Morgantown Leaders Call for Marcellus Special Session

The State Journal
6 April 2011
By Pam Kasey

MORGANTOWN -- Morgantown City Council unanimously approved April 5 a resolution calling for a special legislative session to regulate drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus shale.

But the council stopped short of calling, as Lewisburg City Council did last month, for a moratorium on new drilling permits until new regulations are in place.

The draft resolution noted that the Legislature did not “complete” its work on these bills to establish guidelines for the protection of water resources, air quality and roadways, nor for additional funding for the DEP to add to its complement of 17 gas well inspectors for more than 59,000 wells.

A number of residents spoke in favor of a moratorium, including several who closely have followed the issues associated with dissolved solids in waterways and possible air pollution from gas well drilling and production activities.

“West Virginia has a history of extraction industries coming in, damaging our resources, taking the money and exporting it out of state, often importing workers from out of state, and leaving West Virginians to clean up the mess — that happened with coal, that happened with timber,” said Peg Reese, who retired from the Natural Resources Conservation Service. “Let’s for once do the right thing and have good restrictions on what they can’t do, clear instructions on what they can do and protect our resources for future generations.”

Independent Oil and Gas Association President Michael McCown drove from Clarksburg to dissuade council from passing the call for a moratorium, as did West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association executive director Nicholas “Corky” DeMarco.

McCown, who also is a vice president of Houston-based Gastar Exploration Ltd., gave an overview of the thousands of jobs and many hundreds of millions in severance and property taxes this growth industry is projected to produce in the state.

“If we’re forced out of this state, we’ll spend our capital and take our jobs elsewhere,” McCown said. DeMarco spoke of the opportunity represented by the ethane that is produced with natural gas in the Marcellus shale.

“We have the raw materials to reinvent the state’s plastics industry,” he said.

The economy in the north-central region would be hurt by a moratorium, said representatives of the Waterfront Place Hotel and Lakeview Resort.

“Pass a resolution for safety and best practices,” said Dale Maurer, director of sales and marketing at Waterfront Place, after describing the boost that Marcellus shale activity has given his business and to the region. “Not a moratorium.”