West Virginia Surface Owner’s Bill of Rights
Prepared by WV Surface Owners’ Rights Organization
(pdf of the Surface Owner’s Bill of Rights)

West Virginia’s oil & gas laws were last revised in 1981 when surface owners were given only 15 days’ notice before the drilling commences, but no options for input about what parts of their property will be taken by the operators, etc.  The damage compensation enacted that year also was limited.

The tripling of well permits in recent years has brought to a head the need to be further update our laws to enforce surface owners’ common law “fairly necessary” rights and otherwise level the playing field between the drillers and surface owners.

Changes needed for more environmental & economic fairness in West Virginia’s oil & gas fields include:

Earlier notice that driller is coming:

• Requiring notice before the driller or surveyor comes onto property.
• Requiring notice and a face-to-face meeting between the “operator” (driller) and the landowner before the permit application is filed.
• These would be in addition to current requirement that surface owner get the well permit application and the right to comment only on the soil erosion and sediment control plan after the well site and road have been surveyed.

• Negotiation or mediation to give surface owner input in planning and executing well site(s) and access roads locations, gating, construction, maintenance and so on.
• Surface owner determines the road location, unless valid reason not to use what he chooses.
• Surface owner picks type of road construction – big wide graveled, or return to nature.
• Surface owner gets choice of vegetation replacement type.
• Mediation if driller and surface owner cannot agree on drilling site and road location.

• Requiring the driller to post an individual well bond, if no pre-drilling agreement is reached between the driller and the surface owner, and making that bond guarantee the surface owner’s compensation.
• Value the land taken at market value, not the value of its current use.
• Compensation for total value of the surface owner’s losses including roads, well site(s), and pipelines and value of adjacent lands.
• Requiring the driller to offer the surface owner residential gas service, at cost, from the wells or gathering lines on their land.
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Property tax reductions or compensation:.

• Compensate or reduce the taxes of the surface owner due to its reduced value with a gas well on it.

Other Legislation Needed for Surface Owners    

West Virginia Land Reunion Act:

• If mineral property taxes are unpaid, instead of selling at auction, let ownership revert to the surface owners; and
• Surface owner first option to purchase – Allow surface owners to have first refusal when minerals under their property come up for sale.

• ·Require drillers to space wells and share the royalties from each well among all of the mineral owners –  This will result in fewer wells drilled, no legalized stealing of gas from neighboring mineral owners, and more total gas produced from a pool.  More total gas from the pool which will benefit everyone involved except operators making money “on the push” for drilling wells. See  http://www.wvsoro.org/resources/pooling_unitization/index.html