CHARLESTON — Final amendments were tacked onto a much-studied bill regulating Marcellus shale exploration Monday, among them a step toward protecting municipal water supplies in West Virginia when the promising industry gets rolling in earnest.

That left the select committee appointed after a Senate bill died in the House last winter with one last chore: Vote the bill up or down Wednesday.

After a two-hour session, the co-chairs, Sen. Doug Facemire, D-Braxton, and Delegate Tim Manchin, D-Harrison, viewed the proposal as “a starting point,” suggesting even more changes could come once it is put before the full Legislature.

And that’s a call for Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, who has pledged to set up a special session on Marcellus shale, if a consensus is reached.

“I think it’s superior to the Senate bill that came over,” Manchin told reporters.

“I think we’ve addressed a whole lot more concerns. Just the idea that we’ve expanded policy considerations to include municipalities and the impact on them is a huge step forward.”

Facemire said his concern is that once the bill becomes law, industry and environmentalists alike will return with pleas to tweak, add or subtract from it.

“We’ve got the foundation for something to work on,” the senator said.

The last amendment added would broaden the scope of the Department of Environmental Protection to safeguard municipal water supplies from contamination when horizontal drilling is performed.

“It just strengthens our ability to deny a permit,” Kristin Boggs, the DEP’s general counsel, told the committee.

Another key amendment, offered by Sen. Orphy Klempa, D-Ohio, hikes from 15 to 20 percent the range within the offer and the amount decided by a jury before the operator is obligated to pick up the attorneys’ fees in a court case.

Sen. Herb Snyder, D-Jefferson, said the likelihood of a court dispute probably would only occur in 5 percent of the negotiations.

“We don’t expect everyone to use this for every single well project,” Snyder said.

Another amendment sets the starting salaries for DEP inspectors at $35,000, and $40,000 for supervisors. One insists that inspectors have at least three years experience in the industry.

Left intact was an earlier amendment that puts the permitting fee at $10,000 for the initial well, and $5,000 for all subsequent ones on the same pad.

Panelists agreed on a 1,000-foot buffer zone for gas drilling in areas pocked by caves and caverns, an amendment tailored for the unique topography of Greenbrier, Monroe and Pocahontas counties.

“I wanted to make sure we got the karst issue on the committee report,” explained Delegate Tom Campbell, D-Greenbrier, a committee member.

“Obviously, it will have to be perfected as we go through this special session.”

Campbell said he felt the matter was important enough to get the matter of caves and caverns in the report, due to that region’s unique quality.

“Without soil to filter the water, it’s important we be very careful,” he said.

One Monroe County resident, Joseph Chasnoff, who lives on Peters Mountain, thinks the panel needs to do more research before a final bill is enacted.

“Karst today is very little understood,” Chasnoff said.

“It’s a vast maze, a network that, as rain occurs and water levels change, water flows in the karst in different directions. It’s a network of caves and fissures and passages that are too small to explore by humans. My water on Peters Mountain could be affected.”

A 1,000-foot buffer zone could prove far too small, he said, since the drilling operation could affect water supplies miles in the distance.

Moreover, he said, there are three companies in Monroe that sell bottled water worldwide that might be affected by gas operations.

“We’ve got a possible industry here that’s much more valuable than gas that could be found in Monroe County,” Chasnoff said.

Manchin said the bill seeks to address all concerns but acknowledged not all will be pleased with the final draft.

“Rarely is anybody happy,” he said.

“When somebody is completely happy, we usually have to be concerned. I don’t think it works any substantial harm on the industry.”

— E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com