More
- Classifieds
- Cars
- Deals
- Real Estate
- Rentals
- Photos
- Find&Save
- Obituaries
- Archives
- Topics
- Blogs
- WP Wine Club

Health & Science

With deep concerns over fracking, a Va. county says no to more gas drilling

By Darryl Fears,February 05, 2012

(Page 2 of 2)

“Pablo made the right decision” to oppose drilling, said May, who leased more than 1,000 acres and gets $1,400 yearly from Carrizo. Later May learned that Carrizo could renew the lease after five years even if he no longer wanted it, and they could sell its rights to another company.

Waiting game

Sometimes betting on a town is good; sometimes not, said Richard Hunter, vice president of investor relations for Carrizo, a Houston-based company that exploits gas in four types of shale nationwide using controversial drilling techniques that go deep and horizontal.

He called the time and money spent in pursuit of a permit “almost a fishing expedition.” Even if Carrizo had gotten the permit, it was unlikely to drill a well in the near future because a nationwide glut of exploration has depressed the price of gas, he said. Hunter said Carrizo will hold onto its leases and wait, perhaps to follow a bigger oil company with the resources to be more persuasive in the county.

At one meeting, the state lobbied on Carrizo’s behalf, telling Cuevas not to worry. Carrizo was trying to operate a vertical well similar to those that have operated in Virginia since the 1930s, said Rick Cooper, director of the Division of Gas and Oil in the Department of Mines, Mineral and Energy. A hydraulic fracturing operation with heavy chemicals was not in its plans.

But Cuevas wasn’t persuaded. If Carrizo struck gas, their methods could change, he said, “and I’ve already given them permission to drill. They don’t have to come back to me for any more permission.”

In the end, Cooper realized the process wouldn’t go forward. The bad news from fracking operations “has had an impact,” he said. “To what level I’m not sure.”

But Cooper was already at a major disadvantage. Cuevas and other county officials saw the state as Carrizo’s ally.

“Their role is to promote the drilling of gas,” Cuevas said of state officials. Cooper responded: “We promote the industry as long as drilling can be done in a safe, environmentally sound manner. The Division of Oil and Gas has nothing to hide.”

In meetings, Cuevas went on the offensive against Cooper’s department. Did you ask the Department of Environmental Quality to study the impact a well would have on the water, the fish, the wildlife? Did you ask the Virginia Department of Transportation to determine whether the roads will hold up under heavy truck traffic? Shouldn’t Carrizo’s liability be more than $25,000 if something goes wrong?

“I don’t think they did a very good job of working with some of the state agencies that regulate this kind of operation,” Cuevas said recently while driving his sport-utility vehicle beside a clear gurgling stream that runs through Bergton. “If this was going to be the first well in the Marcellus Shale in Virginia, I want you to go out of your way,” he said.

Carrizo abandoned its proposal in December. “We tested the waters, and they’re not warm,” Hunter said.

Continued1

2