Department of Energy representatives visiting Washington & Jefferson College on Monday heard speakers from a raucous and divided crowd for more than four hours. The meeting was part of the strategy of Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s recently created subcommittee, whose responsibility is “to improve the safety of shale gas development” as part of the president’s “Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future.” Drilling opponents, who paid their own way, were outnumbered by drilling supporters, but Energy in Depth, a leading industry lobbying group, offered free meals, hotel rooms and airfare to pro-drilling landowners from northeastern Pennsylvania and New York.
The City Manager of Clarksburg, Martin Howe, wants to sell effluent water from the city’s wastewater treatment plant to gas drilling companies for the creation of frack water. Effluent water is wastewater from the city that has been treated, and is normally discharged into the river. Howe sees this as an opportunity to control withdrawals directly from the stream, and to reserve the city’s treated drinking water for its citizens. Mercuria Energy America Inc., the fifth-largest independent energy trading company in the world, approached Clarksburg with the effluent water-selling plan.
Residents of Hawkins Run Road in Monongalia county are more than frustrated with the DOH over the condition of their neglected road, which is so riddled with potholes that a gas line is exposed. The DOH has reportedly told residents that the road is lower on its priority list, which begs the question: Will the drilling industry be sufficiently reimbursing West Virginia for the extra damage that will be done to the roads?
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