This article originally provided by The Charleston Gazette

April 11, 2011

S. Thomas Bond: Discussion needed about regulating drilling

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Michael McCowen, president of the Independent Oil and Gas Association of West Virginia, presented in a commentary on April 5 what the gas industry wants: protection from overregulation. Aside from the usual general enumeration of benefits to various stakeholders from the industry, he did not complain about one single proposed regulation.

What are the sore points to the industry? Perhaps they cannot raise any particular issue, for fear of raising all of what follows.

Those who are not beneficiaries to the "gold rush" want Quality of Life for the Public, and the least loss possible to those of us in industries which will be injured by tens of thousands of wells. There will be tens of thousands of Marcellus wells.

The industries that will sustain loss include agriculture, where the surface owner is seldom the mineral owner in much of the state, and he or she must give up space for drill pads, roads and pipeline rights-of-way. Forestry, a very large industry with substantial exports, will lose tens of thousands of acres that will be kept free of tree growth for an indefinite time. Also, the hunting industry, now worth hundreds of millions of dollars in West Virginia, and recreation, travel and retirement industries will also sustain loss. None of these is as well organized as the gas industry. None will be wiped out, but each will be diminished by many millions of dollars.

Exactly what is quality of life for residents of the state? Public health needs to be protected from hazardous chemicals in drinking water, ground water and the air. The public safety needs to be protected from accidents on the road, from fumes from compressors and engines, along with sound, explosions of pipelines and workplace accidents. The general public should not pay for additional law enforcement, broken roads and bridges that result from the drilling industry. If these are not problems, as some maintain, regulations against them should be no problem.

Quality of Life includes respect for surface rights owners. Good regulation should provide for inspection, enforcement, appropriate remediation and penalties upon violations. It should provide for cleanup and plugging of non-productive wells and sites. These should be paid for at expense of the company drilling the well, and not the taxpayer.

In summary, adequate regulations are needed to maintain the quality of life for all the public. Everything mentioned is a real expense of drilling for gas with even the most advanced technology today. Somebody pays it.

We are familiar in West Virginia with what economists call "externalization of cost," an enterprise operating without paying for some of it's cost. Real profit from an enterprise can only be calculated when all the cost is considered. The effect of externalization of costs is degradation of resources, both material and social. It is the principal reason we West Virginians have to keep saying, "Thank God for Mississippi." Great wealth has been created in the state, but the state is obviously poor.

Look at the coal industry -- scarred lands, billions of gallons of mine water each year, subsidence, miners killed and their families left wretched. That is a debt unpaid to some members of society. Look at the present state of the old oil and gas industry -- 17,500 wells abandoned, left for the taxpayer to plug or continue to scar the surface and subsurface of the state. Look at the timberlands of the Eastern Mountains. The clear-cut forest has not regrown even after 100 years.

How hard would it be to accomplish protection of the public? The industry already recognizes best practices for safety and efficiency, but there is no enforcement. Industrial hygiene research has standards intended to protect workers on an eight-hour shift. Would it be hard to translate them to standards for public protection? There is a tremendous amount of knowledge about the effects of chemicals at different concentrations.

What is it that industry can't live with? Let's talk about it.

Bond, of Jane Lew, is a retired teacher with a Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry and a member of the Guardians of the West Fork and the Monongahela Area Watersheds Compact.