 |
| David Wentz looks at an EQT gas well site on his property. (ProPublica photo by Raymond Thompson Jr.) |
"Gas and other mineral companies must obtain permission from surface owners in order to use their land to reach reserves under other properties, Justice John Hutchison wrote for the court," Kate Mishkin and Ken Ward Jr. of the Charleston Gazette-Mail report for ProPublica's Local Reporting Network.
The problem that led to the lawsuit began more than seven years ago. EQT Corp. owned the mineral rights under Beth Crowder and David Wentz's farm, and was allowed to use a 20-acre well pad on their property to drill for natural gas underneath. But EQT owned drilling rights to about 3,000 acres nearby, and wanted to use that well pad to drill horizontal fracking wells to reach gas on those properties. Crowder and Wentz told EQT it could not use the well pad to gather gas from adjacent properties, but EQT ignored them and built nine wells, Mishkin and Ward report. That caused considerable noise and traffic on the 300-acre farm.
The ruling "represents a rare victory for residents in a state where economics and politics are increasingly controlled by the natural gas business after decades of domination by the coal industry. Making it more gratifying for Crowder and Wentz, the court that ruled in their favor has been under the microscope because of connections to the gas industry," Mishkin and Ward report.
Oil and gas industry officials say fracking minimizes environmental harm by drilling multiple wells from one well pad, but that practice has increased the nuisance for nearby residents, many of whom weren't even the property owners when the mineral rights beneath them were sold. And those who did sell the mineral rights to their land in years past could not have anticipated the advent of fracking, which is sometimes more of a nuisance than traditional means of drilling. "Though bills have been introduced year after year that are designed to mitigate the impacts on residents, West Virginia lawmakers have repeatedly refused to act," Mishkin and Ward report.
from The Rural Blog http://bit.ly/2WxpcE4 W.Va. Supreme Court rules that oil and gas companies are trespassing if they go on private property without permission - Entrepreneur Generations
0 Response to "W.Va. Supreme Court rules that oil and gas companies are trespassing if they go on private property without permission - Entrepreneur Generations"
Post a Comment