FODC Eyes Reaction to Frack Proposal
Morgantown Dominion Post
23 August 2013
By Jim Bissett
Forrest Conroy always entertains the possibilities as he tools
along West Virginia’s winding country roads.
That’s what fishermen do, he said as he and others occupied a
lecture hall at WVU’s Agricultural Science Building.
He wasn’t smiling, though, as he and the 50 or so others who
filled the terraced lecture hall were considering the
possibilities that brought them there.
They came out to hear a presentation by the Friends of Deckers
Creek, which, in turn, was mulling over the possibilities of what
might happen to the watershed it oversees, should a fracking
operation be installed near recreational grounds near Masontown,
in Preston County.
Energy Corporation of America (ECA) is considering reconfiguring a
conventional well that’s already at the proposed site to handle
the frack water that is a byproduct of Marcellus shale
exploration.
“It’s worrisome,” said Conroy, who is the father of a young
daughter.
“It’s so accessible to the public and such a resource. I can
imagine bringing my children there.”
The Friends worries that a heavily trafficked drilling operation
might take that possibility away.
The proposed site is about 500 feet from the creek near the
intersection of Deckers Creek Trail and Sand Bank Road.
Those opposed worry about the wear-and-tear of heavy trucks
driving up and down roads they say were never designed for that
purpose.
In a statement emailed earlier to The Dominion Post, E C A’s chief
operating officer Kyle Mork said the operation would be pursued in
“an environmentally responsible manner.”
His company, he said, has been doing business in West Virginia for
50 years.
The work would be done on an existing well, he said, which means
his company and its engineers literally know the lay of the land.
ECA, meanwhile, said if it does file for a permit to do the work,
it will be sometime this fall.
Board members of the Friends of Deckers Creek said they may hire a
lawyer if that happens.