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Introduced Version House Bill 2083 History

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Key: Green = existing Code. Red = new code to be enacted
H. B. 2083


(By Delegate Frederick)
[Introduced January 9, 2008; referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary.]




A BILL to amend and reenact §22-6-1, §22-6-6 and §22-6-15 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended; to amend and reenact §22C-8-2 and §22C-8-7 of said code; to amend and reenact §24B-1-2 of said code; and to amend said code by adding thereto a new section, designated §24B-3-5, all relating to drilling gas wells near active coal mines; definitions; establishing when a permit for a proposed well near a permitted mine shall be refused; and requiring every pipeline company to file facility maps of its various pipelines.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §22-6-1, §22-6-6 and §22-6-15 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended and reenacted; that §22C-8-2 and §22C-8-7 of said code be amended and reenacted; that §24B-1-2 of said code be amended and reenacted; and that said code be amended by adding thereto a new section, designated §24B-3-5, all to read as follows:

CHAPTER 22. ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCES.

ARTICLE 6. OFFICE OF OIL AND GAS; OIL AND GAS WELLS; ADMINISTRATION; ENFORCEMENT.

§22-6-1. Definitions.
Unless the context in which used clearly requires a different meaning, as used in this article:
(a) "Casing" means a string or strings of pipe commonly placed in wells drilled for natural gas or petroleum or both;
(b) "Cement" means hydraulic cement properly mixed with water;
(c) "Chair" means the chair of the West Virginia Shallow Gas Well Review Board as provided for in section four, article eight, chapter twenty-two-c of this code;
(d) "Coal operator" means any person or persons, firm, partnership, partnership association or corporation that proposes to or does operate a coal mine;
(e) "Coal seam" and "workable coal bed" are interchangeable terms and mean any seam of coal twenty inches or more in thickness, unless a seam of less thickness is being commercially worked, or can in the judgment of the department foreseeably be commercially worked and will require protection if wells are drilled through it;
(f) "Director" means the Director of the Division of Environmental Protection as established in article one of this chapter or such other person to whom the director has delegated authority or duties pursuant to sections section six or eight, article one of this chapter.
(g) "Deep well" means any well other than a shallow well, drilled and completed in a formation at or below the top of the uppermost member of the "Onondaga Group";
(h) "Expanding cement" means any cement approved by the office of oil and gas which expands during the hardening process, including, but not limited to, regular oil field cements with the proper additives;
(i) "Facility" means any facility utilized in the oil and gas industry in this state and specifically named or referred to in this article or in article eight or nine of this chapter, other than a well or well site;
(j) "Gas" means all natural gas and all other fluid hydrocarbons not defined as oil in this section;
(k) "Gathering pipeline" means all pipelines and related facilities used to collect the gas production of one or more wells for the purpose of moving such production from the well(s) into the facilities of an interstate pipeline, a utility or an intrastate pipeline;
(k) (l) "Oil" means natural crude oil or petroleum and other hydrocarbons, regardless of gravity, which are produced at the well in liquid form by ordinary production methods and which are not the result of condensation of gas after it leaves the underground reservoirs;
(l) (m) "Owner" when used with reference to any well, shall include any person or persons, firm, partnership, partnership association or corporation that owns, manages, operates, controls or possesses such well as principal, or as lessee or contractor, employee or agent of such principal;
(m) (n) "Owner" when used with reference to any coal seam, shall include any person or persons who own, lease or operate such coal seam;
(n) (o) "Person" means any natural person, corporation, firm, partnership, partnership association, venture, receiver, trustee, executor, administrator, guardian, fiduciary or other representative of any kind, and includes any government or any political subdivision or any agency thereof;
