By Timothy B. Wheeler, The Baltimore Sun
4:29 p.m. EST, December 31, 2011
OAKLAND —
— The first natural gas well has yet to be drilled into the Marcellus shale deposits underlying Western Maryland, but ripples already are being felt here from an industry that has brought wealth — and controversy — in neighboring states where drilling has proceeded apace.
Complaints from landowners about misleading pressure tactics by drilling company agents and concern that widespread leasing for mineral rights could hurt home sales are prompting calls for legislation to change the state's laws on leasing of land for gas and possibly other energy development.
"Basically, these leases should be protecting both the landowners and the community, and they're just not," said Natalie Atherton, acting director of CitizenShale, a group recently formed to see that the residents in this economically depressed mountain region are not short-changed if gas is found, and in any case aren't left with contaminated streams and wells and other harm.
Years ago, amid geologists' predictions that they were sitting atop a vast, untapped wealth of natural gas, hundreds of landowners in Garrett and Allegany counties eagerly signed leases to allow wells to be drilled on their land and to receive royalties on any gas found there. But some who were among the last to sign say they felt pressured to do so and misled about the risks of the hydraulic fracturing technique that would be used to extract gas from rock formations thousands of feet below their homes.
More here.
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