Existing Pinnacle Wind Farm in Mineral County, West Virginia

From an Article by Michelle Lewis, Electrek Communications, January 26, 2021

West Virginia is getting a 115 MW wind farm, which will increase the state’s wind power by 15%. Here’s why that’s a really big deal – and why West Virginia’s governor, Jim Justice, is so excited.

West Virginia wind power — First, let’s check out West Virginia’s new wind farm. Construction is underway on the $200 million Black Rock Wind project. It consists of 23 turbines that produce 5 megawatts each on the Grant-Mineral county line, in the northeastern region of the state. Green energy developer Clearway Energy is building Black Rock Wind, which will provide power to Toyota and American Electric Power.

Clearway, which already operates the Pinnacle Wind Farm (pictured above) in Mineral County, intends to have Black Rock Wind operating before the end of this year.

WVMetroNews reports that Clearway Energy CEO Craig Cornelius says that $52 million of the $200 million will be spent on payroll and services during the construction process.

Construction will create 200 union jobs, and permanent positions will be advertised later this year. Clearway is planning a pilot project training program for workers who have coal mining or other energy experience.

West Virginia’s coal dependency is changing

West Virginia is coal country. According to the US Energy Information Administration, as of 2018, it was the second-largest coal producer in the US after Wyoming and ranked fifth among the states in total US energy production – that’s 5%.

Coal-fired electric power plants accounted for 91% of West Virginia’s electricity net generation in 2019. Renewable energy resources — primarily hydroelectric power and wind energy — contributed a meager 6%, in contrast.

West Virginia depends on the fossil fuel for jobs and revenue – but coal is a lost cause. Maybe that’s why Governor Jim Justice (R-WV) sounds so excited – maybe even a little relieved? – when he announced Black Rock Wind yesterday. Here’s an excerpt of what he said:

Gosh, this is so necessary that we have within our state, and this is really good stuff. Today we’re announcing a great move by Blackrock, a great move in the State of West Virginia, and so many, many, many good things that are about to happen here.

We absolutely do not run off and leave our [fossil fuel] jobs, but at the same time, we absolutely want to embrace all the other ways we can move forward with manufacturing and great jobs.

Governor proposes special session for his 'ultimate resolution'

From an Article by Brad McElhinney, WV MetroNews, February 26, 2018

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Gov. Jim Justice, who has EQT board member Bray Cary as a volunteer on his staff, today promoted a grand bargain on natural gas drilling and teacher pay — frustrating several participants on the gas issue.

During three stops around West Virginia, Justice urged that a co-tenancy drilling bill be killed in the state Senate so that it — plus another drilling policy known as joint development — may be brought up in special session.

The governor then suggested that both issues would be intertwined with the pay and health care issues that have caused thousands of West Virginia educators to walk out of schools and rally at the Capitol.

Justice said the severance tax could be raised to provide more revenue for teacher pay and healthcare.

The governor’s proposals, which were first made at a town hall appearance in Wheeling, frustrated delegates who have been involved with the co-tenancy bill as well as segments of the natural gas industry and the royalties and land organizations that have been shepherding the bill.

Several of them pointed fingers at EQT, which did not immediately respond to the criticism. “I’m pretty disappointed about the whole thing,” said Delegate John Kelly, R-Wood, vice chairman of the House Energy Committee.

“Joint development is a program that has no chance of passage in the House of Delegates. It’s failed every year since I’ve been here and I believe it’s going to continue to fail. It’s a taking and right now there’s only one company in the state of West Virginia — that I’m aware of — that even wants a joint development law passed.

“The other companies, this law actually goes against their current business practices.”

An organization called Shale Energy Alliance has been using targeted social media ads for the past week to suggest drilling legislation could be the path toward raises and stable health care for teachers.

The campaign seems to be aimed at generating teacher support and aiming it at lawmakers.

The governor, today in Wheeling, echoed those comments. The governor’s official Twitter account also put out the message:

JUSTICE—- I will call us into special session to find a way out through co-tenancy and joint development and the mineral rights people … you’ve got to find a way that satisfies everybody and raises the severance tax on gas.

JUSTICE—- I am the guy that said let’s tier the severance tax on coal and natural gas at the State of the State a year ago.

JUSTICE —- You have two trump cards. You’ve got co-tenancy and joint development. I’m telling you point blank, where you can help, don’t let co-tenancy pass. Make us go to a special session on gas.

JUSTICE —- If co-tenancy does not pass the Senate … I will call for a special session.

Controversy swirled in December over revelations that Cary, an EQT board member since 2008, had been serving as a volunteer in the governor’s office, focusing on communications and some policy issues.

EQT’s corporate governance policy says it is the duty of the board of directors to serve as a fiduciary of the company.

Cary bought several rounds of shares of EQT stock over the latter part of last year. The largest was a purchase in June of 22,627 shares valued at $1,209,186.

“It makes me wonder,” Delegate Kelly said.

Co-tenancy, which passed the House of Delegates and now is in Senate Judiciary, requires at least 75 percent of rights holders on a single piece of property to OK drilling. Advocates say it’s a way to allow the majority to go ahead if a few holdouts don’t want drilling or can’t be located.