(o) (p) "Plat" means a map, drawing or print showing the location of a well or wells as herein defined;
(p) (q) "Review board" means the West Virginia Shallow Gas Well Review Board as provided for in section four, article eight, chapter twenty-two-c of this code;
(q) (r) "Safe mining through of a well" means the mining of coal in a workable coal bed up to a well which penetrates such workable coal bed and through such well so that the casing or plug in the well bore where the well penetrates the workable coal bed is severed;
(r) (s) "Shallow well" means any gas well drilled and completed in a formation above the top of the uppermost member of the "Onondaga Group": Provided, That in drilling a shallow well the operator may penetrate into the "Onondaga Group" to a reasonable depth, not in excess of twenty feet, in order to allow for logging and completion operations, but in no event may the "Onondaga Group" formation be otherwise produced, perforated or stimulated in any manner;
(s) (t) "Stimulate" means any action taken by a well operator to increase the inherent productivity of an oil or gas well, including, but not limited to, fracturing, shooting or acidizing, but excluding cleaning out, bailing or workover operations;
(t) (u) "Waste" means: (i) Physical waste, as the term is generally understood in the oil and gas industry; (ii) the locating, drilling, equipping, operating or producing of any oil or gas well in a manner that causes, or tends to cause a substantial reduction in the quantity of oil or gas ultimately recoverable from a pool under prudent and proper operations, or that causes or tends to cause a substantial or unnecessary or excessive surface loss of oil or gas; (iii) the drilling of more deep wells than are reasonably required to recover efficiently and economically the maximum amount of oil and gas from a pool; (iv) substantially inefficient, excessive or improper use, or the substantially unnecessary dissipation of, reservoir energy, it being understood that nothing in this chapter shall be construed to authorize any agency of the state to impose mandatory spacing of shallow wells except for the provisions of section eight, article nine, chapter twenty-two-c of this code and the provisions of article eight, chapter twenty-two-c of this code; (v) inefficient storing of oil or gas: Provided, That storage in accordance with a certificate of public convenience issued by the federal Energy Regulatory Commission shall be conclusively presumed to be efficient; and (vi) other underground or surface waste in the production or storage of oil, gas or condensate, however caused. Waste does not include gas vented or released from any mine areas as defined in section two, article one, chapter twenty-two-a of this code or from adjacent coal seams which are the subject of a current permit issued under article two of chapter twenty-two-a of this code: Provided, however, That nothing in this exclusion is intended to address ownership of the gas;
(u) (v) "Well" means any shaft or hole sunk, drilled, bored or dug into the earth or into underground strata for the extraction or injection or placement of any liquid or gas, or any shaft or hole sunk or used in conjunction with such extraction or injection or placement. The term "well" does not include any shaft or hole sunk, drilled, bored or dug into the earth for the sole purpose of core drilling or pumping or extracting therefrom potable, fresh or usable water for household, domestic, industrial, agricultural or public use;
(v) (w) "Well work" means the drilling, redrilling, deepening, stimulating, pressuring by injection of any fluid, converting from one type of well to another, combining or physically changing to allow the migration of fluid from one formation to another or plugging or replugging of any well;
(w) (x) "Well operator" or "operator" means any person or persons, firm, partnership, partnership association or corporation that proposes to or does locate, drill, operate or abandon any well as herein defined;
(x) (y) "Pollutant" shall have the same meaning as provided in subsection (17), section three, article eleven, chapter twenty-two of this code; and
(y) (z) "Waters of this state" shall have the same meaning as the term "waters" as provided in subsection (23), section three, article eleven, chapter twenty-two of this code.
§22-6-6. Permit required for well work; permit fee; application; soil erosion control plan.

