Marcellus Select Committee Delays Vote on Abolishing Examining Board

During the last meeting of the Select Committee on Marcellus Shale, the Committee spent two hours discussing whether to eliminate the controversial, industry dominated Oil and Gas Inspectors Examining Board and allow the DEP to hire oil and gas inspectors the way it hires other environmental inspectors within the agency. According to the Charleston Gazette, the state DEP and advocates for surface owners want to get rid of the Board. DEP says it’s too bureaucratic, while the advocates say it gives the industry too much influence in who inspects well sites.

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The Board is supposed to be made up of five members, including the chiefs of DEP’s oil and gas office and its water resources office. The Governor appoints the other members: two industry representatives and one citizen to represent surface owners and environmental organizations. The slot representing surface owners and environmentalists has been vacant for about five years. Both DEP and the West Virginia Surface Owners’ Rights Organization submitted names to former Gov. Joe Manchin, but he never appointed anyone to the citizen post.

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Legislative audits since the late 1990s have recommended abolishing the board, DEP General Counsel Kristin Boggs told the committee. The state Division of Personnel could administer inspectors’ tests without the board. The state spends $6,800 a year to run the board. Corky DeMarco of the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association said after the meeting that the industry is neutral on the issue.

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The amendment would let the state change the amount of experience that inspectors need in the industry, which is six years. Inspectors for other fields, such as mining, don’t need six years of industry experience, Boggs said. A pay increase was also discussed. State inspectors earn about $35,000 a year but could make twice that working on rigs. The Committee delayed a vote on the proposed amendment to abolish the Board until its next meeting, which may not be until September.