route.

Photo: Justin McClain (L) listens as his father, Robert talks about the damage to their crops done by the Stonewall Gas Gathering Pipeline

As I took Ms. Gilmer around, I introduced her to the people most impacted by that project and introduced her to others whose land is threatened by the ACP and/or MVP. You’d have to ask her yourself, but I’m pretty sure she didn’t meet anyone that could be construed as a terrorist.

But, this is what she did see (or hear about because of time constraints):

>>> A farmer in Doddridge County whose crops were destroyed because of improper erosion controls upstream during pipeline construction
>>> Sick people throughout Doddridge County
>>> The local newspaper is owned, literally, by gas and oil company owners
>>> Citizens injured and killed by industry trucks
>>> Residents leaving the state

These are just but a few examples. There are several more links at the end of this article. However, one moment stands out for me. It was at an event where the fossil fuel industry and law enforcement teamed up to intimidate local citizens simply curious about the pipelines as they were first announced. It was then that I knew the fix was in. The corporations got to the legislators, who then pressured law enforcement. Now it’s happening in North Carolina. It is beyond unnecessary – it is chilling.

What is fracking?

Fracking is a slang word for hydraulic fracturing, the process of injecting a fluid consisting of water, sand and chemicals at high pressure into shale. This fractures the rock, releasing natural gas, which is then extracted. In West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania the Marcellus shale, a layer of rock 3,500 – 8,000 feet below the surface, is the object of fracking. The vertical depth of the formation is about 150 feet. Whether recovered or left behind, the frack fluid presents problems. The wastewater contains not only the chemicals added to the water, but also leaving minerals and radioactive materials recovered as part of the extraction process.

Failed erosion control

Failed erosion control on construction of Stonewall Gas Gathering pipeline in West Virginia Photo by Autumn Bryson

Large diameter, high pressure, long distance pipeline construction

Fracking and pipeline construction are inexorably linked. Without fracking, there is no need for a pipeline. Without fracking, there is no need for a pipeline. With fracking, all the risks associated with pipeline construction serve only to aggravate the impact of the process. Presently, four companies seek to construct two 42” pipelines from North Central West Virginia to carry the gas extracted from the Marcellus Shale. The longest, the 600-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) would terminate in Robeson County, N.C.

The companies seeking approval to build the ACP have harassed land owners wishing to protect their land from the devastation that would be caused by the ACP construction, not to mention the potential danger it poses for those living alongside of it. Having learned of what the people along the proposed ACP route have endured in West Virginia and Virginia, it is clear that the people of North Carolina need political leaders who will defend them, not consider them threats.

Fracking impacts and risks (Or ‘A Dirty Dozen Reasons to Oppose Fracking’)

Dead and injured workers (here and here), explosions on fracking pads (here), dead and injured motorists (here and here), destroyed wells and streams (here), dead livestock (here) and sickened residents (here) are just some of the public health and safety risks associated with fracking. Indeed, the list is rather long. The negative by-products of fracking include:

Public Health Issues, Water Use and Contamination, Radioactivity, Air Pollution, Waste Disposal, Site Development and Well Pad Activity, Misuse of Eminent Domain, Climate Change, Traffic Congestion, Potential Earthquakes, Industry Instability

The people experiencing these events and tactics do not sound like terrorists. They sound like people who are being terrorized.

See also the Appalachian Chronicle by Michael Barrick.

Property rights need to be basic in the U.S.

Essay by George Neall, Rockingham County, VA, August 6, 2018

Studies have documented that the construction of gas pipelines can cause the value of properties impacted by the pipelines to decrease an average of more than 30%. Other studies have documented similar decreases in land values caused by fracking. Who pays for these losses? Beyond the decrease in appraised property values, what are some of the other losses that occur as a result of pipeline construction?

There seems to be little useful and publicly available information on getting fairly compensated for the loss of your land, your quiet enjoyment, and other factors if your property is confiscated, despite the fact that condemnation proceedings are not uncommon. You are typically on-you-own when it comes to this. Most people hire an attorney to represent them in such matters. Finding a knowledgeable attorney who has a successful track record in such cases is very important.

Clearing a pipeline pathway through forested and mountainous land will result in the loss of many tons of topsoil. In one instance (not related to pipeline construction) documented in Texas, 23 tons of topsoil per acre were lost in just one rain event on fairly flat land with a slope of just 4%. Who will pay landowners for the loss of topsoil from their land where pipeline construction will result in the denuding of land? In many areas where the pipeline will be installed, ground slopes exceed 50%. Even after being “reclaimed,” erosion will be astronomical compared to pre-pipeline conditions, especially in forested land.