(a) It is unlawful for any person to commence any well work, including site preparation work which involves any disturbance of land, without first securing from the director a well work permit. An application may propose and a permit may approve two or more activities defined as well work.
(b) The application for a well work permit shall be accompanied by applicable bond as prescribed by section twelve, fourteen or twenty-three of this article, and the applicable plat required by section twelve or fourteen of this article.
(c) Every permit application filed under this section shall be verified and shall contain the following:
(1) The names and addresses of: (i) The well operator; (ii) the agent required to be designated under subsection (e) of this section; and (iii) every person whom the applicant must notify under any section of this article together with a certification and evidence that a copy of the application and all other required documentation has been delivered to all such persons;
(2) The name and address of every coal operator operating coal seams under the tract of land on which the well is or may be located, and the coal seam owner of record and lessee of record required to be given notice by section twelve, if any, if said owner or lessee is not yet operating said coal seams;
(3) The number of the well or such other identification as the director may require;
(4) The type of well;
(5) The well work for which a permit is requested;
(6) The approximate depth to which the well is to be drilled or deepened, or the actual depth if the well has been drilled;
(7) Any permit application fee required by law;
(8) If the proposed well work will require casing or tubing to be set, the entire casing program for the well, including the size of each string of pipe, the starting point and depth to which each string is to be set, and the extent to which each such string is to be cemented;
(9) If the proposed well work is to convert an oil well or a combination well or to drill a new well for the purpose of introducing pressure for the recovery of oil as provided in section twenty-five of this article, specifications in accordance with the data requirements of section fourteen of this article;
(10) If the proposed well work is to plug or replug the well: (i) Specifications in accordance with the data requirements of section twenty-three of this article; (ii) a copy of all logs in the operator's possession as the director may require; and (iii) a work order showing in detail the proposed manner of plugging or unplugging the well, in order that a representative of the director and any interested persons may be present when the work is done. In the event of an application to drill, redrill or deepen a well, if the well work is unsuccessful so that the well must be plugged and abandoned, and if the well is one on which the well work has been continuously progressing pursuant to a permit, the operator may proceed to plug the well as soon as the operator has obtained the verbal permission of the director or the director's designated representative to plug and abandon the well, except that the operator shall make reasonable effort to notify as soon as practicable the surface owner and the coal owner, if any, of the land at the well location, and shall also timely file the plugging affidavit required by section twenty-three of this article;
(11) If the proposed well work is to stimulate an oil or gas well, specifications in accordance with the data requirements of section thirteen of this article;
(12) The proposed route of the gathering pipeline from the well location to its connection with an existing gathering pipeline or transmission line;
(13) The proposed route of access to the well location from the public roadway;
(12) (14) The erosion and sediment control plan required under subsection (d) of this section for applications for permits to drill; and
(13) (15) Any other relevant information which the director may require by rule.
(d) An erosion and sediment control plan shall accompany each application for a well work permit except for a well work permit to plug or replug any well. Such plan shall contain methods of stabilization and drainage, including a map of the project area indicating the amount of acreage disturbed. The erosion and sediment control plan shall meet the minimum requirements of the West Virginia erosion and sediment control manual as adopted and from time to time amended by the division, in consultation with the several soil conservation districts pursuant to the control program established in this state through Section 208 of the federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972 (33 U.S.C.1288). The Erosion and Sediment Control Plan shall become part of the terms and conditions of a well work permit, except for a well work permit to plug or replug any well, which is issued and the provisions of the plan shall be carried out where applicable in the operation. The Erosion and Sediment Control Plan shall set out the proposed method of reclamation which shall comply with the requirements of section thirty of this article.
(e) The well operator named in such application shall designate the name and address of an agent for such operator who shall be the attorney-in-fact for the operator and who shall be a resident of the State of West Virginia upon whom notices, orders or other communications issued pursuant to this article or article eleven, chapter twenty-two, may be served, and upon whom process may be served. Every well operator required to designate an agent under this section shall within five days after the termination of such designation notify the director of such termination and designate a new agent.
(f) The well owner or operator shall install the permit number as issued by the director in a legible and permanent manner to the well upon completion of any permitted work. The dimensions, specifications and manner of installation shall be in accordance with the rules of the director.
(g) The director may waive the requirements of this section and sections nine, ten and eleven of this article in any emergency situation, if the director deems such action necessary. In such case the director may issue an emergency permit which would be effective for not more than thirty days, but which would be subject to reissuance by the director.
(h) The director shall deny the issuance of a permit if the director determines that the applicant has committed a substantial violation of a previously issued permit, including the erosion and sediment control plan, or a substantial violation of one or more of the rules promulgated hereunder, and has failed to abate or seek review of the violation within the time prescribed by the director pursuant to the provisions of sections three and four of this article and the rules promulgated hereunder, which time may not be unreasonable: Provided, That in the event that the director does find that a substantial violation has occurred and that the operator has failed to abate or seek review of the violation in the time prescribed, the director may suspend the permit on which said violation exists, after which suspension the operator shall forthwith cease all well work being conducted under the permit: Provided, however, That the director may reinstate the permit without further notice, at which time the well work may be continued. The director shall make written findings of any such determination and may enforce the same in the circuit courts of this state and the operator may appeal such suspension pursuant to the provisions of section forty of this article. The director shall make a written finding of any such determination.
(i) Any person who violates any provision of this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not more than five thousand dollars, or be imprisoned in the county jail not more than twelve months, or both fined and imprisoned.
§22-6-15. Objections to proposed drilling of deep wells and oil wells; objections to fracturing; notices and hearings; agreed locations or conditions; indication of changes on plats, etc.; issuance of permits.

