CHARLESTON — Seated around a breakfast spread of bacon, eggs, home fries and biscuits, a rural family suddenly has its morning ritual disturbed by the sound of trucks.

Before they realize what’s happening, an oil crew is gearing up to drill on the family homestead.

Legally, there’s nothing the family can do.

And that scene occurs more than most people would realize, but a move, known as the Surface Owner’s Bill of Rights, has begun in the Senate to change state policy.

“Nothing has changed for a number of years,” explained Sen. Jon Blair Hunter, D-Monongalia, one of five sponsors of SB482. “We’ve never really changed that.

“Basically, we’ve gotten a lot of complaints from surface owners about people coming onto their land without notifying them, selecting where they’re going to drill a well without getting their approval, and then not having more specifics in the contract on compensation and how they’re going to do things.”

A number of landowners recently formed the West Virginia Surface Owner’s Rights Organization with Charleston public interest lawyer Dave McMahon, who says drilling permits have zoomed from 900 annually to more than 3,000.

“So we’re hearing from lots of furious landowners who believe they’ve been run over,” he said.

McMahon and the West Virginia-Citizen Action Group want lawmakers to codify an earlier notice of when a driller plans to set up shop, including a notice before he arrives on the property to survey a well site, access road or pipeline locations.

Both groups are seeking a mandatory, one-on-one meeting between the driller and landowner, and a pre-permit negotiating period so the surface owner has some input.

Fair and equitable compensation by insisting on the posting of an individual well bond if no pre-drilling is reached is another aim of the groups.

Any land used for well sites, roads or pipelines must be assessed at market value, and another point of WV-CAG and WV-SORO is a requirement that the driller offer the surface owner gas service free from the wells or gathering lines on the property.

“When it comes to protecting property owners against the abuses of the oil and gas drillers, the playing field is tilted about as far as it can go in favor of the drillers,” said Gary Zuckett, executive director of WV-CAG.

Existing law only requires a 15-day notice in the mail before a permit to drill is approved, he noted.

“Very few people own their mineral rights,” Hunter said. “More own gas and oil rights. A lot don’t own either.”

Two decades ago, the senator said, he was approached by a company that offered him the princely sum of $10 an acre and free gas for access to his land.

“The reason this is so important now is because there are so many companies in here doing surveys of land and getting ready to drill,” he said.

In Kanawha City recently, he pointed out, 35 rooms of a motel were booked to oil and gas surveyors.

“This is going to be a real major event here,” Hunter said.

“We want to make sure the rights of West Virginia people are protected.”

— E-mail:

mannix@register-herald.com