Joint development would allow an operator that already has old leases, signed before modern shale drilling began, to combine into a single drilling unit. It’s significantly more controversial.

Bills dealing with natural gas drilling and property rights have fallen apart many times over the years, either failing to balance the rights of the various players or being weighed down by a variety of inter-related issues.

Governor Justice earlier this year brought together executives from the big natural gas drilling companies, as well as representatives from the land and royalties groups. They, along with delegates, decided to move forward with co-tenancy on its own.

Tom Huber, president of the West Virginia Royalty Owners Association, said the governor’s proposal on natural gas doesn’t stand a chance of helping teachers.

“It’s unfortunate the governor would try to manipulate teachers into going home with a false promise of forced pooling for a severance tax,” Huber said.

“Let’s call joint development what it is — it’s forced pooling,” Huber said. “Co-tenancy is a carefully negotiated bill to try to resolve disputes between mineral owners in the same tract. It’s kind of sad that he would try to trick the teachers like this.”

Huber said the governor’s position, combined with Cary’s presence in the office, looks funny.

“Obviously we, as the Royalty Owners Association, feel it is highly inappropriate to have someone who is on the board and collecting the salary of a major out-of-state corporation in the governor’s office, advising him on these issues,” Huber said. “There’s got to be something wrong with that, ethically or legally.”

Also critical of the governor’s call for a special session on drilling issues was Jason Webb, a lobbyist who represents the West Virginia Land and Mineral Owners Association.

“The WV Land & Mineral Owners Association has real concerns about a bundled bill. We believe that the Governor should sign the co-tenancy bill to help move our state forward,” Webb said

“If he wants to address joint development for EQT in a special session then we will be at the table to protect mineral owners interests.”

The West Virginia Farm Bureau, which has been a part of negotiations on drilling issues, also was critical of the governor.

“This is an effort to really submarine a lot of really good legislation,” said Dwyane O’Dell, the director of government affairs for the Farm Bureau. “A lot of hard work has been done with agreement with most of the industry. This idea of joint development is a special carve out for one company, that company being EQT.”

O’Dell also argued, more generally, against raising the severance tax on natural gas. “If he chooses to raise the severance tax, in many ways he would put West Virginia in a less competitive situation,” O’Dell said.

The West Virginia Surface Owners Rights Organization is also frustrated by the governor’s comments, said David McMahon, a lawyer who represents the group.

“We are deeply disappointed that the governor would try to tie joint development and co-tenancy to any other issues,” McMahon said. “Co-tenancy has been a four-year battle. It’s now got something that everybody can live with and is only very, very indirectly related to the severance taxes and those other issues.

“Joint development, lease integration — whatever they’re calling it this time — we call it the invisible ink bill. This is clearly an EQT move.”

The Independent Oil and Gas Association of West Virginia was very surprised by the governor’s comments, said Phil Reale, a lobbyist for the group. He said after years of negotiation, there is finally consensus among groups dealing with co-tenancy.

Reale described co-tenancy as a way to make West Virginia more competitive with Pennsylvania and Ohio. “Increasing the severance tax — when West Virginia’s severance tax is already higher than Ohio and there is none in Pennsylvania — would only make us less competitive, less attractive to those who have large opportunities in West Virginia.”

Those who deal with natural gas issues were caught by surprise by the governor’s announcement, Reale said. “Frankly, it’s a little bit disappointing that we’re here at the 11th hour when we’re about to have a progessive piece of legislation, embraced by every stakeholder with full consensus, to have this sort of a problem inserted into the mix, where he believes there ought to be something else other than has been developed.”

The West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association put out a statement of concern about Justice’s remarks. “WVONGA is very concerned with the Governor’s statements regarding a severance tax increase and a possible veto of House Bill 4268, the cotenancy bill,” stated Anne Blankenship, the organization’s director.

“Great progress has been made by stakeholders on this cotenancy bill to ensure that investment in West Virginia by the oil and gas industry continues to boost the state’s economy and create family-sustaining jobs that support schools and teachers. His plans to disrupt that progress will only hurt all of us, including our teachers, by keeping West Virginia’s laws uncompetitive and discouraging development in this state.”

JUSTICE —- The gas companies want two things from you — co-tenancy and joint development … I said to them, I won’t be a proponent of co-tenancy or joint development to help you without raising your severance tax. You know what they said? “We’re OK with that.”

Democrats in the House argued against the co-tenancy bill, arguing that the rights of minority rights holders were being trampled.

They’re no more likely to support the bill in a special session, especially if joint development is added in, suggested Delegate Isaac Sponaugle, D-Pendleton.

“I didn’t know the Republicans were in the business of stealing both property rights and raising taxes for a special session but apparently that’s their game plan going forward,” Sponaugle said.

“I can only speak for myself — our caucus hasn’t met on it — in regards to severance tax, but I do believe that should be raised. But I don’t believe you should be stealing people’s property rights as a way so oil and gas will lay down when you go to raise the severance tax.”

Joint development stands no chance of passing the House of Delegates, even if intertwined with co-tenancy and educator pay and healthcare issues, said Delegate Bill Anderson, R-Wood and chairman of the House Energy Committee.

“In my judgement lease integration will not pass the House of Delegates. We tried that three years ago in House Bill 2688, which failed,” Anderson said.