(a) When a proposed deep well drilling site or oil well drilling site or any site is above a seam or seams of coal, then the coal operator operating said the coal seams beneath the tract of land, or the coal seam owner or lessee, if any, if said the owner or lessee is not yet operating said the coal seams, may within fifteen days from the receipt by the director of the plat and notice required by section twelve of this article, or within fifteen days from the receipt by the director of notice required by section thirteen of this article, file objections in writing (forms for which will be furnished by the director on request) to such proposed drilling or fracturing with the director, setting out therein as definitely as is reasonably possible the ground or grounds on which such objections are based.
If any objection is filed, or if any objection is made by the director, the director shall notify the well operator of the character of the objections and by whom made and fix a time and place, not less than fifteen days from the end of said the fifteen-day period, at which such when the objections will be considered. of which time and place The well operator and all objecting coal operators, owners or lessees, if any, shall be given at least ten days' written notice by the director, by registered or certified mail, and summoned to appear. At the time and place so fixed the well operator and the objecting coal operators, owners or lessees, if any, or such of them as are those parties present or represented, shall proceed to consider the objections. In the case of proposed drilling, such the parties present or represented may agree upon either the location as made or so moved as to satisfy all objections and meet the approval of the director, and any change in the original location so agreed upon and approved by the director shall be indicated on said plat on file with the director, and the distance and direction of the new location from the original location shall be shown, and as so altered, the plat shall be filed and become a permanent record, and in the case of proposed fracturing, such the parties present or represented may agree upon conditions under which the well is to be fractured which will protect life and property and which will satisfy all objections and meet the approval of the director, at which time the plat and notice required by section twelve or the notice required by section thirteen, as the case may be, shall be filed and become a permanent record. Whereupon The director shall forthwith issue to the well operator a drilling or fracturing permit, as the case may be, reciting the filing of the plat and notice required by said section twelve, or the notice required by said section thirteen, as the case may be, that at a hearing duly held a location as shown on the plat or the conditions under which the fracturing is to take place for the protection of life and property were agreed upon and approved, and that the well operator is authorized to drill at such that location or to fracture at the site shown on such plat, or to fracture the well identified in the notice required by section thirteen, as the case may be.
(b) In the event the well operator and the objecting coal operators, owners or lessees, if any, or such as are any party present or represented at such the hearing are unable to agree upon a drilling location, or upon a drilling location that meets the approval of the director, then the director shall proceed to hear the evidence and testimony in accordance with sections one and two, article five, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code, except where such those provisions are inconsistent with the article. The director shall take into consideration in arriving at his or her decision:
(1) Whether the drilling location is above or in close proximity to any mine opening or shaft, entry, travelway, airway, haulageway, drainageway or passageway, or to any proposed extension thereof in any operated or abandoned or operating coal mine or coal mines already surveyed and platted, but not yet being operated;
(2) Whether the proposed drilling can reasonably be done through an existing or planned pillar of coal, or in close proximity to an existing well or such pillar of coal, taking into consideration the surface topography;
(3) Whether a well can be drilled safely, taking into consideration the dangers from creeps, squeezes or other disturbances due to the extraction of coal; and
(4) The extent to which the proposed drilling location unreasonably interferes with the safe recovery of coal, oil and gas;
At the close of the hearing or within ten days thereafter the director shall issue an order:
(1) Refusing to issue a permit;
