As the prevalence of natural gas
drilling grows in West Virginia
Several lawmakers raised concerns
during an interim legislative committee meeting Wednesday on the safety
standards for gas drilling. The industry is defending against critics who
believe the standards are not nearly stringent enough and made comparisons to
the coal industry.
Coal miners are required to have a 20
or 40-hour course depending on the level of work they’ll be doing on the
surface or underground. They then must work as a “red hat” alongside an
experienced miner until they are fully certified. Natural Gas Association
Executive Director Corky DeMarco told the committee there is a similar
requirement for drilling rig employees developed in cooperation with the industry
and the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
“We entered into an agreement with OSHA
on the safety protocol for the employees who work in this industry,” DeMarco
said. “Depending on what you’re doing in this industry you are required to have
OSHA eight hour or 30-hour training.”
The standard employee safety
certification comes from the International Association of Drilling Contractors.
DeMarco told lawmakers although the safety card isn’t a requirement for
employment, most major companies will not hire anyone without the
certification.
The lack of the full-fledged
requirement bothered Del. Randy Smith of Preston County
“It’s a concern to me because what I’m
hearing in recent months is we’re (coal mines) over regulated and the gas
industry is under regulated,” Smith said. “I’m hoping we can find a happy
medium for both of them.”
Smith was most concerned about the
availability of safety teams during a well site emergency. The most critical
safety issue on a well pad is a fire. DeMarco said while they work with local
first responders, fighting a well fire has to be done by professional teams.
The specialized teams are few and far between.
“If you’ve got a well fire, you’ve got
a completely different situation,” said DeMarco. “Just because of the nature of
these fires, I don’t know that you could put these people with XYZ company and
these other people with ABC company and all these folks come together to do
this.”
Smith maintained the comparison to mine
rescue teams which are always less than two hours away from any active mine.
Mine rescue teams are regular coal miners who’ve been extensively trained and
specialize in underground disasters.
DeMarco said it was hard to make the
comparison because a mine explosion and a well fire were dramatically
different.
“I don’t know where you would put that
individual team or how you could pull them out of 40 different locations and
put them in one,” DeMarco said. “I understand what you’re saying and yes, it would
make sense, but I just don’t know how practically you could do that.”
“I would think it would be in your best
interest to put together a specialty team to address some of these issues,”
said Smith. “We do it in the coal industry, so don’t tell me it can’t be done
or it’s not practical. I would hope you guys care enough you would want to do
something like that for the safety of your workers.”
Smith warned the industry should start addressing some of the
issues or the state will step in and become involved.
