Some 24 Salem WV Area Residents File Suit Over Fracking Operations

From the Article by Matt Harvey, Clarksburg Exponent-Telegram, October 11, 2013

CLARKSBURG — Twenty-four Salem area residents have sued Antero Resources Corp. and a leasing partner, claiming the Denver energy company’s operations have substantially hindered their quality of life.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the residents by the Hill, Peterson, Carper, Bee & Deitzler law firm of Charleston. Defendants are Antero Resources, Antero Resources Blueston and Hall Drilling LLC.

“Since living in Harrison County, the Plaintiffs had come to expect and enjoy the quiet, fresh air, fresh water, privacy, darkness of night and overall peacefulness of the area,” the lawsuit contends.

Antero’s hydraulic fracturing ventures have ruined water wells, damaged roads and homes (the latter through vibration) and created excessive traffic, light, noise and diesel fumes, the lawsuit alleges. Additionally, some of the defendants’ employees have harassed or menaced the residents, the lawsuit alleges.

The plaintiffs live on Stillhouse Road, Cherry Camp Road, Rainbow Ranch Road and Haymond Woods Road. They are requesting a jury trial seeking damages.

A call to Antero Resources’ Denver headquarters went into an answering service late Thursday afternoon. A message left with an Antero employee at the company’s Bridgeport office wasn’t immediately returned.

The case has been assigned to Harrison Chief Judge James A. Matish.

As the rhetoric heats up over natural gas drilling in West Virginia’s portion of the Marcellus shale field and opposition to the unconventional deep wells grows, the industry is cranking up the public relations machine. At a conference in Morgantown on June 21st, the Independent Oil and Gas Association of West Virginia touted its 4-week-old “Just Beneath the Surface” campaign and website.

Corky DeMarco, executive director of the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association, said that industry can no longer afford to ignore people who fear its operations. Instead, it must understand their concerns, educate them and provide transparency about drilling operations.

Tapping the Marcellus reserves requires unconventional technology, horizontal drilling, as well as hydraulic fracturing. Drillers pump high volumes of water mixed with chemicals and sand into wells to crack the rock, creating fissures that release the gas. Industry insists the practice is safe, but opponents fear the possibility of water contamination as well as air pollution, road destruction and other problems.

For generations, DeMarco said, the gas industry shunned publicity. “Now, we have an instance where the public is aware of what we’re doing,” he said. Opposition is driven by “the fear of the unknown,” he said, “and we weren’t doing a very daggone good job of letting them know what we were doing.”

Road damage, heavy truck traffic and other facets of the drilling industry have disrupted the quality of life for many rural residents, DeMarco acknowledged, “and now everybody’s looking at us.” “If you live on a rural West Virginia road and you’ve now got potholes as deep as this tabletop, life is not so good for you,” he said. “This industry has a bright future … but we’ve got to get the thing done right.”