(2) Issuing a permit for the proposed drilling location; or
(3) Issuing a permit for a drilling location different from that requested by the well operator.
The order shall state with particularity the reasons for the director's order and shall be mailed by registered or certified mail to the parties present or represented at such hearing. If the director has ruled that a permit will be issued, the director shall issue a permit effective ten days after such the order is mailed, except that for good cause shown, the director may stay the issuance of a permit for a period not to exceed thirty days.
If a permit is issued, the director shall indicate the new drilling location on the plat on file and shall number and keep an index of and docket each plat and notice received by mail as provided in section twelve of this article, and each notice mailed as provided in section thirteen of this article, entering in such the docket the name of the well operator, and the names and addresses of all persons notified, the dates of hearings and all actions taken by the director. The director shall also prepare a record of the proceedings, which record shall include all applications, plats and other documents filed with the director, all notices given and proof of service thereof, all orders issued, all permits issued and a transcript of the hearing. The record prepared by the director shall be open to inspection by the public.
(c) In the event the well operator and the objecting coal operators, owners or lessees, if any, or such as are any party present or represented at such hearing, are unable to agree upon the conditions under which the well is to be fractured as to protect life and property, or upon conditions of fracturing that meet with the approval of the director, then the director shall proceed to hear the evidence and testimony in accordance with sections one and two, article five, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code, except where such those provisions are inconsistent with this article.
The director shall take into consideration whether the well can be fractured safely, taking into consideration the dangers from creeps, squeezes or other disturbances.
At the close of the hearing, or within ten days thereafter, the director shall issue an order stating the conditions under which the well is to be fractured, provided the well can be fractured safely, taking into consideration the dangers from creeps, squeezes or other disturbances. If such the fracturing cannot be done safely, the director shall issue an order stating with particularity the reasons for refusing to issue a permit.
The order shall state with particularity the reasons for the director's order and shall be mailed by registered or certified mail to the parties present or represented at such hearing. If the director has ruled that a permit will be issued, the director shall issue a permit effective ten days after such order is mailed, except that for good cause shown, the director may stay the issuance of a permit for a period not to exceed thirty days.
If a permit is issued, the director shall indicate the well to be fractured on the plat on file and shall number and keep an index of and docket each plat and notice received by mail as provided in section twelve of this article, and each notice received by mail as provided in section thirteen of this article, entering in such docket the name of the well operator, the names and addresses of all persons notified, the dates of hearings and all actions taken by the director. The director shall also prepare a record of the proceedings, which record shall include all applications, plats and other documents filed with the director, all notices given and proof of service thereof, all orders issued, all permits issued and a transcript of the hearing. The record prepared by the director shall be open to inspection by the public.
(d) If a coal seam owner objects to a proposed drilling location on the basis that the proposed drilling location is located within a permitted mine, and the well operator and the coal seam owner present or represented at the hearing to consider the objection to the proposed drilling location are unable to agree upon a location for an alternate well location, then the permit for the proposed well shall be refused.
(e) The factors in subsection (b) of this section are not intended to and may not be constructed to authorize the chair, or the board, to supersede, impair, abridge or affect any contractual right or obligation now or hereinafter existing between the respective gas, coal or surface owners or any interest therein.
CHAPTER 22C. ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCES; BOARDS,

