Protests Halt Drilling Auction Near Mon Forest
Charleston Gazette
20 March 2010
By Paul J. Nyden, Staff writer
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Conservation groups succeeded Friday in stopping
the federal Bureau of Land Management from auctioning publicly owned
oil and gas reserves under the Monongahela National Forest near Spruce
Knob.
The Center for Biological Diversity, Wilderness Society and Friends of
Blackwater were among the groups warning that oil and gas development
would threaten endangered bats, a native brook trout fishery, clean
water and scenic resources inside the forest.
The BLM had planned to auction those reserves as part of a broader sale
including land and resources in Ohio, Alabama, Arkansas and other
states.
Mollie Matteson, of the Center for Biological Diversity, said,
"Endangered bats are dying of white-nose syndrome a few miles from
these drill sites, yet the Forest Service wants to put toxic drill pits
in their habitat, and potentially disrupt the caves they live in."
Over the last three years, the newly emerging "white-nose syndrome"
disease has killed more than 1 million bats in the eastern United
States. Last year, the disease was first discovered in West Virginia in
a Pendleton County cave that is a major home for rare bats.
Judy Rodd, director of Friends of Blackwater, said, "Once more, the
Forest Service put up sites for oil and gas development, but failed to
do the analysis and consultation that would ensure better protections
for our wildlife, clean water, and underground cave systems. Once more,
we pointed this out in our protest, and we won."
Eight other groups filed protests, including: Trout Unlimited, the West
Virginia Wilderness Coalition and the National Wildlife Federation.
Oil and gas drilling, particularly drilling that uses "hydrofracking,"
can contaminate streams, groundwater and wells.
Hydrofracking -- hydraulic fracturing -- creates fractures and fissures
in underground rocks, a process enhanced when fluids are injected to
extend those fractures.
Conservation groups worried the geology in Pendleton and Randolph
counties, which includes many underground fissures and channels, made
local water resources particularly vulnerable to pollution problems
from hydrofracking.
As energy prices rise, conservationists worry oil and gas drilling may
proliferate in national forests without careful review and
environmental protections.
Reach Paul J. Nyden at pjny...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5164.