Published

WVSORO concerned about floodplains and gas drilling

Listen

The West Virginia Surface Owners Rights Organization is focusing its attention on how floodplains are used in natural gas drilling activity.

WVSORO co-founder Dave McMahon says because of the regulations on the books, surface owners aren’t notified when gas drillers want to put equipment on floodplains. This is usually the case if the surface owner doesn’t own the mineral rights.

McMahon says floodplain ordinances, implemented by counties, need to change accordingly to fix the gaps.

“What should be scary for counties is, the driller has threatened to sue the county for tens of thousands of dollars, saying that because the county had a bad floodplain ordinance, that resulted in their permit getting denied by the judge, they want to sue the county for all the expenses they had in putting the permit together,” McMahon said.

Download the Mp3 to learn more.