W.Va. lawmakers: State citizens must benefit from drilling Marcellus Shale

SOUTH CHARLESTON — Legislators are looking to ensure West Virginia companies and workers are reaping the benefits of drilling Marcellus Shale by adding on to legislation passed in 2011.

Corky DeMarco, executive director of the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association, and Joint Select Committee on Marcellus Shale Co-Chair Delegate Tim Manchin, D-Marion, met with members of the media Thursday to discuss issues surrounding the Marcellus Shale and natural gas industries during the Associated Press Legislative Look-Ahead session.

Though he was pleased overall with the bill the Legislature passed in 2011, Manchin said he was hoping more provisions could be added to ensure West Virginians and not just out-of-state companies and employees are reaping the benefits of shale drilling during the 2012 legislative session.

“The Marcellus Shale bill was a good bill, a bill worth voting for and did a lot of great things; it is a bill worth building a framework on,” Manchin said. “The first area I was not completely satisfied with was one of the provisions weakening down the labor reporting provisions. I felt we don’t have good information on how many West Virginia residents are working the shale industry versus how many out-of-state workers and if West Virginians are on the higher end or the lower end. The goal was to get the total number of in-state workers with aggregate payroll and the number of out-of-state workers with aggregate payroll. I think the industry knows they have an image issue. Wetzel County has one of the highest unemployment (rates) in the state and has hotels filled with out-of-state workers drilling on the shale.”

Manchin said incentivizing hiring in-state workers could be one way to ensure West Virginians are working in the natural gas industry.

“We need to incentivize in-state companies to begin drilling as well as incentivize in-state workers,” Manchin said. “We wanted to mandate companies provide this information. They said this was anti-industry. Whether companies will provide this information on a voluntary basis, I do not know.”

On behalf of the natural gas drilling industry, DeMarco said they are looking into providing more programs to train West Virginia workers for the industry.

“We have brought in specialists from out-of-state to get started, but we are talking with community colleges, colleges and universities to create these programs,” DeMarco said. “We cannot train these people as quickly as we need to hire people. We need to supply workers not just for the oil and gas industry, but for all industries springing up from this industry.

Though many in rural areas, such as Monroe County, are concerned about their cultural heritage and landscape, DeMarco said drilling is here to stay.

“I have been to Monroe County years ago, and I understand there are people there who own mineral rights who want to develop,” he said. “You have a situation where individuals want to develop the minerals and one person in that group takes the position that they don’t want development. They don’t have the right to stop a person from using their mineral rights.”

Manchin said he believes drilling wells will soon be popping up all over rural West Virginia.

“This is the industrialization of rural West Virginia,” he said. “We don’t have a plan for how we can reclaim these sites. Very few sites have been reclaimed. What can happen is if they dig one well, the company tries to hold their lease rather than continue to dig more wells. We don’t want these companies holding on to this land for 10 or 15 years with no new development. After five years, they have to drill again on the site or reclaim the land.”

According to Manchin, the state also needs to clarify aspects of the permitting and drilling process. Manchin said these clarifications are needed to prevent future situations, like in Morgantown, where a city banned drilling in an area where the state had already granted a permit based on citizen complaints.

“We have vague guidelines on permitting drilling and the drilling process by the DEP,” Manchin said. “The Morgantown situation — that’s what none of us want, for a business coming in to West Virginia to spend money in West Virginia and a city shutting them down. We have to tell the DEP they have to take population density into consideration and secondly what impact the drilling will have on the community and roads. We couple that with a public comment period and publication of each well in the local newspapers. We also want to put it on the computer so people can be notified if a well permit is being processed in their area.”

Manchin said many of these provisions were in the original draft of the Marcellus Shale bill but taken out during the legislative process due to pressure from the drilling industry.

“The DEP does not have a right to say this cannot be done in densely populated areas,” he said. “We lost those considerations. We lost the public hearing part of this bill. The industry didn’t like that part. A lot of people thought it might give people more of a chance to litigate.”

According to Manchin, preserving well water is another concern many West Virginia residents have about hydrofracture drilling or “fracking.”

“I’ve spoken around the state and rural communities are concerned about their well water,” he said. “Six months after the drilling is finished, if the well is contaminated or if there is no flow-back up to 1,000 feet from the well, the company must pay for that. If the company assures us this process is safe, they shouldn’t be concerned if we extended that up to 2,500 feet. A lot of people would prefer further away than that.”

Manchin said clarifications also need to be made to standards such as how much noise and light pollution drills can cause.

“Problems we have seen associated with drilling include too much noise, too much light and exposure to VOCs — or volatile organic combustibles — which are known to cause health problems,” Manchin said. “A study needs to be done by the DEP on what kind of regulations need to be put into effect to limit exposure to pollution. If they can’t meet that, they must move further away or build noise suppression walls. We need to be able to tell the state and people of West Virginia there isn’t going to be an accident with drilling and wells or underground aquifers.”

Additionally, Manchin said more needs to be done to protect the rights of surface owners.

“Surface owners should be able to sit down with the drilling company and talk about where they want to put the well pad, roads and have input,” he said. “They don’t want the companies to take away their best lands or pastures. Right now, you can only go into the court and say they are exceeding the legal standard. We need more work on surface owners rights. I think the industry has held back on that area because they want forced pooling.”

However, Manchin admitted there is no way to completely protect residents from drilling’s negative aspects.

“No matter how good we do this, there will be environmental damage,” he said. “There is always run off. There will always be a cost. What we do for the person who is forced in to this is not allow roads, pipelines or wells on their property.”

— Contact Kate Coil at

kcoil@bdtonline.com

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