Morgantown Drilling Approved With No Public Input
Charleston Gazette
-
6 May 2011
By Ken Ward Jr.
The Morgantown Dominion Post broke the story yesterday (subscription
required) about the state Department of Environmental Protection
approving two permits for Marcellus gas wells to be drilled just
upstream from the area’s drinking water intakes along the Monongahela
River.
As they reported:
Site preparation has begun, said Michael John, president of Northeaste
Natural Energy, the Charleston-based company that will do the drilling …
… John said the two permits — issued March 10 and March 23 — allow the
company to drill two wells on the pad — MIP No. 4H and No. 6H. If
various factors pan out — including the wells’ productivity and
pipeline capacity — the company may drill four more on the same pad.
The Dominion Post has a follow-up story today (subscription required),
reporting:
A Monongahela River watershed group wants the Department of
Environmental Protection to study the potential health ans safety risks
of two Marcellus wells planned for the Morgantown Industrial Park — and
preferably hold the permits until the risks can be assessed.
The letter from the WV/PA Monongahela Area Watershed Compact (which
I’ve posted here) raises a number of issues:
– Any leakage, seepage, spillage, or blow-out of liquid pollutants
would be a direct threat to the water intake of the Morgantown Utility
Board (MUB), that serves the greater metropolitan area of nearly
100,000 people, including many residential and business areas, and the
entire populace of West Virginia University ( about 40,000 people). MUB
supplies to Morgantown, Westover, Granville, Laurel Point, Scotts Run,
Star City, Pleasant Valley, Cheat View, and Stewartstown as well as
Milan Pharmaceuticals, Inc., and the Ft. Martin and Longview power
plants.
– The diverse air emissions including controlled and inadvertent
releases, fugitive emissions, blow-outs, and accidental incidents that
represent a major threat to the people and property here in the
Monongahela River valley.
– Fire and explosion hazards, as evidenced by a number of incidents in
northern West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania; this includes the
flash-fire in Washington County (PA) on February 23rd that resulted in
serious injuries to three workers, two of whom were WV residents; and
the recent Marcellus well blow-out in Bradford County (PA) which spread
toxic fluids over a wide area despite the engineering and operating
best practices of the drilling company involved. This also resulted in
a temporary halt to fracking by this company in Pennsylvania and West
Virginia.
The citizen group told DEP Secretary Randy Huffman in its letter:
We believe that these permitted wells plus those that may be added, can
present a significant and real threat to the health and safety of
residents of this area. Your office is empowered to take substantive
actions when such threats to public health and safety occur; and, we
herewith request that you do so without delay.
DEP spokeswoman Kathy Cosco told the Dominion Post her agency would
review the letter, but added:
We’re following the regulations that we have to follow; until we have
more, we don’t have the authority behind us on a lot of things they
want us to do.
One thing that these particular drilling permits are sure to cause a
stir about: The lack of any requirement for DEP to issue a public
notice or seek public comments — let alone hold a public hearing —
before it issues permits for drilling that might impact public health
and safety.
As Kathy Cosco told me in an e-mail message last night:
… There was no public hearing or comment period for these permits. Oil
and Gas regulations do not call for public hearings or a comment period
for well work permits. The company is required to notify the surface
property owner or owners, the natural gas owner, coal owners, coal
lessees and operators, and those parties have 15 days to submit
comments related to the permit.
The lack of public involvement is in stark contrast to the regulations
that govern many other industrial activities, and certainly quite less
stringent than what the coal industry has to follow in West Virginia.
Earlier this year, the West Virginia Environmental Council made adding
a requirement for public notice and comment among the top priorities
for any new legislation on oil and gas drilling in the state, saying in
a position paper:
The impacts of Marcellus Shale operations are felt far beyond the
surface tracts being disturbed. Impacts can occur to public lands,
special places, high quality streams, neighboring landowners, and local
infrastructure. Therefore, EVERY permit application to drill a
horizontal should be officially noticed to the public (via newspaper
ads, etc.), and should include a 30-day public comment period (this is
in addition to all the appropriate notice provisions to surface owners
and others).