How much would it cost to have topsoil trucked in and spread on the ground to replace the topsoil that was washed away? What thickness of topsoil loss is equivalent to 23 tons per acre? The answer, shown in the simple calculations below, is just 1/8 in! Soil is not renewable in the classical sense. It takes a long time to form. Allowing topsoil to erode from landowners’ properties is akin to stealing money from them. Will we allow topsoil thieves get off scot-free like all of the crooked “too-big-to-fail” bankers?

The weight of a one-foot thickness of topsoil covering one acre of land area is approximately 4,000,000 lbs. Using 23 tons of topsoil loss per acre, we can calculate how thick this topsoil loss would be:

First, 23 tons/acre x 2,000 lb./ton = 46,000 lb./acre lost from just one rain event

Then, 46,000 lb. soil erosion / 4,000,000 lb./ft. thickness = 0.0115 ft./acre = 0.138 in., a little over 1/8 inch!

In other words, you would not be able to accurately measure soil depth to document this loss. You would actually need to see the topsoil being washed away during or following a rain or observe the gullies and rills left by water that eroded the topsoil to know that erosion had occurred.

Beyond compensation to the landowner for the loss of valuable topsoil, who will pay citizens for the degradation of water, our most precious resource, caused by the erosion of soil into surface and underground water sources? Let’s assume that pipeline construction will result in a total of 23 tons of soil erosion per disturbed acre of land. The actual figure will likely be much greater because most of the land being disturbed by the pipeline will have a slope much greater than 4%, with slopes exceeding 60% in areas. The 23-tons/acre figure was also from just one rainfall, albeit a big one, whereas increased erosion from pipeline construction will continue for many years. The pipeline will result in the denuding of approximately 10,000 acres of land, which would result in more than 200,000 tons of topsoil being washed into our fresh water resources. The rivers and streams carrying this sediment-laden water will eventually carry it to the oceans, further polluting them.

What are trees worth? I’m not a forrester. Standing tree values will vary depending upon a lot of factors, but an estimate of $1,500.00/acre can be used for tracts that are commercially clear-cut. Many people who have purchased forested tracts of land for recreational or retirement use would consider their land more valuable with standing timber than without. Indeed, many people looking for recreational or retirement land would not consider purchasing a clear-cut tract or land that was crossed by or adjacent to a large natural gas pipeline.

My wife and I would not sell the timber rights on the land we temporarily own. The timber is more valuable standing than cut down. The timber is what helps produce the pristine spring water we drink and the pure stream that flows down the mountain behind our house. When you really think about it, we’re all “temporary owners” while we’re alive. The land will endure and flourish if we let it. Sooner or later, someone else will temporarily own our land.

Water is not only the most important product of our wooded property but also of the national forests. Pristine water is dependent upon trees. The animals are dependent upon the trees and water. How much is it worth listening to woodpeckers drumming for food or catbirds calling from the trees? Can you assign a worth to collecting black walnuts, hickory, and May apples nuts in the fall? What about wineberries, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries and mulberries in the summer? If you’re a pipeline company that wishes to profit from the resources in our environment, they would have you believe the values of these things are intangible and irrelevant. We all know better!

There are many other factors that need to be considered if you are faced with condemnation of your land for the construction of a natural gas pipeline. Will your mortgage be affected? Will your house/property insurance be affected? What happens if the pipeline pollutes your land? What happens if/when the pipeline is abandoned? How will your use of the land confiscated by the pipeline be limited or adversely affected? How will the pipeline owner ensure the pipeline right of way is kept clear of trees or other objectionable plants? Will they use herbicides or will this be done manually? How often will these or other pipeline activities disrupt the “quiet enjoyment” of your property? What will happen if you lose your water supply as a result of pipeline construction? If your property is near a compressor station, is that station a nuisance, legally?

Here is the dictionary definition of “nuisance”: “Nuisances that interfere with the physical condition of the land include vibration or blasting that damages a house; destruction of crops; raising or lowering of a water table; or the pollution of soil, a stream or underground water supply. Examples of nuisances interfering with the comfort, convenience, or health of an occupant are foul odors, noxious gases, smoke, dust, loud noises, excessive light or high temperatures.”

