UNION — Though acting Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin has announced he intends to utilize the natural gas of the Marcellus shale, residents of Monroe County, who live above the shale, say drilling into the area will decimate their culture, safety and even endangered species in the area.

Jill Fischer, co-president of the Save the Water Table organization, said drilling on the Marcellus shale puts citizens at risk.

“It sounds to me like Gov. Tomblin wants to exploit West Virginia,” Fischer said. “The state has been a supplier of the nation’s coal and supplies power and industry. Though we supply all of these corporations, if you look around at our income, health and other factors, we are at the bottom when compared to every other state.

“What has been exploited in West Virginia is not our natural resources but our people. We are facing a pretty hard thing. When it comes to them prospecting for drilling sites, Monroe County’s prospects aren’t good.”

Fischer said county residents are working to prevent hydrofracture drilling or “fracking” in their area. Fracking is a process in which a well is drilled several thousand feet into the ground. From that one well, several other  well holes are then created in a variety of directions with multiple horizontal bores, covering a wide area underground.

Next, Fischer said around 1 million to 2 million gallons of water are injected into the well holes, augmented with various chemicals to release natural gas within the shale. Each drilling site requires 4 to 5 acres of land and are in constant operation.

Fischer said Save the Water Table has been working to energize the rural communities in Monroe County about the issue.

“We have held several meetings to explain drilling to help people understand what might happen in the future,” Fischer said. “We have written to the governor and have researched by talking with people in other West Virginia counties and other states who have endured this process.”

According to Fischer, residents from Wetzel County, where the process has taken place for the past four years, came to speak with Monroe residents about the “damaging” effects of fracking in their county.

“They said the fracking taking place there for the past four years has been incredibly damaging,” Fischer said. “Their water has become unusable and contaminated. There are hundreds of big trucks required for the process. The community has had to have escort vehicles for their school buses because these trucks are so dangerous. There is an accident there every day because the big trucks are incapable of navigating the country roads. The rescue squads are becoming overwhelmed.”

Fischer said the industry that fracking will bring is the last thing Monroe County residents want.

“This area is rich in history and a lot of descendants of early settlers still live in the area,” she said. “Being a rural area, we don’t have many people and we don’t have much political clout. Major corporations see rural areas as wasted space. Rural areas become sacrifice zones for these corporations, who pollute the water, area and lifestyle.”

According to Fischer, Gordy Oil, the Houston-based company behind the proposed drilling in Monroe County, has not been forthcoming with residents.

“They are based in Texas and came here last summer for a public meeting,” Fischer said. “It was hard to tell if they were ignorant or playing dumb. They wouldn’t or couldn’t answer many of our questions.”

Robbie Gwinn, a Gordy vice-president, said residents have nothing to be concerned about and that similar processes have been taking place nationally for decades.

“We understand there is a lot of hysteria out there,” Gwinn said. “I would say the industry position is that we have been doing this on oil and water for 60 years without any major incidence of contamination. The development of oil and gas can lend itself to an industrialization of a rural area. We hope to reduce the density of our wells so we don’t have wells so close together they cause that industrialization effect. Monroe County wants us to reduce traffic during school hours. We are willing to work with the county to reduce the impact on them.”

Gwinn said he is not aware of any proposed well sites being located on historic districts or laws prohibiting them from being located there.

“I am not aware of any laws on the federal or state level against locating wells on a historic district,” Gwinn said.

Gwinn said the process being undertaken by Gordy Oil is not “fracking,” but rather simple well drilling.

“The process for drilling a well doesn’t include hydrofracture,” Gwinn said. “You drill a hole in the ground and case it with cement. You pump water, sand and chemicals in the area of that well to stimulate the natural gas. Water well drillers have been drilling in this area for years and there is very little difference between what we are doing and they have been doing.

“Our first well will be an exploration well and it does target the Marcellus shale. We are most likely to drill vertically to study a core sample to see if there is enough gas to go after. The area may not be viable. The first wells are likely to be located in Monroe County. We have leases on land in Greenbrier County, Pocahontas County and a small amount in Summers County.”

Gwinn said the company hopes to avoid caves and endangering them and their residents.

“Our scientists and geologists have considered everything,” Gwinn said. “We want to avoid encountering caves. We will have to move the well if we encounter a void.”

There is only a small number of Monroe County residents opposed to drilling the Marcellus shale and several area landowners have already agreed to the project, Gwinn said.

“The Gordy Oil Co. had an open house and we have had discourse with those opposed to it,” Gwinn said. “I am not sure there is anything we can say to change their minds. They are opposed to any development in the county. Others came to the meeting with open minds and to hear what we had to say. They are all for the industry, job creation and the doors this would open.”

Several lawsuits have already been filed by residents and municipal authorities against hydrofracture drilling companies in Pennsylvania, New York, Texas and even in West Virginia. Many of these lawsuits concern the exact same issues Monroe County residents fear.

Robin Wright, a member of the Monroe County Historical Society, said the society has sent out a letter to several lawmakers, including Gov. Tomblin, regarding concerns if hydrofracture drilling were allowed on the Marcellus shale in their county.

The letter claims that hydrofracture drilling would disrupt several aspects of Monroe County life, including multi-generation family farms, scenic byways, Civil War saltpeter caves and the sense of “stepping back in time” created by the county’s proud lack of industry.

“We are very rural and we don’t even have any chain restaurants in our county,” Wright said. “We worked hard to create historic districts in our county and some of the proposed drilling sites would violate these historical districts. There is a cultural landscape we hold dear and this would violate our lifestyle.

“Gordy Utility told us we would cease to be a farming community and become an industrial community,” she said. “We have bicentennial farms here that have been in family hands for generations.”

Wright said one of the proposed drilling sites is in a designated historic district, along a one-lane road. The proposed centers would destroy the idyllic countryside of Monroe County.

“These centers they use to drill are the size of a football field,” Wright said. “It takes 1 million gallons of water to do this process, which causes traffic backups, accidents and covers various areas. It’s a pretty devastating thing to do. A cultural change would happen in our community. Property values would deteriorate.

“These wells oftentimes catch on fire and burn for several hours. Our rescue squads are largely volunteer and wouldn’t be equipped to deal with this. The DEP actually told us they don’t have the manpower to oversee these proposed drills.”

In addition to the landscape, Wright said endangered species would also be put at risk by drilling.

“We are so full of caves in our area and we have two types of bats on the endangered species list,” Wright said. “The drilling would disturb the bats, which are already suffering from white nose syndrome. We are talking with the Division of Wildlife about this.”

According to Wright, not only would bats be put at risk, but so would the drinking water supply. Wright said the majority of residents get their drinking water from wells and, with the Karst terrain of the county, hydrofracture drilling could easily contaminate the supply.

“They drill several thousand feet down and then can drill horizontally and laterally from that main drill, out into various directions,” Wright said. “They inject water into this area, which makes the rock explode and allows natural gas to escape. Most people in the county have wells and since water travels easily underground, this method would easily contaminate our water.”

Wright said allowing hydrofracture drilling on the Marcellus shale would change the culture of the county, which has been intact for nearly 200 years.

“I think the emphasis for us is about trying to get time for the county planning commission to write an ordinance,” Wright said. “What is at risk is our culture. That is the biggest concern of the historical society. We haven’t had to deal with this before and we want our county government to put in effect an ordinance to protect us from this kind of drilling.”

Kate Coil is a reporter for the Bluefield Daily Telegraph.