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."