Pipeline companies don’t care about any of these “theoretical” considerations. They don’t care about inconveniencing people. They don’t care that their actions may cost other people money or cause emotional pain. They’re not in the business to be nice. They’re in business to make money. They make money by externalizing as many costs as possible, like pollution of our environment. Violations of environmental regulations should result in significant fines. Landowners should receive fair compensation that not only includes the actual value of confiscated land, but also compensation for loss of quiet enjoyment, loss of topsoil and other factors. The cost of mitigating pollution should be paid up front and not by society after is has occurred. If paying environmental costs up front makes the product or project too expensive to generate a profit, it would not happen.

We may be able to stop some pipelines from being built. This needs to be our collective goal. But there will be instances where pipelines are built in spite of widespread and fervent opposition, science and common sense. Dominion and other corporations pay politicians to do their bidding. They help write the laws that let them run roughshod over you and me.

Suggested further reading:
Finding and Buying Your Place In The Country by Les & Carol Scher

Fracking chemicals by the diesel truck load

From an Essay by Rabbi Wallace Greene, Jewish Link of New Jersey, January 25, 2018

Now it is freezing and snowy, but summer camp enrollment is taking place. Parlor meetings often feature a video tour of the camps’ facilities. Here are the bunks, the dining hall, the waterfront, the baseball field and … the natural gas drilling operation?

There are about 30 Jewish camps located in the Marcellus Shale area covering New York and Pennsylvania — four of those camps signed leases that would open up fracking operations at the camps. Hess, the company leasing the property to begin drilling at the summer camps, claims the lease terms make sure drilling can’t “unreasonably interfere” with operations. But Hess will be allowed to drill while camp sessions are under way and fracking operations could come to within 500 to 1,000 feet of camp structures. Meanwhile, environmental concerns over natural gas fracking grow stronger.

After continuing reports from communities about groundwater contamination, researchers at Duke University tested 68 private groundwater wells around the country sited close to fracking operations and found that 85 percent had levels of methane 17 times higher than wells located more than a kilometer away from drilling sites. A New York Times investigation also found that 130 wells around the country were discharging waste water with levels of radiation 100 to 1,000 times the accepted legal limit.

The Marcellus Shale is rich in shale and natural gas. It sits beneath both New York’s Catskill Mountains and Pennsylvania’s Poconos, the dual epicenters of Jewish (and non-Jewish) summer camps. Four Jewish summer camps (B’nai B’rith’s Perlman Camp in Lake Como, Pennsylvania.; Camp Nesher in Lakewood, Pennsylvania, and Camp Shoshanim in Lake Como, both New Jersey Y camps; and Camp Morasha in Lake Como) are reported to have signed leases with the Hess Corporation that could allow the deep-bore drilling technique—criticized by many experts as damaging to the environment—at their campgrounds. Environmentalists worry that this toxic water could escape from the wells and taint nearby water supplies. The dairy farmers are very concerned about every aspect of raising cows who give untainted milk.

Jewish wisdom and values oppose selling rights to the land in ways that will poison the earth, the air, the water and crops. Everyone supports increasing our energy independence, but in ways that also protect the environment. Fracking needs more study and refinement. It’s a shame that the camps couldn’t wait until the science is completed before signing their leases. As a country, we clearly need this energy source, yet our kids need fresh air and clean water. The camps have no business allowing this. It is surprising that their liability insurers are not more concerned.

The gas industry says that fracking is safe, and has made many promises to safeguard the camps. If that is true, why are the companies that use this technique trying to avoid regulation? In 2005, lobbyists for the natural gas industry persuaded Congress to exempt fracking from regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Clean Water Act. Other key environmental laws also contain exemptions for gas drilling.

Farmlands and forests are impacted when natural gas is extracted from the Marcellus Shale. The transportation of heavy equipment impacts municipal roadways. When heavy equipment travels over farmland, soil compaction occurs. Soil compaction is caused by tire pressure and this can have an effect on plant production. Soil compaction is also caused by axle loads, which reduce productivity for decades. Forest lands can also be affected by Marcellus drilling. To drill, a large number of trees may need to be cut down to build access roads. Shrubs and flowers may also need to be taken down for roadway access.

The water that is used for drilling can come from various places such as rivers, lakes, private water sources, municipal water and recycled fracking water. This water, used in drilling, is contaminated and is hauled away to be treated. It cannot be returned to its source. Another major concern is water contamination. Drilling through aquifers can contaminate water supplies.

