Rogersville shale exploration for oil & gas

Be careful, Cabell and Wayne counties, about shale development in SW WV

Letter to the Editor by Bill Hughes, Huntington Herald-Dispatch, April 7, 2017

The fracturing operations of the Marcellus shale gas exploration and production in West Virginia began 10 years ago in Wetzel County, in the Northwestern part of West Virginia. It remains a major center of natural gas activity.

Since I live in the center of Wetzel County, I was interested in reading the recent article in The Herald-Dispatch about the success story on Cenergy manufacturing company located in Milton. It is definitely good to know that there is an expanding, well managed business, providing professional design and manufacturing to the shale gas industry. Cenergy provides good jobs and is benefiting from the shale gas operations taking place to the north in the active gas field. Unfortunately, the unemployment rate here stays well above the West Virginia average. Here, we live in what is called the sacrifice zone. That means your gain is our pain.

Any time there is a new target of drilling opportunities like the Rogersville shale in the Cabell and Wayne counties area, the same industry sales and marketing pitch is broadcast. A leasing frenzy starts. Wetzel residents heard all the landsmen’s partially true promises of the natural gas industry when Chesapeake Energy first appeared here to claim rights to dominate our rural communities. And like most advertising and public relations strategies, there is always a sliver of truth to the tale.

We should always think twice when an industry needs to spend millions of dollars to tell you it will be marvelous to have their industrial operation in your residential or farming neighborhood. Landsmen have the script memorized. The general themes go like this. Shale gas drilling and fracking is: a dependable, proven technology; fundamentally safe; delivers cheap, clean fuel; and will create jobs and be an economic boon for West Virginia.

Before Cabell residents swallow these statements whole, we might wish to dissect them. Is this a proven process? Well, when Chesapeake invaded Wetzel, we were definitely a shale gas guinea pig in the state. The process we experienced was not 50 years old. It was still very much experimental. The process is improving now. It has gotten better in some respects. But keep in mind that any time the fracturing equipment fleet shows up with canisters of Cesium 137 on them, this is definitely not your grandfather’s well drilling.

These newer well bores need high-volume, high-pressure slick water fluids for fracturing their very long laterals. Your grandfathers’ wells were safe and simply vertical only. And the low level radioactive drill waste products now should have some special disposal requirements.

These “advertised as safe” wells have had their problems with gas releases due to well blowouts, explosions, fires and accidents. But unlike local chemical plants contained within walls and roofs, these accidents happen in our communities.

What about the clean fuel claim? Yes, it is true that natural gas, when finally burned, is cleaner that coal when it is burned. Unfortunately, that is a very narrow slice in the overall cradle-to-grave environmental impact and is hardly the only metric to use. It is a very narrow window to look through.

Also, to categorize shale gas as a safe fuel requires us to ignore the diesel fumes from over 30,000 horsepower of fracturing pump engines and the subsequent combustion fumes from the well pad gas processing equipment. And for the cheap fuel label to be true, we must ignore the major externalized costs to public health, water quality and exposure to silica dust. We must also ignore the daily community inconvenience to the traveling public and the public costs to repair infrastructure damage caused by oversized vehicles. And these funds might have to come from an already stretched thin general state budget. After 10 years of drilling, we are still a poor state. So much for the economic boon from shale gas.

Some free advice from the sacrifice zone in Wetzel to prospective targets in Wayne and Cabell: Do your homework. Residents living there above the Rogersville shale must become better informed; review the 10 years of drilling history here. Discount the self-serving sales pitch of the natural gas industry. Consider the future you wish to leave to you grandchildren. And try to resist the flash of cash since there is no hurry to sign any lease. The Rogersville shale is not going anywhere soon. It can wait until you are better informed.

Bill Hughes, a resident of Wetzel County, WV, has been monitoring the Marcellus shale development from the beginning.

See also:  Marcellus-Shale.US

Rogersville Shale 9 to 10,000 feet deep in KY, 12 to 14,000 in WV (Up to 1000 feet thick)

OVEC — 2015 Recap and a Look Ahead with an End of Year Appeal

From Vivian Stockman, et al, OVEC Staff, December 28, 2015

Source: http://ohvec.org/end-of-year/

As we celebrate the successes, we recognize the challenges ahead.

For instance, while OVEC has been at the forefront of the movement to end mountaintop removal coal mining for nearly 20 years, our work must continue in 2016. Our persistent efforts have stopped some MTR mines altogether, slowed others down and forced mining companies to spend nearly $500 million on treating toxic mine pollution. And, as coal markets have declined, MTR mines have been shutting down faster. But Big Coal is still blowing up mountains and burying streams.

Peoples’ lives and health are still being destroyed by this egregious MTR mining method. Nearly 30 peer-reviewed health studies link MTR and coal toxins to many illnesses including cancer, heart disease, and birth defects, contributing to lower life expectancy. Sadly, none of this has made one iota of difference to most WV politicians, whose top priority continues to be “saving coal.”

As coal revenues decline, our politicians now are looking at yet another dirty fossil fuel to make up the difference. Oil and gas companies have targeted Cabell (where OVEC’s office is located), Wayne, Putnam and Lincoln counties for a land grab, for fracking — drilling down very deeply for the Rogersville Shale. Our concerns have already been validated by citizens with whom we work in north-central WV who face serious environmental and health problems; fracking for the Marcellus Shale has been underway there for several years.

With your continued investment in OVEC, we promise to push back against the power structure that gives outside corporations the “right” to pollute our water and air. Please, consider donating to OVEC. You can donate here today. Your contribution is tax-deductible.

We truly appreciate you, and thank you for making our work possible in 2015. Here’s to 2016!

#  #  #  UpComing Activities

January 9: 3-6 p.m. WV Rivers Coalition hosts the Safe Water For West Virginia Public Forum at the Culture Center, State Capitol Grounds in Charleston, WV.

January 19: 7-10 p.m. WV Environmental Council’s Legislative Kick Off Party at the Charleston Woman’s Club.

January 21: 6-8 p.m. Shale and Pipelines: What the Frack is Going On in Putnam County? OVEC will host a community forum on Rogersville Shale and the Mountaineer Xpress Pipeline at the Eleanor Presbyterian Church, 205 Eleanor Circle, Eleanor, WV in Putnam County.

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Some Words of Wisdom from Bill Moyers

In The Plutocrats Are Winning. Don’t Let Them!, a recent op-ed, Bill Moyers writes:

As we are reminded by this season, there is more to life than politics. There are families, friends, music, worship, sports, the arts, reading, conversation, laughter, celebrations of love and fellowship and partridges in pear trees. But without healthy democratic politics serving a moral order, all these are imperiled by the ferocious appetites of private power and greed.

So enjoy the holidays, including Star Wars. Then come back after New Year’s and find a place for yourself, at whatever level, wherever you are, in the struggle for democracy. This is the fight of our lives and how it ends is up to us.

With your support, OVEC works to quell the ferocious appetites of private power and greed. Thank you very much for your work and assistance. See you in 2016.

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See also: “Rogersville shale information sheet“