Anderson said the lesson of the past has been dealing with the drilling issues independently. “Co-tenancy has the horsepower to pass this year,” Anderson said.

Anderson declined to criticize Justice, though. “The governor’s going to have to make his judgments about how he runs his office,” Anderson said. “I believe we have a bill in the House now that would require people that are employed in the government, even on a volunteer basis, not receiving pay, to have to file the same ethics forms that all members of the Legislature and elected and appointed officials do that are receiving compensation. I believe that bill should pass.”

Open Letter to Gov. Jim Justice and DEP Sec. Austin Caperton

TO: Jim Justice & Austin Caperton. From: Tom Bond, Lewis County
 
How is the air down there in Charleston?  Still clean?  Do you plan to move out into the country near some of the new Marcellus drilling industry?  Maybe near a compressor station with eleven of those big engines, roaring and belching 24 hours a day?
 
Or perhaps near a well pad where there is 24 hour light and noise and chemicals and diesel smoke with lots of PM-2.5 coming out the exhaust.  Particulate matter 2.5 microns or less is now known as a cause of Alzheimer’s-like effects, you know.  Going to bring along your grandchildren and your Mom along?   Families like that live out here, and the young and the old are particularly susceptible to toxic chemicals, smoke, fumes, and dust.
 
Maybe you are like the famous story on Rex Tillerson, who has inflicted that kind of misery on many thousands of people? Then he complained when a water tower to enable fracking was erected in sight of his own piece of earth.
 
Do you think those who drink water without the taste of chlorine shouldn’t complain when their well is poisoned with a complex mixture of water slickers, detergents, and anti-oxidants, antibacterial compounds, and God-only-knows what else?  Maybe they deserve car-busting roads and interminable delays when they use public roads too? 
 
I can see you demurring all the way from here. I think that you are like Rex Tillerson, the ultimate not-in-my-back-yard guy!
 
So you are going to govern the state for all the people.  For all the people of West Virginia – like John J. Cornwell was governing West Virginia for all the people, including the miners, at the time of the battle of Matewan? Oh yes!  Those corporations provided good living for officers and investors, but not miners.  It’s been like that since the beginning of the State.  Wealth carried off, mostly north and east, but occasionally to build a motel in Florida.
  
So I’m being a little hard on you. You are just doing it to bring jobs, jobs, jobs, you say?  You do realize gas and oil extraction are capital intensive and labor weak, don’t you?  That once the drilling is done by those fellows brought in from elsewhere, they will go away and leave few permanent jobs? You certainly know several companies are developing automated drilling, so drilling labor will go the way of coal labor, too.
 
Oh yes!  Obama killed coal the fable says.  You really know better than that, don’t you?  Coal companies, going to more mechanization, especially long wall and surface mining that can use huge equipment, killed coal jobs.  That Obama fable was a tool, using prejudice and diversion of the truth, to affect voters who were slow to catch on.
 
What moral code do you have that allows collateral damage to rural residents in peacetime to profit private industry? Forget for the moment all the externalized costs, the true cost of the extraction, the damage to other industries, global warming, destruction of surface value for farming and timber, recreation and hunting.  What justifies forest destruction, land disturbances, public annoyances, and public health for fossil fuel extraction? Especially when last year 39% of new electrical capacity was solar and 29% was wind power.  (Coal has been showing a decrease for the last two years.)  No CO2 from the renewable resources!
 
How do you decide people are unworthy of protection?  Simply because of rural residence?  Those who can’t afford to move elsewhere, or too attached to the family plot? 
 
Hey guys, people out here are probably more astute than you think. Some of us don’t think very far ahead, and few are articulate, but, given time, it all becomes too clear.
 
West Virginia has the highest rate at losing population in the nation.  We have the lowest ratio of employment to employable people in the nation.  College kids have been heading for the door, and so are a lot of high school grads.
 
Is corrupting the environment and allowing the wealth of our State to be carted off by favored industries your best game? That is the past, present (and future?) of Almost Heaven! Us country folks keep hoping for better!
 
An eighth generation West Virginian
 
S. Thomas Bond, Jane Lew, WV

Promises! Promises! Promises!

‘G-35-D posted on the website Monday, January 30, 2017’

From an Article by Ken Ward, Jr., Charleston Gazette-Mail, February 11, 2017

During a series of interviews before he left the WV-DEP last month, Randy Huffman talked about his belief that the agency needed to continue to do more to help address the on-the-ground effects of the natural gas boom on residents in those communities — and about how the standard agency inspectors should apply to what is acceptable for industry to do really wasn’t that complicated.

“When we run into issues out there that are subjective in the regulatory world, like the noise and light and mud on the road, the degree of a lot of that is subjective,” Huffman said. “I tell my folks there’s an easy standard here. The easiest one is to say if you lived in that house, how would you do it? Use your mother, if your mother lived in that house.

“If you approached every person who had an issue out there with an activity that we regulate, if you approached them with the same sensitivity you would if it were your mother, because that is somebody’s mother, and they don’t need to be subjected to these kinds of inconveniences and nuisances in their lives. I have this notion that we need to be very sensitive to that.”

