Updates and Alerts - WV Surface Owners' Rights Organization

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Comment on Well Plugging Priorities; Remember to Vote
Updates and Alerts WVSORO November 1, 2024
The WV DEP will be taking comments on well plugging priorities as part of the Methane Emission Reduction Program. Details here on upcoming public meetings and how to weigh in. In the meantime, remember to vote and make your voice heard in the critical election season. More
Issues: Abandoned wells, Methane, Orphaned wells, Pollution

WV SORO 2024 Legislative Summary; ALERT: Landmen Buying Pore Space Rights
Updates and Alerts WVSORO March 19, 2024
Below is a summary of WV SORO's actions on bills during the 2024 West Virginia Legislature's regular session, which ended March 9. During the session we also learned that there are land agents going door to door trying to get surface owners to sign away rights to the pore space in the rock formations under their land, and we need to educate surface owners about that. So this is intended to kill two birds with one stone. We will start with the alert since it is shorter. More
Issues: Leasing, Legislation, Pore space

Tell the House of Delegates: Don’t stop West Virginians from getting paid for offsetting carbon with their trees!
Updates and Alerts WVSORO March 5, 2024
SB 618 would do by establishing these unnecessary hurdles that will discourage companies from investing in carbon exchange programs in West Virginia. Contact your member of the House of Delegates. Tell them to vote “NO” on SB 618. More

Take Action to Protect Citizen Air Monitoring
Updates and Alerts WVSORO February 12, 2024
Please take action and tell your Senators to reject HB 5018. HB 5018 could prevent you from being able to use in court data you collect (like with a methane detector) from stationary sources of pollution (like a gas well etc.) on or next to or near your land. If courts are not supposed to legislate, then legislatures should not rule on evidence. More
Issues: Pollution

Surface Owners’ News 2023 Print Edition Now Available
Updates and Alerts WVSORO November 30, 2023
The 2023 print edition of Surface Owners News is now available. We hope you enjoy reading the latest news and updates from the WV Surface Owners' Rights Organization. More
Issues: Abandoned wells, Land use, Orphaned wells, Pollution, Well pads

Surface Owners say DEP needs at least 45, not just 23, oil and gas inspectors.
Updates and Alerts WVSORO February 7, 2023
Senate Bill 448 and House Bill 3110 have passed out of the Energy Committees in their respective houses and are now in their Finance Committees. The DEP and the industry and the Governor and maybe some Legislator agreed to fund a total of 23 inspectors in this bill. No one talked to us surface owners whether we agreed to that number -- and we are where the wells are leaking and stinking! More
Issues: DEP, Oil and Gas, Pollution

Update on forced pooling/unitization; and plugging; and inspectors
Updates and Alerts WVSORO June 14, 2022
The most significant oil and gas/surface owner/mineral owner legislation to come out of the Legislature earlier this year was the new forced pooling/unitization statute. (Technically it is the "unitization" part that affects us, and pooling is about fights between drillers, so we will compromise with popular terminology and use the slashed term "pooling/unitization".) More
Issues: Pooling

West Virginia landowners need your help!
Updates and Alerts WVSORO February 28, 2022
West Virginia used to have only 1oil and gas inspector for every 4000 oil and gas wells! And there are 75,000 wells and more than 20,000 associated tanks. During that time a study by Princeton and McGill universities found that a sample of 79 active, conventional, vertical wells in 13 counties was leaking an average of 9 cubic feet of gas – per hour. More
Issues: DEP, Oil and Gas, Pollution

Tell Legislators: Fully Fund the DEP Office of Oil & Gas
Updates and Alerts WVSORO February 13, 2022
The DEP Office of Oil and Gas is in a funding and staffing crisis. Currently, the Office only has 9 inspectors overseeing approximately 75,000 wells and 28,000 tanks across the state. That’s 1 inspector for every 8,000 wells. Bottom line: DEP needs more resources to properly manage its oil and gas program, and the industry should pay its fair share for doing business in the state. Urge your legislators to support solutions to the funding and staffing crisis. More
Issues: DEP, Legislation, Pollution

The Legislature is cutting the budget for oil and gas well inspectors, not fixing it!
Updates and Alerts WVSORO April 5, 2021
The staffing level of the DEP Office of Oil and Gas was cut from 40 to 25 positions last year due to a budget deficit. There is now only 1 oil and gas inspector for every 7000 oil or gas wells and their associated tanks in West Virginia. More
Issues: Aboveground tanks, DEP, Oil and Gas

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