FRANKFORT, Ky. (WDRB) – A Kentucky House panel on Tuesday approved a bill supporters say will modernize Kentucky's oil and gas laws and help protect the environment from hydraulic fracturing.
House Bill 386, which sets standards for water testing and chemical disclosures and requires cleanup plans for drilled wells, unanimously cleared the House Natural Resources and Environment Committee and now heads to the full House.
The push for the new rules comes as a company is seeking approval to use the controversial hydraulic fracturing method in eastern Kentucky. Horizontal Technology Energy Co. has applied for a permit to drill a deep well in Johnson County -- the first such application in at least eight years, according to the Energy and Environment Cabinet.
HB 386, whose chief sponsor is House Majority Floor Leader Rep. Rocky Adkins, is the result of a 17-member work group that began meeting last summer. Environmental groups, energy industry representatives and state regulators are
among those that crafted the bill.
“While there is work that … remains to be done, this is a significant first step and one that's a consensus product,” Tom FitzGerald, director of the Kentucky Resources Council, said in remarks to the committee.
FitzGerald, one of the state's leading environmental watchdogs, said he “heartily” endorses the bill, which he claimed marks the first substantive changes to Kentucky oil and gas rules in more than two decades.
The measure also has the backing of the Kentucky Oil and Gas Association, whose board supports all the provisions in the bill, KOGA's Bill Barr told lawmakers.
The only opposition came from Vicki Spurlock of Madison County, where residents have begun signing leases with energy companies that aim to extract oil and gas through hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.”
The drilling method, common in Pennsylvania, Ohio and other states, involves pumping fluid deep underground to release oil and gas deposits lodged in rock strata. The technique has been connected to contaminated water and soil and a jump in earthquakes; it's also created jobs and helped wean the United States off of imported energy.
Spurlock told lawmakers she is concerned about a host of environmental issues, as well as a possible drop in land values. She also took issue with supporters' claims that the bill was a “consensus,” noting that affected property owners in eastern Kentucky weren't involved in the negotiations.
“While this legislation provides some protective measures, it fails to address the most significant, controversial and harmful effects to rural communities,” Spurlock said. “Something this important should not be decided without input from affected communities like mine.”
She said 400 people attended a recent meeting in Madison County that discussed drilling in eastern Kentucky.
Spurlock, as well as the advocacy group Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, is urging state lawmakers to place a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing.
“By now there is more than enough evidence that regulations alone, no matter how well intended, are insufficient to address the complex health and environmental risks and harms caused by fracking,” Dana Beasley Brown, the group's chair, wrote in the letter distributed to legislators.
To date, companies interested in drilling deep wells have been exploring possible sites and working to secure leases. But on Wednesday, the Kentucky Oil and Gas Conservation Commission plans to hold a public hearing on Horizontal Technology Energy Co.'s application to drill a deep well -- considered deeper than 4,000 feet underground, under current state law -- in Johnson County.
The commission, which oversees deep wells, last met in December 2006, according to the state Division of Oil and Gas.
Adkins, D-Sandy Hook, told reporters after the meeting that he doesn't support a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, which already is permitted in the state and isn't regulated, he said.
Adkins said Spurlock has “legitimate concerns” and he's not opposed to landowners being part of ongoing meetings from the work group.
“I wouldn't object to that – to have input from whoever they want to have input from.”
The bill requires that property owners within 1,000 feet of a deep well – 6,000 feet or deeper -- be notified at least 20 days before work starts. Operators also would have to take nearby water samples, creating a “baseline,” prior to drilling.
Follow-up tests would be done three to six months after drilling ends. Those analyses would be completed by a laboratory certified by state officials.
Energy companies also will have to list a number of chemicals used to extract oil and gas and can't withhold any as “trade secrets.” The bill also creates a fund to help re mediate abandoned storage tanks.
Adkins said the measure seeks to learn from the mistakes made in other states.
“To put these statutes in place now before a lot of deep well drilling is taking place in Kentucky, I think is a very smart thing,” he said.
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