Marcellus
at Your Door
Doddridge
County Action Group Formed to Advocate for Citizens
By
now, most people in the county are starting to realize that this
ain't just your typical gas drilling boom going on here that's
anything at all like all the boom periods you've seen come and go in
this county over the decades. This is different.
Marcellus
shale drilling is nothing at all like the "conventional"
vertical well drilling we are used to. Not, when you consider the
huge amount of land required for Marcellus well pads, the enormous
numbers of trucks on our roads, the amount of fresh water usage per
drilled well (takes about 4-6 million gallons of water to frack a
single Marcellus well.) And then consider the impact on the
environment (chemicals that are far more toxic and are known
carcinogens being injected into these Marcellus wells to frack them
and break up the shale thousands of feet below.) Research is out
there that shows that, inevitably, these well casings will become
compromised, and/or other nearby old conventional wells disturbed by
the fracking will leech out their chemicals into the ground water.
In
addition there are work place hazards to consider (silica dust
exposure, fracking fluid, air quality issues) as well as risk of well
water contamination, noise and air pollution from compressor
stations, wells venting, and general quality of life issues and even
declining property values for those people living around well sites.
The list can go on and on, but you get the point.
One
only needs to drive through the many areas in the county where
drilling is active to get a pretty good picture of what we are in
store for in the next 5-10 years. Several hundred permits already
secured by the industry for our area. We are seeing current
activity on Arnold's Creek Road area (multiple drilling projects)
Pike's Fork off RT 23, Brushy Fork Road area in New Milton (Erwin
Valley multiple well pads) and Brushy Fork compressor station and
many more wells down that end near Meathouse Fork. Central Station
(extraction plant) Morgan's Run & RT 50 (Marcellus wells, a
cryogenic plant, compressor station, and staging area for shipping
out the wet gas.) County folk ain't seen nothing yet!
Doddridge,
Ritchie, and Harrison counties are at the heart of the Marcellus
shale region. The wet gas under us is prime pickin's for an industry
which is exempt from so many federal EPA regulations.
Many
county residents have concerns and unanswered questions. Have you,
or a neighbor, had difficulty getting a drilling company to return
your phone calls? Do you feel you are getting the "run around"
and perhaps misinformation when a land man comes to your door to
either negotiate for a pipeline right-of-way, or talk about a
proposed well site on your land?
Have
you ever made phone calls to the drilling company, or sent a
certified letter with signed receipt returned to you, but were never
successful in getting the drilling company to call you back?
Have
you ever had anyone working for the industry to tell you "well
if you don't sign, we can take it by eminent domain"? (They
CANNOT because in most all cases, the right-of-way they seek is for a
"collection pipeline" meaning they are transporting gas to
sell for their own private profit, so not subject to "eminent
domain" privileges.)
Do
you worry that the pipeline agreement you signed may have turned out
to have "given away the farm" and did you discover that
what you thought you signed ....based on what you were told by the
company is not what is actually happening to your land?
Have
you been almost run off the road or into a ditch by a tanker truck or
other construction vehicle? Do you have traffic safety concerns as
result of the significant increase in drilling related traffic?
Are
you living in an area where there are noticeable chemical or methane
smells, and venting into the air around your home as result of
drilling operations? Did you know that the WV DEP does NOT monitor
air quality from these compressor stations and Marcellus wells? No
monitoring program in place to ensure that the emissions do not
exceed federal EPA limits. Also, there is currently no mapping
process at the WV DEP to monitor where all the pipelines are going
and the identified shut-off valves for local emergency organizations
should there be a pipeline explosion or leak.
These
are but a few of the many challenges and concerns that county
residents face as result of this current Marcellus drilling boom.
Most concerned citizens don't know where to start to reach out for
help with their own personal situations and concerns or questions
about drilling which may be impacting them.
The
industry is pumping BILLIONS in profits from under our WV lands.
People and their farms are the sacrificial lambs for the industry and
our WV legislature has done little to remedy and to protect the
people who own land and reside in WV. (80% of the minerals are owned
by out-of-state people and companies) Is it any wonder they are
wooed into leasing their minerals to the industry, when most mineral
owners, being out-of-state, haven't a clue what is really going on at
"ground zero" because they don't live here?
WV
is the second richest state in natural resources in the nation.
Coal, lumber, oil, and gas. Yet, as a state, we are just about at
the bottom of the list as far as a having a population with one of
the lowest standards of living, economic opportunity, environmental
wellness, education, health and wellness, and other quality of life
issues.
Why is that? Will WV still be a welfare state when this
current Marcellus drilling frenzy subsides and the temporary jobs
given to our WV folk, such as driving a water truck or working on a
well site is no longer in demand? Where are all these billions in
drilling profits going anyway? How much is staying in
the state to
improve things for the WV people?
Who
will advocate for the residents in Doddridge County? In Wetzel
County, WV, (they are about 5 years ahead of us in the Marcellus
Drilling boom) citizens formed an advocacy group known as The Wetzel
County Action Group. It was made up of volunteer citizens who were
concerned about drilling impacts in their communities. They were
able to make some positive changes by bringing some of these
challenges and adverse impacts into the proper hands of the
regulatory agencies, the WVDEP, and other organizations.
See
article links below to see examples of how grass roots citizen
advocacy can work to protect a community.
***
The Blake Falls Water Fall in Wetzel County impacted by Chesapeake
Energy's drilling:
http://www.marcellus-shale.us/Blake-Run-Falls.htm
(see the before picture of waterfall, the after picture where
Chesapeake took out the stream and turned it into a well road, and
the restoration picture after Wetzel County Action Group got involved
and brought it to the attention of the EPA which lead to criminal
charges and guilty plea by Chesapeake Energy (see links below for
report.)
***
In southern WV, EQT was recently fined $200,000 in punitive damages
and $700,000 in compensatory damages as result of a cemetery in a
rural black coal community being desecrated when tombstones were
plowed under by excavation for a gas drilling related project in
Logan County. According to the articles, "the operator shoved
aside head stones and metal markers while building a road to a
drilling site" even after being warned that the cemetery was
there and clearly visible.
***In
Harrison County, in 2011 seven different Antero drill sites were
cited with Federal EPA Compliance Orders for violations to the Clean
Water Act, involving illegal discharges and backfill into streams and
the placement of the well pads on wetlands.
See
link to EPA region 3 site where you can find a list of these
compliance orders: http://www.epa.gov/region3/marcellus_shale/
(scroll down to the "site construction" heading where you
can read the individual violations for these and many other drill
sites.)
Several
residents in that community of Cherry Camp Road and Indian Run Road,
are currently involved in litigation against the company for alleged
drinking well water contamination. At least one resident has a
"water buffalo" tank that was installed by the company,
removing her from her home's water well after dangerously high levels
of arsenic was discovered in her well water.
Again,
in many cases, these things are brought to light by citizen
advocates.
Are
our communities considered collateral damage?
Remember
folks, drilling done right and carefully regulated will create MORE
local WV jobs, not less. And if people advocate for themselves and
their communities, it will help put MORE back into the communities,
not continue to take away. Don't sit back and watch your rural
community and your way of life become collateral damage. You ain't
seen nothing yet of what's to come over the next several years.
If
you are concerned about what's happening in our county, contact the
Doddridge County Action Group. 304 804-3224
doddridgeactiongroup@gmail.com
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