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Larry Barr had hoped to live out his life in the peace and quiet of his community in West Virginia.
Kenwardjr RetweetedLarry Barr had hoped to live out his life in the peace and quiet of his community in West Virginia.
A few years ago, a gas company moved in next door. Here’s what that looks like:
Our story: https://propub.li/2TxMAfl
Link to tweet
Powerless
What it looks and sounds like when a gas driller overruns your land.
By Ken Ward Jr., The Charleston Gazette-Mail, Al Shaw and Mayeta Clark, ProPublica, December 20, 2018
This article was produced in partnership with the Charleston Gazette-Mail, which is a member of the ProPublica Local Reporting Network.
Lee Martin loved her 104-acre farm in Wetzel County, West Virginia. The family raised chickens there and rode horses. The kids played in mud puddles. They all took walks in the woods. ... Flat land is rare in Wetzel County, in the state’s northwestern region, and the place had a good barn, clean water and plenty of privacy. ... Then, starting in about 2012, Martin had to begin sharing the farm with Stone Energy.
Stone built a new bridge across the creek and a new road right in front of the Martins’ house. The company told Martin it needed the road to reach the new natural gas wells it drilled on the new well pad for which it flattened an area she used to go to pray, bucolic hills forested with huge oak trees.
Soon, hundreds of trucks rumbled past her house every day, spewing exhaust. Martin had asked the company to build the bridge farther up the creek, away from her house, and the well pad away from the oaks.
But Martin didn’t have a say over any of this. While she owns the house and the surface land it sits on, she doesn’t own the natural gas underneath. And that gave Stone Energy not only the right to access her property, but also the right to tear down trees, build structures and send as much traffic as it deemed appropriate onto it.
....
ProPublica Research Fellow Alex Mierjeski contributed to this report.
What do you think is reasonably necessary for the gas industry to ask of residents in West Virginia? Share your thoughts with us: changingwv@wvgazettemail.com.
This marks the final piece from this ProPublica/Charleston Gazette-Mail collaboration. But our reporting in West Virginia isn’t done — not by a long shot. ProPublica will continue to follow the Crowder-Wentz case in 2019, and the Gazette-Mail will keep covering natural gas and other environmental issues. And the ProPublica/Gazette-Mail partnership continues next year as Ken Ward Jr. embarks on a new West Virginia investigation. We are still listening, and your stories still matter.
Ken Ward Jr. covers the environment, workplace safety and energy, with a focus on coal and natural gas, for the Charleston Gazette-Mail. Email him at kward@wvgazettemail.com and follow him on Twitter at @kenwardjr.
Lead video by Chuck Burkhard/Drone Imageworks for ProPublica, Al Shaw and Lucas Waldron/ProPublica
Map Sources: U.S. Energy Information Administration, West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, USDA National Agriculture Imagery Program, Planet Labs, Inc., Doddridge County Assessor, Wetzel County Assessor
ProPublica
© Copyright
Pro Publica Inc.
What it looks and sounds like when a gas driller overruns your land.
By Ken Ward Jr., The Charleston Gazette-Mail, Al Shaw and Mayeta Clark, ProPublica, December 20, 2018
This article was produced in partnership with the Charleston Gazette-Mail, which is a member of the ProPublica Local Reporting Network.
Lee Martin loved her 104-acre farm in Wetzel County, West Virginia. The family raised chickens there and rode horses. The kids played in mud puddles. They all took walks in the woods. ... Flat land is rare in Wetzel County, in the state’s northwestern region, and the place had a good barn, clean water and plenty of privacy. ... Then, starting in about 2012, Martin had to begin sharing the farm with Stone Energy.
Stone built a new bridge across the creek and a new road right in front of the Martins’ house. The company told Martin it needed the road to reach the new natural gas wells it drilled on the new well pad for which it flattened an area she used to go to pray, bucolic hills forested with huge oak trees.
Soon, hundreds of trucks rumbled past her house every day, spewing exhaust. Martin had asked the company to build the bridge farther up the creek, away from her house, and the well pad away from the oaks.
But Martin didn’t have a say over any of this. While she owns the house and the surface land it sits on, she doesn’t own the natural gas underneath. And that gave Stone Energy not only the right to access her property, but also the right to tear down trees, build structures and send as much traffic as it deemed appropriate onto it.
....
ProPublica Research Fellow Alex Mierjeski contributed to this report.
What do you think is reasonably necessary for the gas industry to ask of residents in West Virginia? Share your thoughts with us: changingwv@wvgazettemail.com.
This marks the final piece from this ProPublica/Charleston Gazette-Mail collaboration. But our reporting in West Virginia isn’t done — not by a long shot. ProPublica will continue to follow the Crowder-Wentz case in 2019, and the Gazette-Mail will keep covering natural gas and other environmental issues. And the ProPublica/Gazette-Mail partnership continues next year as Ken Ward Jr. embarks on a new West Virginia investigation. We are still listening, and your stories still matter.
Ken Ward Jr. covers the environment, workplace safety and energy, with a focus on coal and natural gas, for the Charleston Gazette-Mail. Email him at kward@wvgazettemail.com and follow him on Twitter at @kenwardjr.
Lead video by Chuck Burkhard/Drone Imageworks for ProPublica, Al Shaw and Lucas Waldron/ProPublica
Map Sources: U.S. Energy Information Administration, West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, USDA National Agriculture Imagery Program, Planet Labs, Inc., Doddridge County Assessor, Wetzel County Assessor
ProPublica
© Copyright
Pro Publica Inc.
Same issue in Colorado - this documentary is exceptional - http://www.splitestate.com/
Link to tweet
http://www.splitestate.com/
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