Natural gas production does not exist without consequences. Its extraction from the Marcellus shale impacts air quality and releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Potential sources of air pollution vary on the phase of the drilling stage. In the early phases, the air can be polluted by drilling rigs and fracking engines that are fueled by diesel or gasoline.

Air pollution also comes from the truckloads of water carried to the drilling site and the water being hauled away. Once the drilling stage is completed, production begins—which includes compressor engines and condensate tanks. Unintended leaks can also occur from drilling equipment that is worn, rusty, corroded or not properly installed.

Air quality is an issue that needs a closer look with the increase of natural gas drilling and production. Although there is some disagreement on the extent of air pollution, it is suggested that more emphasis be placed on air-quality monitoring.

There are many environmental impacts associated with hydraulic fracturing, or “hydrofracking.” Among them are water consumption, wastewater disposal, use of toxic chemicals, substantial truck traffic, air pollution, noise from the loud, 24-hour hydrofracking operations, potential groundwater and well water contamination, deforestation, roadbuilding and surface water runoff from these large industrial sites. The cumulative effect of these impacts may indeed transform entire communities—turning previously rural, agrarian areas into “fractured communities.”

Hydraulic fracturing requires up to 3 to 8 million gallons of water per hydrofrack, and typically each well is hydrofracked many times. The water must be trucked in (involving millions of truck trips), stored on site, and the wastewater disposed of properly (nearly all of the fracking fluid injected returns to the surface, bringing with it materials from underground including brines, heavy metals, radionuclides and organics).

Even though the gas industry claims that toxic chemicals represent less than 1 percent of hydrofrack fluid, the U.S. Geological Survey explains that a typical 3 million gallon hydrofrack produces 15,000 gallons of chemical waste. In existing Marcellus wells outside of New York this waste is stored on site in large holding ponds until trucks haul it away. Disposal of wastewater is a problem—there are no disposal sites.

Money is a potent force, but it cannot replace polluted streams and rivers, nor can it replace what is still an idyllic summer in the Catskills and the Poconos for countless numbers of children.

>>> Rabbi Wallace Greene, PhD, and his family have spent many summers at camps in the Poconos (PA) and the Catskills (NY).

ACTION ALERT: www.WVSORO.org

Lancaster County PA is southeast of Harrisburg PA

From an Article by Ad Crable, Lancaster Online, December 19, 2017

“The bottom line is the quality of life is being affected,” says Ed Burns, a retiree who pulls down the blinds and turns up the television to try to keep the intrusions out of his home.

Since November 28th, residents of about 10 homes near Safe Harbor have had an unwelcome front-row seat to a six-day-a-week, all-night unusual work zone: near-constant drilling under the Conestoga River as part of the Atlantic Sunrise gas pipeline. Drilling on a lesser scale began in early October.

And now the residents know their complaints of quality-of-life disruptions have not fallen on deaf ears.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission told LNP on Monday that after resident complaints, a FERC compliance monitor in the last few days confirmed there are indeed noise and lighting problems.

The pipeline builder has been ordered to “look into ways to mitigate the situation so the public will not be inconvenienced,” said Tamara Young-Allen, a FERC spokeswoman.

“We’re sorry for the inconvenience.” Corrective measures will have to be “performance-based,” she said.

Company’s statement

When contacted by LNP, pipeline builder Williams acknowledged the FERC order and issued this statement:

“We have been in contact with two landowners who have expressed concerns recently related to noise or other issues associated with our horizontal drilling operation near the Conestoga River.

“Our, Land, Engineering and Construction teams are coordinating with FERC to ensure any landowner issues are resolved in a prompt and appropriate manner.”

To make way for the Atlantic Sunrise natural gas pipeline, contractors for the Transcontinental Pipe Line are slowly boring under the Conestoga River simultaneously from both sides of the waterway.

One drilling operation is based on a 107-acre farm in Conestoga Township that Oklahoma-based Williams Partners purchased for $2.8 million. Transco is a subsidiary of Williams.

But on the west side of the river, boring is going on nearly non-stop in a farm field that is ringed by houses that sit on higher ground.

Headaches and lost sleep

In addition to complaints about trouble sleeping and a constant hum, some residents worry about cracks to the foundations and walls of their old homes and contamination of wells.

