September 14, 2014

Industry Sponsored Informational Meetings This Week and September 24

The following industry sponsored informational meeting may be of interested to SORO members.  Apologies for the short notice of this week's meetings.  I regret that I am unable to attend due to prior commitments and hope folks who go will report back on what they learn.  If you hear of other meeting that we should alert our membership about please email details to julie@wvsoro.org.  Thanks!

Tuesday, September 16 ~ "Consol Energy Public Meeting" at Jackson's Mill, 6-8 PM

Representatives of Consol Energy are hosting the meeting to discuss the company's oil and gas development plans for Lewis County and other proposed activities in the area.

Wednesday, September 17 & Wednesday, September 24 ~ Dominion Open Houses in Buckhannon & Durbin

Dominion has scheduled open houses for September 17 at West Virginia Wesleyan College in Buckhannon (Upshur County), and September 24 at the Durbin Volunteer Fire Department (Pocahontas County) for people to learn more about its proposed 42-inch Atlantic Coast Pipeline (formerly called the Southeast Reliability Project). From 5 to 6 PM, landowners within the proposed study corridor are welcome at each open house, and then from 6:30  to 8:30 PM the general public and other landowners can attend. View proposed route maps here.

(Speaking of pipelines:  WV-SORO has posed new and updated resources on the website.  Keep reading for more details.)

WV-SORO Membership Meeting Follow Up

Thanks to everyone who sweating it out with us (literally) in Salem on Saturday, August 23 at the WV-SORO Membership Meeting.  (Apologies for the lack of AC -- we had not idea it wasn't working until we arrived at Salem International University that morning!) It was great to see so many of you whom I have met over the years, and to finally meet those of you with whom I'd only emailed or spoken with over the phone.

Despite the lack of AC, overall the response we've gotten about the meeting has been positive and there is interested in SORO making it an annual event.  Folks found the pipeline panel helpful and informative, but for many the best part was the opportunity to meet and talk with others with shared experiences and learn from each other. (See Tom Bond's write up about the meeting for FrackCheckWV at http://www.frackcheckwv.net/2014/08/25/wv-surface-owners-express-significant-concerns-at-meeting/.)

Since the meeting we have posted new and updated materials on pipelines and eminent domain on our website, including the updated version of Dave McMahon's pipeline article/guide.  You can access this information here -- http://www.wvsoro.org/resources/advice/index.html#pipelines.  If you prefer a hard copy of the guide, I'm happy to drop one in the mail to you -- please reply to this email to request one.

We will be posting video of the pipeline panel and other presentations on our website soon, and will include more information about the meeting in our next news letter. In the meantime, we hope you will join at our next educational event, which is a follow up to last year's Wellness & Water Conference.  See details below.

Third Annual Wellness & Water Conference ~ October 3-4, 2014 in Charleston

Please note: There is currently a glitch with registering online. If you are getting impatient to be registered call 304-522-0246 to register over the phone. If no one answers, leave a message with your name and number--speak clearly and slowly.