Morgantown Demands Special Session on Gas Drilling
Charleston Gazette
6 April 2011
By The Associated Press
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- The city of Morgantown is demanding that Sen. Earl
Ray Tomblin, acting as governor, convene a special legislative session
to toughen regulations on natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale
field, but it rejected a resolution calling for a moratorium on the
deep wells.
The proposed moratorium failed for lack of support at a City Council
meeting Tuesday night, as did a similar amendment to the resolution
requesting a special session.
"It's extremely important we take a stand on this," said Councilman Don
Spencer, who supported the moratorium. "Our people need our help, not
our acquiescence."
Morgantown resident Peg Reese, a retired conservationist, agreed. The Dominion Post reported that Reese
and others in the crowd argued the state needs strong policies to
protect its people, water and air.
"West Virginia has a history of extraction industries coming in and
damaging resources ... and leaving West Virginians to clean up the
mess," Reese said.
Corky DeMarco, executive director of the West Virginia Oil and Natural
Gas Association, said Wednesday that supporting a moratorium would have
sent the wrong message to industry.
"We're poised to get billions of dollars in investments in this state,
like we've never seen before," he said. "We need certainty."
Supporting the natural gas industry also supports American
manufacturing, he said, because gas is a preferred, affordable energy
source for factories.
Natural gas companies are rushing to tap the vast reserves that lie
under West Virginia and much of Central Appalachia.
To reach the mile-deep deposits, they use horizontal drilling and
hydraulic fracturing technologies, in which millions of gallons of
chemical-laden water are blasted underground to break up the rock
The state Department of Environmental Protection has said it has too
few inspectors to keep up with the growth, and it needs a revenue
source to hire them. Many residents and environmentalists, meanwhile,
worry the state's regulations are too weak to protect water sources,
air quality, roads and more.
Two bills to regulate Marcellus drilling died on the final day of the
last legislative session.
"We support reasonable additional regulations," said Mike McCown,
president of the Independent Oil and Gas Association. "But we plan to
continue to drill. If forced, we'll take our jobs and capital
elsewhere."
DEP spokeswoman Kathy Cosco said the agency would welcome the
opportunity to address the issues it tried to tackle during the regular
session, but Tomblin has indicated he'd call a special session only if
lawmakers were closer to an agreement.
Since 2009, the DEP has issued about 900 permits for Marcellus
wells, and Cosco said about 200 of those have been completed.
Eighty-eight permits are in review.
"If the secretary thought that the issue was getting too far
ahead of us, then he would consider a moratorium," she said, "but at
this moment, there is no need for a moratorium on issuing permits."
DeMarco said only one West Virginia community has passed a resolution
opposing gas drilling -- the city of Lewisburg. But southern Greenbrier
and Monroe counties have special concerns with their porous Karst
limestone geology, he said.
Although some companies have leased land in those areas, DeMarco said
none is yet drilling there.