One resident, Troy Thorne, said vibrations have given him headaches. “The noise you can deal with,” Thorne said. “When the vibrations start, it runs you out of the house. You can feel it in your inner ear. It just kind of makes you feel weird.”

“The noise you can deal with. When the vibrations start, it runs you out of the house.”

For his wife, the noise is the foremost disturbance. “It is just horrible,” she said. “It’s just constant.”

She said the family keeps fans turned on to provide white noise in the bedrooms of their three children. Their son was home from college Saturday night and complained that he only got three hours of sleep, she added.

Payments and relocations?

As a result of residents’ complaints, Williams told FERC last week in its weekly summary of pipeline construction that it was investigating new ways to address noise levels at the site, including paying homeowners for the disturbances and offering to relocate them until the drilling is finished.

The company said it had installed a sound wall and baffles on equipment on Oct. 24. Two noise readings by the company taken on December 9th were below the 55-decibel action reading, but one from the front door of a home on Witmer Road was 70.2 decibels.

Seventy decibels is akin to the sound of a vacuum cleaner.

Thorne has taken readings from a cell phone app and has recorded a high of 77 decibels from the road in front of the family’s home. That level is equivalent to the sound of a passenger car going 65 mph as heard from a distance of 25 feet.

Pans on the kitchen wall tap each other and rattle from vibrations given off by the drilling under the earth, says Cynthia Heiland. To block out the noise, she sleeps with ear plugs, but that has created a new problem as she can’t hear the alarm clock.

“And they’re not even drilling with the largest drill yet,” she says. “It could get worse.”

Lack of information

“We didn’t know this was going to be this intense,” adds a woman who lives on Safe Harbor Road and did not want her name used.

All the residents interviewed complained that no one ever approached them to inform them of the impending drilling or what to expect.

“No one has ever come over here to say here’s what we’re doing. There’s no transparency,” said Ed Burns.

“We didn’t know this was going to be this intense.”

Residents said they have complained to Williams, Manor Township officials, FERC and a state legislator, but without noticeable results.

Ryan Strohecker, Manor Township manager, said he checked the township noise ordinance and found that utilities are exempt. He said jurisdiction with the drilling lies with FERC and the pipeline builder.

The drilling under the Conestoga is expected to be complete in early 2018, Williams said.

The $3 billion, 197-mile pipeline is scheduled to be completed in July 2018. About 37 miles of the project run through western and southern Lancaster County.

WV Legislature Gone Amuk

Thou Shalt Not Sue in West Virginia, says SB-508

From an Article by Dory Hippauf, Frackorporation, February 7, 2016

Approximately 220 nuisance lawsuits have been filed in West Virginia  over the past 3 years against such drilling/fracking companies such as Antero Resources, EQT and Hall Drilling.

WV is considered a national energy hub, leading the nation in net interstate electricity exports and underground coal mine production, while experiencing a growing natural gas industry as a result of the Great Shale Gas Rush. Overall, it produces 15% of the nation’s fossil fuel energy. The state’s underground natural gas storage represents 6% of the nation’s total, and overall it has 5.1 billion cubic feet of natural gas reserves through 2008 estimates.

Beneath WV is the Marcellus Shale and its vast natural gas resource. The natural gas trapped in the Marcellus Shale was considered to be unrecoverable until approximately 10 years ago. Technological improvements through a combination of chemicals, horizontal drilling and “fracking” changed all that.

Along with the natural gas hyped promise of “jobs” and money came numerous problems to residents, including water contamination, air pollution, noise, traffic, and more. Living the drill in WV (and elsewhere) means sleepless nights from the noise and lights coming from a well pad, it means keeping windows closed – even in the summer months – to prevent breathing in emissions. It means putting up with thousands of trucks running 24/7 up and down rural roads and kicking up dust.

IT IS A NUISANCE —

Residents have little recourse to stop or curtail the drilling except through the courts and this has led to the increase of filing Nuisance Lawsuits.

In a nuisance lawsuit, a plaintiff is basically saying to the defendant, “Your action is interfering with my enjoyment of my property; therefore, you must stop acting in that manner.”

The WV Senate agrees it is a nuisance, but not to the WV residents. Nuisance lawsuits are being viewed as a nuisance to the drilling corporations, factory farms, and other giant industries. The WV Senate is going to fix that problem by prohibiting Nuisance lawsuits.