AUTHORITIES, COMMISSIONS AND COMPACTS.

ARTICLE 8. SHALLOW GAS WELL REVIEW BOARD.

§22C-8-2. Definitions.
Unless the context in which used clearly requires a different meaning, as used in this article:
(1) "Board" means the shallow gas well review board provided for in section four of this article;
(2) "Chair" means the chair of the shallow gas well review board provided for in section four of this article;
(3) "Coal operator" means any person who proposes to or does operate a coal mine;
(4) "Coal seam" and "workable coal bed" are interchangeable terms and mean any seam of coal twenty inches or more in thickness, unless a seam of less thickness is being commercially worked, or can in the judgment of the division foreseeably be commercially worked and will require protection if wells are drilled through it;
(5) "Commission" means the Oil and Gas Conservation Commission provided for in section four, article nine of this chapter;
(6) "Commissioner" means the oil and gas conservation commissioner provided for in section four, article nine of this chapter;
(7) "Correlative rights" means the reasonable opportunity of each person entitled thereto to recover and receive without waste the gas in and under a tract or tracts, or the equivalent thereof;
(8) "Deep well" means any well other than a shallow well, drilled and completed in a formation at or below the top of the uppermost member of the "Onondaga Group";
(9) "Division" means the State Division of Environmental Protection provided for in chapter twenty-two of this code;
(10) "Director" means the Director of the Division of Environmental Protection as established in article one, chapter twenty-two of this code or such other person to whom the director delegates authority or duties pursuant to sections six or eight, article one, chapter twenty-two of this code;
(11) "Drilling unit" means the acreage on which the board decides one well may be drilled under section ten of this article;
(12) "Gas" means all natural gas and all other fluid hydrocarbons not defined as oil in subdivision (15) of this section;
(13) "Gas operator" means any person who owns or has the right to develop, operate and produce gas from a pool and to appropriate the gas produced therefrom either for such person or for such person and others. In the event that there is no gas lease in existence with respect to the tract in question, the person who owns or has the gas rights therein shall be considered a "gas operator" to the extent of seven eighths of the gas in that portion of the pool underlying the tract owned by such person, and a "royalty owner" to the extent of one eighth of such gas;
(14) "Just and equitable share of production" means, as to each person, an amount of gas in the same proportion to the total gas production from a well as that person's acreage bears to the total acreage in the drilling unit;
(15) "Oil" means natural crude oil or petroleum and other hydrocarbons, regardless of gravity, which are produced at the well in liquid form by ordinary production methods and which are not the result of condensation of gas after it leaves the underground reservoir;
(16) "Owner" when used with reference to any coal seam, shall include any person or persons who own, lease or operate such coal seam;
(17) "Permitted mine" means the area of land indicated on the approved proposal map submitted by the coal operator to the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection as part of the coal operator's permit application showing the location of perimeter markers and monuments;
(17) (18) "Person" means any natural person, corporation, firm, partnership, partnership association, venture, receiver, trustee, executor, administrator, guardian, fiduciary or other representative of any kind, and includes any government or any political subdivision or any agency thereof;
(18) (19) "Plat" means a map, drawing or print showing the location of one or more wells or a drilling unit;
(19) (20) "Pool" means an underground accumulation of gas in a single and separate natural reservoir (ordinarily a porous sandstone or limestone). It is characterized by a single natural- pressure system so that production of gas from one part of the pool tends to or does affect the reservoir pressure throughout its extent. A pool is bounded by geologic barriers in all directions, such as geologic structural conditions, impermeable strata, and water in the formation, so that it is effectively separated from any other pools which may be present in the same district or in the same geologic structure;
(20) (21) "Royalty owner" means any owner of gas in place, or gas rights, to the extent that such owner is not a gas operator as defined in subdivision (13) of this section;
(21) (22) "Shallow well" means any gas well drilled and completed in a formation above the top of the uppermost member of the "Onondaga Group": Provided, That in drilling a shallow well the well operator may penetrate into the "Onondaga Group" to a reasonable depth, not in excess of twenty feet, in order to allow for logging and completion operations, but in no event may the "Onondaga Group" formation be otherwise produced, perforated or stimulated in any manner;
(22) (23) "Tracts comprising a drilling unit" means that all separately owned tracts or portions thereof which are included within the boundary of a drilling unit;
(23) (24) "Well" means any shaft or hole sunk, drilled, bored or dug into the earth or into underground strata for the extraction, injection or placement of any liquid or gas, or any shaft or hole sunk or used in conjunction with such extraction, injection or placement. The term "well" does not include any shaft or hole sunk, drilled, bored or dug into the earth for the sole purpose of core drilling or pumping or extracting therefrom potable, fresh or usable water for household, domestic, industrial, agricultural or public use; and
(24) (25) "Well operator" means any person who proposes to or does locate, drill, operate or abandon any well.
§22C-8-7. Objections to proposed drilling; conferences; agreed locations and changes on plats; hearings; orders.

