Local News
Senators seek more rights for surface owners
CHARLESTON — A renewed effort is afoot in the state Senate to hand landowners more say-so when gas and oil firms come calling to drill their property.
Horror stories have filled the Capitol for nearly a year now, retold by property owners who came home from vacation or military duty, only to find their land invaded and filled with drilling rigs.
Such complaints gave rise to a new group known as the West Virginia Surface Owners’ Rights Organization.
A bill aimed at enhancing the rights of landowners failed a year ago, but this time around, at least two measures are in the works.
One of them, turned in Wednesday, is meant to provide a larger window for the surface and mineral owners to work when drilling is proposed.
“It gives them longer notification,” said Sen. Randy White, D-Webster, a co-sponsor of SB374.
“They would have a little more say. It makes the driller come in and work with them on establishing where they’re going to put their roads.”
White said a major thrust of the legislation is to make sure drillers don’t swallow up prime farm land, for example.
“I don’t think it’s onerous,” he said of the legislation.
“I think what it does is just forces people to work together as opposed to working against each other.”
The rights organization was launched last year by Charleston attorney David McMahon following complaints throughout West Virginia about the inability of the law to provide landowners much say in the drilling process.
White said he has heard complaints voiced by landowners across his entire 11th District.
“Don’t get me wrong,” he emphasized. “There are some really good drillers out there, but there are some that go in because they can do it without notice and without trying to work with the landowner, only to cause problems for everybody.”
Existing law is “pretty much” on the side of the drillers since only a 15-day notification is required.
The bill would tack on an extra 15 days and permit the surface owner the right to buy gas from any operation on the property for home heating purposes.
Under the proposal, White noted, the driller must work with the landowner to resolve any issues that might arise from the proposed installation.
In floor remarks, Senate Finance Chairman Walt Helmick, D-Pocahontas, said natural gas found itself in a boom last year, with gas going for the “unheard of price” of $13 per cubic feet.
Back then, some 5,000 new jobs were added, but then came a plunge in the global price of oil and gas prices that track oil likewise went into a tailspin.
“Today, rigs are parked, independent operators and drillers are feeling the pinch,” Helmick said.
“The flow of capital into West Virginia was reduced to a relative trickle compared to last year’s boom. This was a major impact on our economy. It changed overnight.”
— E-mail:
mannix@register-herald.com
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