In late December, Huffman’s WV-DEP had put out for public comment a revised version of the general permit, this time called G35-D. The new version was simply to include the changes the air board had ordered the WV-DEP to make. Because those didn’t include the noise and light language the board had upheld, citizen groups didn’t really pay much attention to the issue.

Huffman’s last day on the job was January 13, the Friday before Justice’s inauguration, on January 16. The Justice transition team announced Caperton’s appointment on Jan. 13. Austin Caperton visited the WV-DEP office and Huffman introduced him to some of the senior staff.

January 23, a week after the inauguration, was the final day of the public comment period on the revisions to the general permit.

That day, Blankenship sent the DEP a letter on behalf of the oil and gas association. Among other things, Blankenship urged the DEP to reverse itself and get rid of the noise and light language. The letter raised the same issues the industry group brought up in its appeal before the air board.

“The West Virginia Division of Air Quality has no authority to regulate noise and light, and it cannot impose limitations in the Draft General Permit that purport to regulate noise and light,” Blankenship wrote. “Even if it could, the prohibition of a ‘nuisance’ and ‘unreasonable noise and light’ is too vague to enforce, as it gives the permittee no guidance as to what constitutes permitted behavior. This section should be eliminated from the General Permit.”

Four days later, on the morning of January 27, it was the end of Caperton’s second week on the job at the DEP. Before noon, he fired Radcliff from the agency’s environmental advocate office and also dismissed Kelley Gillenwater, DEP communications director.

Later in the day, Durham signed the revised general permit, but not before removing the noise and light language. In a letter to Blankenship, the DEP said it was now the agency’s opinion that state law “does not require this permit condition” and therefore it was removed.

At 5:07 p.m. that Friday, Durham sent an email to Caperton and to DEP general counsel Kristin Boggs. “DAQ removed the noise and light provision contained in section 3.2.8 and issued the Natural Gas Compressor general permit G35-D today. It will be posted on the website Monday (1/30/17).”

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-   See the full Article at: http://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/20170211/dep-eliminates-protections-for-noise-light-from-natural-gas-facilities#sthash.vwRK3CSU.dpuf 

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Noise Pollution from Oil and Gas Development May Harm Human Health

 Press Release, PSE Healthy Energy, December 9, 2016

 Modern oil and gas development techniques such as directional drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” produce noise at levels that may increase the risk of adverse effects on human health, including sleep disturbance, cardiovascular disease and other conditions that are negatively impacted by stress, according to a study by authors at the nonprofit science and policy research institute, PSE Healthy Energy and West Virginia University. It is the first peer-reviewed study to analyze the potential public health impacts of ambient noise related to fracking operations.

“People living near oil and gas development may bring up concerns like air pollution, traffic and groundwater safety, but many also complain about noise,” said Jake Hays, Director of the Environmental Health Program at PSE Healthy Energy, and lead author of the paper, which was published December 9 in Science of the Total Environment. ”But until now, most of the research relevant to public health has focused on the impacts of air and water pollution,” Hays said.

Fracking technologies have unlocked oil and gas deposits from formations like shale and tight sands that previously were not considered economically viable. But the environmental and public health effects of such operations are still emerging. To understand whether noise from fracking might impact the health of surrounding communities, PSE Healthy Energy researchers gathered all available data and measurements of noise levels at oil and gas operations and compared the information to established health-based standards from the World Health Organization and other groups.

They found that noise from fracking operations may contribute to adverse health outcomes in three categories:

• Annoyance: Sustained noise may produce a host of negative responses such as feelings of anger, anxiety, helplessness, distraction, and exhaustion, and may predict future psychological distress.
• Sleep Disturbance: Awakening and changes in sleep state have after-effects that include drowsiness, cognitive impairment and long-term chronic sleep disturbance.
• Cardiovascular Health: Studies have found positive correlations between chronic noise exposure and elevated blood pressure, hypertension, and heart disease.

Environmental noise is a well-documented public health hazard. Numerous large-scale epidemiological studies have linked noise to adverse health outcomes including diabetes, depression, birth complications and cognitive impairment in children. Noise exposure, like other health threats, may disproportionately impact vulnerable populations such as children, the elderly, and people with chronic illnesses.

High-decibel sounds are not the only culprits; low-level sustained noises can disturb sleep and concentration and cause stress.

“Oil and gas operations produce a complex symphony of noise types, including intermittent and continuous sounds and varying intensities,” said PSE Healthy Energy Executive Director Seth Shonkoff, who is also a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management and an affiliate of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. For example, compressor stations produce a low rumble; drilling a horizontal well is a loud process that can take four to five weeks 24 hours per day to complete; and using large volumes of water at high pressure results in pump- and fluid-handling noise. 

Compound or synergistic effects also may be at play, Shonkoff said. For example, noise reduction technology may lower negative impacts, and synergistic effects of noise and air pollution may create a new health threat or amplify an existing one.

Researchers note that data collection methodologies varied across public and private entities and types of drilling operations, requiring some estimates in the data. They say additional research is needed to determine the level of risk to communities living near oil and gas operations.

