Natural Gas Boom Brings Investment, Damaged Roads
W.Va. lawmakers consider new rules, permit fees
Charleston Gazette
5 February 2011
By The Associated Press
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The Marcellus Shale natural gas boom has brought
unprecedented investments in northwestern West Virginia and also marked
damage to its country roads, state lawmakers were told Friday.
The House's Judiciary and Finance committees held their second joint
hearing on the Marcellus issue. With future meetings planned for such
topics as surface owners' rights and water use, Friday's session
focused on rural roads around well sites.
The vast Marcellus Shale field sprawls a mile beneath Ohio, West
Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York. The industry estimates it holds
trillions of cubic feet of natural gas. But extracting the gas requires
a horizontal drilling method and the fracturing of the rock with a
high-pressure, high-volume mix of water, chemicals and sand.
The boom has brought a flow of trucks, hauling heavy equipment, pipes,
water, sand and chemical slush, to often narrow roads that they must
share with school buses and the vehicles of area residents, state
Transportation Secretary Paul Mattox told lawmakers.
"These rural roads not built for this type of activity in mind," Mattox
said.
Mattox outlined a new permit process adopted for these operations.
Officials can require such improvements as signs, signals and widened
lanes. They can restrict trucks to certain hours or require trucks to
travel with pilot cars ahead of them. Regulators also try to film a
driller's proposed route before they obtain the permit, Mattox said.
The goal, Mattox told lawmakers, is "that the road shall be maintained
equal or better than the original condition."
Operators must post bonds of $25,000 for gravel, $35,000 for tar and
chip, and $100,000 for paved roads. As an alternative, drillers can
post "blanket bonds" of between $250,000 and $1 million, depending on
the scope of their activities, Mattox said.
The bonds defray repair and maintenance costs.
Some operators have been up-front in remedying their impact on country
roads. Wetzel County Sheriff James Hoskins told the joint hearing that
Chesapeake Energy is among those responsible companies. Among other
measures, Chesapeake limits hauling while school buses are on the
roads, he said.
But safety remains a major concern. The narrow roads can lead to
smashed side mirrors and other vehicle damage, the sheriff said. Area
residents worry about being forced into embankments. Trucks break down,
roll over or lose their brakes, Hoskins said.
Hoskins cited incident where sharp objects have been left in the road
or driller have found dummies hanged in effigy on their sites. The
influx of workers has also brought some crime, he said, mostly
involving drugs or thefts. Area law enforcement have also so far
arrested 13 illegal workers and several unlicensed truck drivers,
Hoskins said.
"Wetzel County is a beautiful county. I'd like to keep it that way,"
the sheriff said. "Residents are concerned about their way of life, and
are concerned it's being disturbed."
Don Rigby urged lawmakers to keep the benefits in mind as they consider
additional rules and permit fees for drillers this session. Rigby is
executive director of the Regional Economic Development Partnership,
which serves Ohio, Marshall and Wetzel counties.
Chesapeake alone has committed $1 billion to develop its drilling in
the state, Rigby said. But he also noted that other Marcellus states,
such as Pennsylvania, are farther along in overseeing their drilling.
"We believe we're poised to capitalize on a tremendous opportunity for
West Virginia," Rigby said. "We need to make sure they know they're
welcome here. We need to make sure they know they can be competitive
here. . . . Let's make sure we court these folks."