(a) At the time and place fixed by the chair for the meeting of the board and for consideration of the objections to proposed drilling filed by coal seam owners pursuant to section seventeen, article six, chapter twenty-two of this code, the well operator and the objecting coal seam owners present or represented shall hold a conference with the board to consider the objections. Such persons present or represented at the conference may agree upon either the drilling location as proposed by the well operator or an alternate location. Any change in the drilling location from the drilling location proposed by the well operator shall be indicated on the plat enclosed with the notice of objection filed with the chair by the director in accordance with the provisions of section seventeen, article six, chapter twenty-two of this code, and the distance and direction to the new drilling location from the proposed drilling location shall also be shown on such the plat. If agreement is reached at the conference by the well operator and such objecting coal seam owners present or represented at the conference, the board shall issue a written order stating that an agreement has been reached, stating the nature of such agreement, and directing the director to grant the well operator a drilling permit for the location agreed upon. The original of such the order shall be filed with the division within five days after the conference of the board at which the drilling location was agreed upon and copies thereof shall be mailed by registered or certified mail to the well operator and the objecting coal seam owners present or represented at such conference.
(b) If the well operator and the objecting coal seam owners present or represented at the conference with the board are unable to agree upon a drilling location, then, unless they otherwise agree, the board shall, without recess for more than one business day, hold a hearing to consider the application for a drilling permit. All of the pertinent provisions of article five, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code shall apply to and govern such the hearing. Within twenty days after the close of a hearing, the board shall issue and file with the director a written order directing him or her, subject to other matters requiring approval of the director, to:
(1) Refuse a drilling permit;
(2) Issue a drilling permit for the proposed drilling location;
(3) Issue a drilling permit for an alternate drilling location different from that requested by the well operator; or
(4) Issue a drilling permit either for the proposed drilling location or for an alternate drilling location different from that requested by the well operator, but not allow the drilling of the well for a period of not more than one year from the date of issuance of such the permit.
(c) The written order of the board shall contain findings of fact and conclusions based thereon concerning the following safety aspects, and no drilling permit shall be issued for any drilling location where the board finds from the evidence that such the drilling location will be unsafe:
(1) Whether the drilling location is above or in close proximity to any mine opening or shaft, entry, travelway, airway, haulageway, drainageway or passageway, or to any proposed extension thereof, in any operated or abandoned or operating coal mine, or any coal mine already surveyed and platted but not yet being operated;
(2) Whether the proposed drilling can reasonably be done through an existing or planned pillar of coal, or in close proximity to an existing well or such pillar of coal, taking into consideration the surface topography;
(3) Whether the proposed well can be drilled safely, taking into consideration the dangers from creeps, squeezes or other disturbances due to the extraction of coal; and
(4) The extent to which the proposed drilling location unreasonably interferes with the safe recovery of coal and gas; and
(5) Whether the gas operator will follow federal and state coal mine safety laws while conducting well work on a permitted mine
.
The written order of the board shall also contain findings of fact and conclusions based thereon concerning the following:
(5) (6) The extent to which the proposed drilling location will unreasonably interfere with present or future coal mining operations on the surface including, but not limited to, operations subject to the provisions of article three, chapter twenty-two of this code;
(6) (7) The feasibility of moving the proposed drilling location to a mined-out area, below the coal outcrop, or to some other location;
(7) (8) The feasibility of a drilling moratorium for not more than one year in order to permit the completion of imminent coal mining operations;
(8) (9) The methods proposed for the recovery of coal and gas;
(9) (10) The distance limitations established in section eight of this article;
(10) (11) The practicality of locating the well on a uniform pattern with other wells;
(11) (12) The surface topography and use; and
(12) (13) Whether the order of the board will substantially affect the right of the gas operator to explore for and produce gas; and
(14) Whether the well work is an unreasonable or arbitrary exercise of the well operator's right to explore for, market or produce oil and gas.
(d) Any member of the board may file a separate opinion. Copies of all orders and opinions shall be mailed by the board, by registered or certified mail, to the parties present or represented at the hearing.
(e) If a coal seam owner objects to a proposed drilling location on the basis that the proposed drilling location is located within a permitted mine, and the well operator and the coal seam owner present or represented at the hearing to consider the objection to the proposed drilling location are unable to agree upon a location for an alternate well location, then the permit for the proposed well shall be refused.
(f) The factors in subsection (c) of this section are not intended to and may not be constructed to authorize the chair, or the board, to supersede, impair, abridge or affect any contractual right or obligation now or hereinafter existing between the respective gas, coal or surface owners or any interest therein.