However, initial evidence suggests that policies and mitigation techniques are warranted to limit human exposure to unsafe noise levels from fracking. Policies can specify setbacks from residents and communities – in particular vulnerable populations such as schools and hospitals – noise mitigation techniques such as perimeter sound walls, and location siting decisions that make use of natural noise barriers like hills and trees.

Michael McCawley, the Interim Chair of the Occupational and Environmental Health Department at West Virginia University, was also a coauthor on the study, titled “Public health implications of environmental noise associated with unconventional oil and gas development.”

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PSE (Physicians, Scientists and Engineers) for Healthy Energy is a nonprofit research institute dedicated to supplying evidence-based scientific and technical information on the public health, environmental and climate dimensions of energy production and use. We are the only interdisciplinary collaboration of physicians, scientists and engineers focused specifically on health and sustainability at the intersection of energy science and policy. Visit us at psehealthyenergy.org and follow us on Twitter @PhySciEng.

Noise impacts are severe and long lasting, noise matters!

WV-DEP eliminates protections for noise, light from natural gas facilities

From an Article by Ken Ward, Jr., Charleston Gazette-Mail, February 11, 2017

Less than two weeks after taking office, Gov. Jim Justice’s administration quietly deleted permit language intended to protect residents in West Virginia’s natural gas regions from excessive noise and bright lights from compressor stations and other facilities that are springing up across those communities.

On January 27, the state Department of Environmental Protection removed from a streamlined permit for compressor stations and some other facilities language that stated such operations “shall not create a nuisance to the surrounding community by way of unreasonable noise and light during operations.”

The WV-DEP, now headed by Justice appointee Austin Caperton, made the change in direct response to a request from the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association, according to agency records.

The WV-DEP’s action comes just five months after agency lawyers, under the Tomblin administration, successfully defended the language against a legal challenge from the industry trade association. The reversal by the new leadership at WV-DEP was noted on a posting buried on the agency website, and it emerged publicly only when mention of it showed up in one of Caperton’s emails, included as part of a collection of documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

Environmental groups and citizen organizations were shocked when they heard from a reporter about the WV-DEP’s action, saying agency officials had not consulted them or even informed them of the move despite citizens having played a central role in 2015 in convincing then-DEP Secretary Randy Huffman the additional protections were needed for residents who live in the midst of the Marcellus Shale boom.

“To say we are disappointed in this decision is an understatement,” said Julie Archer, project manager for the West Virginia Surface Owners’ Rights Organization, a group of landowners in the gas-producing counties of the state. “We feel completely ambushed. Eliminating these provisions is a huge disservice to those living near these facilities, and it’s shameful that we are going to allow their lives, health and property to be ruined simply because the industry doesn’t want to put adequate protections in place.”

Fred Durham, the WV-DEP air quality director who signed the permit change, did not return repeated phone calls. Neither Caperton nor the WV-DEP’s acting public information officer, Jake Glance, responded to offers to allow them to explain the agency’s decision. Caperton, on orders from the governor’s office, has declined interview invitations from the Gazette-Mail.

Anne Blankenship, executive director of the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association, indicated her organization was pleased with the WV-DEP decision, citing in an email the same legal arguments her group raised about the permit language — and that the state Air Quality Board rejected in a unanimous decision in August.

“Not only were the noise and light conditions vague and unclear, which made compliance with them very difficult, such conditions are outside the jurisdiction of the Division of Air Quality as noise and light are not air pollutants,” Blankenship wrote in her email message.

Last week, during his State of the State address, Justice said he had ordered Caperton and the WV-DEP  to stop saying “no” to business and industry. Justice did not offer any examples of the WV-DEP doing so, but he used part of his televised speech to blast the agency’s inspectors, saying they needed to stop wearing T-shirts and old jeans and looking like they “maybe haven’t shaved forever.”

“Now listen, I think they ought to look like something,” Justice said of the WV-DEP’s inspectors. “And they will look like something, or we’ll have them tending to Grizzly Adams.”

(Part 2 to be posted tomorrow)

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WV-DEP Secretary Austin Caperton will appear at a Public Forum on Monday, February 27th at 7 pm. The location is the Shenandoah Room of the Mountainlair (WVU Student Center) on University Avenue (main campus).  This event was arranged by the WVU Student Sierra Coalition and the Mon Group of the WV Sierra Club.  Caperton will discuss the goals for the WV-DEP and answer questions.

Fresh Water Accountability Project

Don’t Frack Our Valley — Citizen Groups Concerned About Water Quality in Ohio River Valley

Contact: Robin Blakeman, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, December 11, 2014

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Late in November, representatives of citizen groups from West Virginia and Ohio gathered in Huntington, W.Va., to discuss the growing threats to the Ohio River Basin, which provides drinking water for five million people.

The impetus for the meeting came from the dramatic rise in the oil and gas industry’s activities and proposals slated for the Ohio River Basin. The industry is proposing to build docks and barge toxic, radioactive waste along the Ohio River. The waste is generated by the deep shale hydraulic fracturing (fracking) method of extracting natural gas. Millions of gallons of liquid waste would be unloaded at dock sites for transport to injection wells in Southeast Ohio. The Coast Guard has yet to announce approval of barge transport for this kind of industrial waste, but such facilities are already being permitted and built along the river.