WV Senators Ferns, Stollings, Kirkendoll, Blair, Carmichael, Mullins and Palumbo introduced Senate Bill 508 (SB508) on Thursday, February 4, 2016.

(Emphasis added) The purpose of this bill is to establish the standards applicable to the common law claim for private nuisance. The bill lists elements and establishes requirements including the requirement that physical property damage or bodily injury exist before a person can seek damages for a private nuisance. The bill also prohibits private nuisance claims if the activity at issue is conducted pursuant to and in compliance with a permit, license or other approval by a state or federal agency or other entity. The bill also requires a plaintiff to have either an ownership interest or possessory interest in the property at issue to have standing to bring a private nuisance claim.

SB508 will strip way West Virginians right to enjoy their property. Mining or Drilling operations disrupting your sleep? You won’t be able to sue.

Is a factory farm runoff or odors making you sick? You won’t be able to sue. Noise from a strip club next door too loud? You won’t be able to sue.

An industrial operation causing problems in your neighborhood? You won’t be able to sue.

Barking dogs from a Kennel business? If they have a municipal, state or federal permit – there won’t be anything you can do about it.

ALEC ORIGINS —

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a right-wing bill mill, has written far-reaching Right to Farm Act as one of its over 800 “model bills” that it encourages state legislators to pass. The bill would bar any lawsuits by neighbors claiming nuisance from any activities that are typical in farming, including industrial agriculture.

Although the ALEC “Right to Farm” bills pertain to industrial or factory farming, its purpose is to stop Nuisance lawsuits from being a nuisance to the industry.

Perhaps seeking to kill several pesky nuisance lawsuit issues in one blow, SB508 contains much broader language than just being “farm” specific. As long as any business or activity has a municipal, state or federal agency issued permit a nuisance lawsuit cannot be filed.

SB508 has been referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.

West Virginians who wish to preserve their rights to enjoy their property must to take action now and stop SB508!

>>> Dory Hippauf became involved with the “fracking” issue when a landman came knocking on her door, instead of signing a lease she joined the Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition and was soon the chair of the research committee. Although the research involved all aspects of Natural Gas activities, she has focused her personal time on “Connecting the Dots” of Corporations and Politicians. Dory was one of 3 winners of the 1st Annual FracTracker and Halt the Harm Environmental Stewardship award in Septmber 2015.

My Legislature is Also Against Me Now

SB 508 Takes Away Citizens’ Right to Sue Over Drilling Impacts

>>> Letter from the WV Surface Owners Rights Organization, February 7, 2016

Earlier this week, seven Senators introduced SB 508, which would take away citizens’ ability to bring “nuisance” suits against against oil and gas drillers. As we reported in our Summer 2015 newsletter, a number of these cases have been filed in Doddridge, Harrison, Marion, Pleasants, Ritchie and Kanawha Counties against companies drilling and operating wells to the Marcellus and other shale formations.

A “nuisance” case is somewhat different from a damage, “trespass,” or other case that would be brought by the owner of the surface where a well pad is located. A nuisance case is often brought by the owner of the surface that adjoins or is near a tract where a well pad is located. These suits by neighboring surface owners are usually brought because of the noise, dust or other air pollution, truck traffic, etc. related to the drilling, which has interfered with the neighbors’ use and enjoyment of their land.

SB 508 undermines the law hundreds of West Virginians have used to file suit against the oil and gas companies whose activities have negatively affected their quality and way of life, making it virtually impossible for other affected residents to bring similar suits in the future. Bringing this type of legal action is the only recourse many people have. We can’t let the Legislature take this right away.

Please contact members of the Senate Judiciary Committee and your Senators and tell them to oppose SB 508 and preserve our right to bring nuisance suits.

Need some inspiration? Here’s a letter one SORO member sent to her legislators:

It is clear some of the state legislators want to reduce the cost of extraction by transferring damage done by gas drillers and strip miners to the rural folks living in and near these sacrifice zones. Not everyone has that option, or the desire, ability and funds to move to an unaffected area. Can you imagine working your entire life, settling down in your home to finally retire, only to have drillers show up and build a well pad next door?

Residents of our state deserve protection from outside multimillion dollar corporations. What SB 508 does is to revise the definition of a nuisance suit almost out of existence. This bill favors corporations over middle class and poor West Virginia citizens. Please vote NO on SB 508.

Nancy B., Upshur Co.

Thank you for taking action!