CHAPTER 24B. GAS PIPELINE SAFETY.

ARTICLE 1. PURPOSE AND DEFINITIONS.
§24B-1-2. Definitions.
When used in this chapter:
(1) "Person" means any individual, firm, joint venture, partnership, corporation, association, state, municipality, cooperative association or joint-stock association, and includes any trustee, receiver, assignee or personal representative thereof;
(2) "Gas" means natural gas, flammable gas or gas which is toxic or corrosive;
(3) "Transportation of gas" means the gathering, transmission or distribution of gas by pipeline or its storage;
(4) "Hazardous liquid" means:
(a) Petroleum or any petroleum product; and
(b) Any substance or material which is in liquid state (excluding liquified natural gas) when transported by pipeline facilities and which, as determined by the commission, may pose an unreasonable risk to life or property when transported by pipeline facilities: Provided, That a hazardous liquid as herein defined shall not be construed so as to include or permit the regulation of any substance transported through pipeline or otherwise when used in the operation of coal mines, coal processing plants or coal slurry pipelines: Provided, however, That the commission shall not determine that any substance or material is a hazardous liquid under this section if the secretary has not determined that the substance or material is a hazardous liquid under regulations promulgated in accordance with Section 202(2) of the Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Safety Act of 1979;
(5) "Transportation of hazardous liquids" means the movement of hazardous liquids by pipeline, or their storage incidental to such movements; except that it shall not include any such movement through gathering lines in rural locations or on shore production, refining or manufacturing facilities or storage or in-plant piping systems associated with any of such facilities;
(6) "Pipeline facilities" means, without limitation, new and existing pipe, including gathering pipelines, pipe rights-of-way and any equipment, facility, or building used in the transportation of gas or the treatment of gas during the course of transportation, or used in the transportation of hazardous liquid or the treatment of hazardous liquid during the course of transportation; but "rights-of-way" as used in this chapter does not authorize the commission to prescribe the location or routing of any pipeline facility;
(7) "Municipality" means a city, county or any other political subdivision of the state;
(8) "Interstate transmission facilities" means facilities used in the transportation of gas which are subject to the jurisdiction of the Federal Power Commission under the Act of Congress known as the Natural Gas Act;
(9) "Interstate pipeline facilities" means the pipeline facilities used in the transportation of hazardous liquids in interstate or foreign commerce;
(10) "Director" means the Director of the Gas Pipeline Safety section of the commission;
(11) "Commission" means the Public Service Commission of West Virginia;
(12) "Secretary" means the United States Secretary of Transportation;
(13) "Pipeline company" means a person engaged in the operation of pipeline facilities or the transportation of gas or hazardous liquids subject to the provisions of this chapter;
(14) "Act of 1968" means the Act of Congress known as the Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act of 1968; and
(15) "Act of 1979" means the Act of Congress known as the "Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Safety Act of 1979;" and
(16) "Gathering pipeline" means all pipelines and related facilities used to collect the gas production of one or more wells for the purpose of moving such production from the well(s) into the facilities of an interstate pipeline, a utility or an interstate pipeline.
§24B-3-5. Filing of facility maps.
Every pipeline company shall annually file with the commission a map showing all of its: (1) Existing well locations; (2) existing pipeline facilities, including but not limited to, interstate pipeline facilities, intrastate pipeline facilities and gathering pipelines; and (3) existing pipeline rights-of-ways.

NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to establish when a permit for a proposed well near a permitted mine shall be refused; to add definitions; and to require every pipeline company to file facility maps of its various pipelines.

Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.

§24B-3-5 is new; therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring have been omitted.
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