“Alarmingly, Ohio already has more than two hundred injection wells, most of which are within the Ohio River watershed,” said Andrea Reik of ACFAN (Athens County (Oh.) Fracking Action Network), who was present at the meeting. “According to a Government Accountability Office report on Class II injection wells released this summer, Ohio is the least regulated state for these hydraulic fracturing waste disposal wells.”

(A map of the injection wells so far permitted and/or active in Ohio can be found here.)

“It is alarming how many of these wells are located near, or in the Ohio River watershed,” said Katie O’Neill, a resident of Athens County, Oh.

Also present at the meeting was Bill Hughes with the Wetzel County (W.Va.) Action Group, who noted that landfills near the Ohio River from the northernmost Brook County landfill, then downriver to Parkersburg are accepting massive quantities of drill cuttings from Marcellus Shale fracking activity. The drill cuttings have been shown to emit low-level radioactivity. The radium is water soluble and will continue to create Radon gas.

Hughes has examined more than 3,000 pages of reports on leachates from West Virginia landfills. “This is a very serious issue. Leachate liquid — with concentrated amounts of radioactivity and toxicity — from the landfills near the Ohio can make its way into the river. During the past three years more than 800,000 tons of Marcellus Shale drilling waste has been deposited into landfills near the river, and our government is being willfully ignorant about the contents and effects of the leachate,” Hughes said.

Compounding the barging, injection and landfill threats to the Ohio River Basin, the state of West Virginia has accepted bids to allow hydraulic fracturing for natural gas under portions of the Ohio River. Some of these portions have underlying fault lines; could exacerbate the risk of seismic activity under, or near the riverbed.

“A perfect storm is brewing within the Ohio River watershed that could lead to toxic pollution of tap water for millions of people; our groups are banding together across state lines to identify both the threats to river and means we can use to reduce these threats. We would welcome more groups from other states in the Ohio River basin,” said Robin Blakeman, with the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (OVEC).

Terry Lodge, an attorney who is assisting affected residents, said, “This cross-boundaries coming together of grassroots activists, to combat the increasing madness, is utterly needed.”

Attending the meeting were representatives of OVEC, ACFAN, Wetzel County Action Group, Freshwater Accountability Project (Grand Rapids, Oh.), WV Chapter of the Sierra Club, Buckeye Forest Council (Columbus, Oh.) and Jefferson County (Oh.) Citizens for Environmental Truth. Representatives of several other groups, including The Guardians of the West Fork (W.Va.) are participating in subsequent discussions.

The groups are carrying out some initial shared research goals and will meet again in January. For information on the next meeting, contact OVEC organizer Robin Blakeman at robin@ohvec.org or Lea Harper, Managing Director, of FreshWater Accountability Project (FWAP.org) at wewantcleanwater@gmail.com

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Evan Hansen at US Senate

Hearing on Preventing Potential Chemical Threats and Improving Safety:

Oversight of the President’s Executive Order on Improving Chemical Facility Safety and Security

Testimony of Evan P. Hansen, Downstream Strategies, Morgantown, WV

Before the Committee on Environment and Public Works, US Senate, March 6, 2014, as reported by WV Public Broadcasting.

Panelists included representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency and the United States Chemical Safety Board as well as authorities from communities that have witnessed recent chemical strife.

Evan Hansen, president of the Morgantown-based environmental consulting firm Downstream Strategies, spoke about the water crisis in West Virginia where a chemical leak into the Elk River recently polluted the drinking water of some 300,000 residents in the Kanawha Valley.

Hansen made some recommendations:

Chairman Boxer, Ranking Member Vitter, and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify.

I am president of Downstream Strategies, an 11-person environmental consulting firm based in West Virginia. Since 1997, we have offered environmental services that combine sound interdisciplinary skills with a core belief in the importance of protecting the environment and linking economic development with natural resource stewardship. Our projects typically include elements of science and policy related to our Water, Energy, and Land Programs. Our tools include Geographic Information Systems, Monitoring and Remediation, and Stakeholder Involvement and Perspectives.

A summary of recommendations:

• Spill Prevention, Control, and Counter (SPCC) measures as they exist for oil containment, should be extended to chemical storage facilities.
• Develop safe drinking water laws. Public water systems should create protection plans, and both the assessment reports and the protection plans should be periodically updated as well as accessible to all downstream water systems.
• Make individual National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits for chemical facilities mandatory within zones of critical concern (above drinking water intakes).

Hansen also took advantage of the opportunity to point out that weaknesses in enforcement undermine any meaningful regulations.

Chairwoman Barbara Boxer—a democrat from California—stressed the importance of new legislation in the process of being drafted, saying that a bill to address new chemical concerns brought to light by the chemical spill in West Virginia was forthcoming.

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WV Senate Bill 373 Passes Out of the Legislature in the Last Hours of the 2014 Regular Session

WV Senate Bill 373 has now been approved by the WV Legislature.  It originated in the Senate and was significantly amended in the House of Delegates.  This updated version passed the Senate shortly after 10 pm on March 8^th. SB 373 now goes to the Governor, who must sign it before it becomes law in West Virginia.

A major theme of SB 373 is for the regulation and inspection of above-ground chemical storage tanks, with the greatest emphasis being those tanks within the critical zone of concern for drinking water intake ports.

