COURT RULING WILL ALLOW DRILLING IN WV'S STATE PARKS

(10/19/2009)

A recent Logan County verdict that would allow drilling in Chief Logan State Park would create a domino effect in at least 10 other state parks where private entities own the oil and gas rights under more than half the land. A Logan County verdict has ruled that Cabot Corporation has the right to drill dozens of oil and gas wells in Chief Logan State Park. That ruling was made, based on property rights to oil and gas reserves held by Cabot. Conservationists and park supporters, who recently presented a petition signed by 2,100 people from Logan County, are opposing drilling in Chief Logan. They said if the courts sustained the drilling decision on Chief Logan, so goes drilling in many other state parks. Jim Sconyers of the West Virginia Sierra Club says, private entities own all of the oil and gas rights to five other West Virginia state parks, including Blackwater Falls, Twin Falls, Tygart Lake and Blennerhassett Island, and more than 90 percent of the drilling rights to Holly River, Hawks Nest and North Bend state parks. Parks with private entities controlling the drilling rights under at least half of the land include Audra (57 percent) and Bluestone (85 percent).

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