Maneuvering some of West Virginia’s roads along ridges and through narrow valleys is challenging to begin with, but add in a dramatic increase in truck traffic and you have serious safety concerns.
Tuesday, Marshall County Sheriff John Gruzinskas delivered testimony to Senator Jay Rockefeller’s hearing in Fairmont on the impact the Marcellus Shale gas well drilling has had on the roads in his county.
“Since Marshall County is already an industrial county, we thought we had seen these surges in industry come and go. (But) We were never prepared for the onslaught of heavy trucks that would monopolize our roads, damage our property and destroy our roads,” Sheriff Gruzinskas said in his written testimony.
You can read his entire testimony here.
Drivers, unfamiliar with the area, trying to manage big trucks on winding, narrow roads have led to a plethora of accidents and near accidents. “This is a bad combination for our local oncoming traffic,” Gruzinskas said. “Many of our residents are run off the road by these large trucks.”
The sheriff put most of the blame on subcontractors, and he credited the larger gas drillers with firing the offending driver or company when the police or citizens can identify them.
Meanwhile, Chesapeake Energy has set up community advisory panels so citizens can tell the company directly about issues that need to be addressed.
Helpful solutions have come out of these community meetings: some truck runs are altered to avoid times when school buses are running; Chesapeake uses private security to monitor truck traffic; there are voluntary shutdowns of truck traffic when roads are snow and ice covered.
Additionally, several of the major gas companies are taking the lead in fixing roads that are torn up by all the truck traffic.
But it remains stressful, inconvenient and even dangerous for the residents of Marshall County, and other counties where there’s a lot of drilling activity. Perhaps what is most galling, according to Sheriff Gruzinskas, is “the disrespectful attitude and disregard for the residents of this county by some of these subcontractors.”
The Marcellus Shale boom is a critical and a welcome boost to West Virginia’s economy. It is bringing jobs, industrial development and tax dollars to communities and the state. Additionally, mineral rights owners are getting significant royalty checks.
Like any heavy industry, however, there is a downside that must be managed. Gruzinskas says the best way to do that is to keep the lines of communication open among the industry, law enforcement, emergency management, school officials, and the Division of Transportation.
The sheriff didn’t say this, but the public needs to be in the loop as well. Communities will be much more accepting of inconveniences as long as they have some input into how they are managed.
The responsible drilling companies know it’s in their best interest to work with the communities and law enforcement, otherwise they will face a backlash from the public and policy makers that will make them unprofitable, as well as unpopular.