The bill includes the long-term medical study of the 300,000 residents affected by the chemical spill of crude MCHM into the Elk River on January  9, 2014. The medical monitoring study would fall on the West Virginia Bureau for Public Health to conduct.

Also, all public water utilities in the State serving more than 100,000 customers will be required to install and monitor for containments by the same detection capabilities utilized by the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission, i.e. gas chromatography.  (When MCHM and PPH was leaked into the river, it traveled downstream to Cincinnati where they were able to shut off their intake and prevent the chemical from entering their facility.)

[Note that small drinking water systems which predominate throughout the State will be at some risk, given all the diverse sources of water pollution that can contribute both toxic organic compounds and concentrated metallic “salts”, such as chlorides, bromides, and sulfates.]

The article below is from a story in The Morgantown Dominion Post on October 12, 2012 by David Beard.

THIS IS the first in a series of stories profiling the views of the candidates for West Virginia governor on a variety of issues: Democrat  Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, Republican Bill Maloney, Mountain Party’s Jesse Johnson and Libertarian David Moran.

Tomblin and Maloney previously faced off in October 2011, when Tomblin narrowly defeated Maloney in the special gubernatorial election. Tomblin had served as acting governor from November 2011, when Gov. Joe Manchin resigned to take a U.S. Senate seat. That special election was for an abbreviated 14-month term; this is for a full four years.

Maloney is a Morgantown businessman who entered the spotlight in 2010, using his drilling expertise to aid the rescue of the trapped Chilean miners. Johnson has run twice before for governor, in 2004 and 2008, and twice for U.S. Senate, in 2006 and 2010 — the special election that sent Manchin to Washington. Moran is a political newcomer. He operates a Preston County farm, raising sheep and alpaca, and is an adjunct WVU professor. A retired engineer, he worked for the U.S. Navy and was a professor at the Naval Academy.

The Dominion Post interviewed all four — in person or by email — on a variety of topics. Here are their answers on Marcellus shale drilling and fracking in West Virginia:

     The future of fracking regulation

 1. Earl Ray Tomblin, Democratic Party

    The Legislature tried for three years to produce a bill and succeeded in December 2011 — the first such bill in the Appalachian basin. “I think we came a long way to get everybody where we’re at today. … I think the bill that we passed is working well now.”

    Of course, not everyone was happy with all of it. “I’m willing to look if there’s particular areas [with] additional changed we need to make. … I would not anticipate a whole lot of changes to where we’re at now.” If there are particular concerns, he’s willing to work with the Legislature to address them.

 2.  Bill  Maloney, Republican Party

    “The DEP (Department of Environmental Protection) can’t figure out what they’ve got on the books. I don’t think they want to change it again anytime soon. My initial reaction is we don’t need anything else. Everybody knows what the rules are; now let’s figure those out before we expand anything — make sure they’re working right.

    “We want every advantage we can have and creating more regulation is not going to make it any easier to get investment in West Virginia. It’s a huge resource. We’ve got to maximize the use of it for the benefit of the state. … That’s what business needs is certainty; the uncertainty is the biggest drawback to investment.”

 3.  Jesse  Johnson, Mountain Party

    “I believe there needs to be a moratorium put in place right now until we know more about what we’re doing.”  We’re not dealing with the evident problems: Surface owner rights, flowback frack water, scaling inside pipes, unprotected workers. “There are too many unanswered questions that need to be addressed.”

    And while there is constant talk of economic boom, Wetzel County, the state epicenter of Marcellus drilling, has among the highest unemployment in the state [Wetzel’s July unemployment was the sixth highest].

 4.      David Moran, Libertarian Party

    Additional legislation should include: “compensation to all property owners for energy extraction from under their property; bonding required from all energy extractors (drilling and fracking) with interest accrued as income to the State.

Please consult the Morgantown Dominion Post newspaper to see these responses in their hardcopy versions and to follow the series on the candidate’s responses to other topics.

Julie Archer of the West Virginia Surface Owners Rights Organization has provided the following material:

In November the legislature’s Joint Select Committee on Marcellus Shale recommended a bill to regulate Marcellus Shale drilling in West Virginia. Now the committee has completed its work (see coverage here, here and here). A special session to adopt new drilling regulations is planned by the Governor. The industry remains opposed to a number of key provisions in the bill and Governor Tomblin is expected to tweak it (read more here, here, here and here).

The Governor should convene a special session of the legislature to approve legislation to regulate the natural gas industry and aid surface owners in having their rights recognized and respected by the drillers. There are specific provisions in the proposed legislation the Surface Owners Rights Organization would like to see strengthened to provide better protection for citizens and the environment.

Please contact Governor Tomblin and your legislators and urge them to support stronger rules and tougher enforcement and oppose weakening the proposed legislation drafted by the legislature’s Joint Select Committee on Marcellus Shale. Call Governor Tomblin at (304) 558-2000 or toll-free at 1-888-438-2731. Click here to contact your legislators. Tell them we deserve more, not less. Encourage them to support a stronger bill than the one recommended by the Select Committee.

