This article originally provided by Coal Valley News

May 1, 2008

Local landowner speaks out about property damage

	George Workman looks down into crevices that appeared since the new gas well was drilled on his property.

Julian – George Workman, a disabled coal miner and Vietnam Veteran, had big dreams for his 40-acres of land; that is, before an oil and gas company decided they were going to assert their mineral rights and take the 3-and-a-half acres of newly graded land in order to drill a gas well.

According to Workman, he and his wife, Jamie Workman, were planning on building a house on the land. They had no idea that the mineral rights were sold to a gas company.

The couples’ daughter had recently died after a tragic car accident in Madison and, according to Workman, his wife wanted to leave the memories of her and move back into the country.

“We decided to move back to the hollow here on Little Horse Creek,” Workman said.

So, imagine the couples’ surprise when, after spending $10,000 to level out a portion of their property to build a new home, a lone pickup truck comes down their road and a person starts banging stakes into the ground, stating that the gas company is going to drill a well on the land.

Workman says a certified letter was later sent to him from Chesapeake Appalachia, LLC, a subsidiary of Chesapeake Energy of Oklahoma City. The letter was sent by certified mail and Workman said he had no way of knowing who sent the letter until he signed for it. In the letter, Chesapeake Appalachia, LLC told him of their plan for digging the well and for reclamation afterwards, which was to plant grass and fertilizer.

Apparently, this is not an unusual practice. “It’s quite common. Somebody owns the surface and somebody else owns the minerals,” David McMahon, spokesperson with the West Virginia Surface Owner’s Rights Organization, stated at a meeting held on Thursday, April 24 at the Danville Community Center.

“The law has recognized that the owners of the minerals have the right to come onto the property to get their minerals,” he told the assembled community members.

George Workman was not in attendance at this meeting, but he did allow the CVN to take a guided tour of his property.

In one of the photos taken that day on his property, Workman stands on an expanse of land within an estimated 30 feet of the gas well, looking down into large crevices that have formed since the gas well was constructed.

Chesapeake’s permit no. 005-02187 was issued on July 18 from the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection and construction began July 19. It halted briefly when Workman parked his truck at the opening of the road onto his property in an attempt to block Chesapeake from driving up to the drilling site.

The reprieve was only temporary as, on September 20, Boone County Circuit Court Judge William Stewart Thompson ruled in favor of an injunction filed by Chesapeake Appalachia, LLC, allowing Chesapeake access to the natural gas on the property they have a legal right to pursue.

According to newspaper reports in September, 2007, James Martin, Chief of the Office of Oil and Gas for the WV DEP, had sent an inspector from the DEP to investigate Workman’s concerns.

“His name was Carlos Hively,” Workman said. “Hively said he’d be out here to inspect the land after they drilled the well, but I haven’t heard or seen him since,” he said.

“There is no requirement that the inspector has to come back and make sure that the well site drilling was done correctly,” McMahon said.

According to a source at the WV DEP, Hively is no longer employed with the WV DEP, and no reason was given regarding his separation with the DEP. The CVN was not able to reach Hively or Martin for comment.

It has been eight months and still Workman has not seen a penny from Chesapeake as compensation for his damaged land. Since September, the amount of money was being negotiated between Chesapeake and the law firm representing Workman, Conaway and Conaway, in Madison.

“They’ve offered me $2,000 and recently the number went to $4,000,” Workman said, stating that neither offer came close to the $10,000 he had already spent on preparing the land to be used as his future home site.

“With a few more rains, this hillside will fall into the creek below. My neighbor has already told me that he sits on his porch and watches as rocks, dirt and debris fall down into the water,” Workman said.

“This well is already here. There’s nothing I can do about it now. I tried to stop them from drilling here. When they told me they’d arrest me if I didn’t move my car, it brought back memories of when I was working as a coal miner and the Federal Marshall came and arrested us for protesting. I’m not afraid of being arrested, but I thought at my age it’s better that I stay out of jail,” Workman said.

“I just hope that other people in Boone County are aware of what these companies are doing so it doesn’t happen to them, because I know they’re looking at other spots in the county,” he said.

“There is a lot of spin going on. You’ll hear that there’s just a few bad companies coming in and doing this. That’s not accurate. What is accurate is that the DEP only has a few complaints filed,” McMahon said.

McMahon encouraged area residents with similar concerns or complaints to learn about their surface owners rights at the website, HYPERLINK "http://www.wvsoro.org" www.wvsoro.org, sign the WV Surface Owner’s Bill of Rights, call into local talk radio shows, and write letters to local newspaper editors and county commission members.

“Democracy is sort of messy and we’re in a fight here with a well-funded organization and all we’re asking for is that they’ll be good neighbors and give us notice in time,” McMahon said.

Contact Joanie Newman at HYPERLINK "mailto:jnewman@coalvalleynews.com" jnewman@coalvalleynews.com or call 369-1165