CHARLESTON — A select panel of lawmakers agreed Wednesday to double the fee for an initial Marcellus gas well so more inspectors can be hired, leaving a handful of contentious issues to be resolved before the final product is put to a vote.

Delegate Tim Manchin, D-Harrison, co-chairman of the 10-member committee, wants to wrap up the regulatory bill in October, and said he thinks a bill can be taken up by the full Legislature one month later.

“I think they’re contemplating a special session in November,” Manchin told reporters, after a two-hour meeting that saw 10 mostly non-controversial amendments adopted.

“There’s a very good likelihood that we’ll have a bill ready to put on the special session in November.”

Manchin said he was pleased with the progress made this week in September interims on sewing together parts of what has proven to be a difficult piece of legislation.

“It’s been a learning curve, and we’ve gotten past that learning curve,” the co-chairman said.

“I think folks are feeling more comfortable. I’m now satisfied.”

Panelists came to terms on doubling the fee for an initial well to $10,000 and moving the permit charge for subsequent wells from $1,000 to $5,000.

A small debate erupted over how the Department of Environmental Protection could say how many inspectors are needed to oversee what promises to be an explosion of Marcellus shale operations.

As amended, the permitting fee would generate some $2.5 million, of which $1 million would applied to erasing a deficit within the DEP.

When the bill originally stipulated $5,000 for the initial well, Christian Boggs, general counsel for the DEP, figured this would allow the hiring of nine more people.

“We’re looking at a 2-1 split,” she told the select panel, formed months ago by the Joint Committee on Government and Finance.

By that, she explained, six of the nine would be actual inspectors, and the other three assigned as office help.

“It seems like a backward way of doing it,” protested Sen. Karen Facemyer, R-Jackson.

But Jim Martin, of the DEP’s Office of Oil and Gas, said, “We didn’t necessarily have a magical number. It’s a difficult problem to go through and get a definite number.”

The committee’s other co-chairman, Sen. Doug Facemire, D-Braxton, called the permitting fee increase “substantial” and emphasized the industry didn’t oppose it.

“The industry supported the increase,” he said. “The industry did not try to fight or obstruct the issue.”

Until the permitting fee issue arose, the panel handily adopted nine other amendments in almost machine gun-like precision.

One calls for the DEP to devise a website to electronically notify the public about impending operations. Another entails directional information in applications.

Within two months of the bill’s passage, the State Review of Oil and Natural Gas Environmental Regulations must examine the state’s drilling statutes.

A fourth amendment jacks the existing $50,000 bonds to guarantee compliance with state laws to $150,000.

Another would compensate surface owners $2,500 for taxes paid on parts of their property being used by gas drillers.

Lawmakers have touted Marcellus shale as a potential bonanza for West Virginia’s economy, eyeing the potential for thousands of new jobs and a major increase in state revenues.

An effort was made in this year’s regular session to enact a regulatory bill, but it failed on the final night.

Some big questions remain unanswered, as the select panel gears up for the October interims.

A major one, in Manchin’s estimation, is the distance a gas operation must be from a dwelling. The bill for now says 200 feet, but many people, among them the West Virginia Surface Owners Rights Organization, feel this is inadequate to protect homeowners.

“And whether we apply that to commercial farm activity buildings where people are raising something that might be affected by the noise and the light,” the co-chairman said.

“Our amendment proposes 1,000 feet. Some members would like less. We’re going to work through that.”

Manchin suggested more conflict could arise over the amount of input a surface owner should be afforded early on when the permit is in limbo.

“And, there’s the compensation system,” he said.

“Those are the big ones left. Quite frankly, we’re close on the distance. I think we’ve made great progress in the last two days. I’m very hopeful.”

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com