We also encourage you to sign this petition created by WV-SORO member Rick Humphreys calling on the Governor and legislative leadership to hold a special session to require enforcement of current regulations; strengthen regulations to reflect technological advancements; and restore, recognize and respect the constitutional property rights of landowners. Click here to sign Rick’s petition.

Provisions in the bill that need improvement, include:

• Surface Owner Agreement Provisions: These provisions say the driller “may” notify the surface owner “of the planned operation” “no later than the date for filing the permit application.” The fact that this is voluntary is a problem. Also, the filing date of the application is too late. The driller will have already surveyed for the well site and access road(s) and will not want to change their plans.

If the surface owner sues the driller under the statute the damages are decided by the “court,” so there is no clear right to a jury trial. Worst, the surface owner could have to pay attorney’s fees if the driller counterclaims that the surface owner “willfully and knowingly violates” the surface compensation agreement. Driller’s lawyers draft these agreements. Their lawyers will put in provisions to trip up surface owners so they can counter-sue any surface owner that sues the driller. Why does an operator spending $18 million or more to drill multiple wells on a pad need attorney’s fees?

• Well Location Restrictions:
Distance from Homes: The proposed legislation says, “The center of well pads may not be located within 625 feet of an occupied dwelling, ” but there is no requirement that the gas wells be at the center of the well pad. These wells are drilled 15-25 feet apart and 6 to 12 wells were drilled on a pad. The noise from the edge of the pad could be very, very close to the surface owner’s or a neighbor’s home. We know some surface owners that are 655 feet from a well site and they cannot sleep in their homes at night. This is unacceptable.

The World Bank, Colorado and California have determined that the maximum decibel level for a residence measured at the residence should be 45 decibels at night and 55 decibels during the day. These standards should be used. This would eliminate the need for a variance in some respects, if the driller did the things that are necessary to prevent homeowners from having their windows rattled. However, it does not address the concerns about the air and other pollution from the sites and the State does not have data to confirm whether or not the proposed setback is protective of human health.

Additionally, even if the safety of persons could be assured, the proposed set back isn’t protective of property values, marketability, etc. A study conducted for the Town Council of Flower Mound, TX found that negative impacts on property values generally dissipated at a distance of 1,000 to 1,500 feet. In response, Flower Mound adopted an ordinance that makes it “unlawful to drill, re-drill, deepen, re-enter, activate or convert any oil or natural gas well, for which the closest edge of construction or surface disturbance is located … within one thousand five hundred feet (1,500’) of any residence.”

Distance from Water Wells and Springs: Adequate setbacks are needed for the protection of all water supplies (public and private), yet the proposed legislation provides a more protective setback for public water intakes than it does for private water wells and springs. WV-SORO shares the concerns of public water supply managers and users that their water be protected, however, it is unfair and unjust that the Select Committee chose not to extend the same protections to those whose water supplies are most likely to be affected and who have fewer resources available to them to deal with the contamination if it occurs.

At one of the recent meetings of the Select Committee, an industry official testified that a typical well site is 300 feet by 400 feet. Based on these figures, if the well head is in the center of the pad, a water well or spring that is 250 feet measured horizontally from the well head would, at most be 100 feet from the well pad. Moreover, if the well pad were larger, the water well or spring would be located on the well pad.

Additionally, the 250 foot setback from water wells and springs may be less protective than the existing setback of 200 feet, because the proposed legislation allows drillers to seek a variance. However, under current law drillers cannot locate a well less than 200 feet from a water well without the written consent of the owner.
 
• Protection of Water Supplies and Presumption of Liability:
WV-SORO supports and appreciates extending the operator’s presumptive liability for water contamination to 2,500 feet and the clarification of water replacement requirements. However, there should not be a limitation of six (6) months. If there is a spill of fracturing fluid or flowback onto the well site, it could take that long or much longer for it to work its way down into the groundwater and 2,500 feet away to ruin your water well. When a contaminant plume enters an aquifer it may take years, or decades, to pass by an individual well. A 2006 study by the U.S. Geological Survey found that groundwater in aquifers of West Virginia ranged in age from 5.9 to 56 years, with a median age of 19 years. The study concluded that because most of the groundwater sampled and analyzed in the study is young (geologically speaking), the potential for human activity to adversely affect ground water quality in West Virginia is high. According to the report, the ages indicate, “that the State’s aquifers are vulnerable to contaminant sources in a time span of less than 30 years.”

Additionally, we are concerned that the proposed legislation does not expand pre-drilling testing parameters. Currently drillers are required to test for constituents in drilling muds and fluids, but not for chemicals or chemical compounds used in hydraulic fracturing, or naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORMs) known to exist in the Marcellus Shale.

• Disposal and Handling of Drilling Waste:
The committee amended the bill to say, “The operator shall remove and dispose of any waste pit liner and liner wastes at a landfill that is approved by the Secretary to receive liner and liner wastes.” But the amendment was not clearly carried out through the rest of the bill and still appears to allow the disposal of cuttings at the well site.

The bill allow the use of “flowback recycle impoundments” which “shall be designed and constructed using a single liner system.” There have already been problems with leaks from torn liners. The result was pollution of ground water. This pollution may have been avoided if there was a dual liner system with a leak detector.

– Original by Julie Archer, WV Surface Owners’ Rights Organization