West Virginia Marcellus Shale Data Updated
Three new West Virginia datasets have been added to the DataTool to keep up to date with Marcellus Shale activities in that state. The West Virginia DEP is the source for all three datasets. Included are:
Marcellus Shale permits in West Virginia through September 6, 2011. Please click the image for a dynamic view.
The permits list was filtered online to include only Marcellus Shale permits, then filtered on the desktop to reflect only “Permit Issued” actions, thereby ignoring applications, renewals, and other actions for the same well. I also converted the coordinate system from UTM’s to the more familiar system decimal degree latitude and longitude. There are 1,868 records in the dataset. One well apparently was given the wrong coordinates, and appears to be in Pennsylvania instead of West Virginia.
Marcellus Shale drilled wells in West Virginia through September 6, 2011. Please click the image for a dynamic view.
Each triangle in the map above represents a Marcellus Shale gas well that was listed as an active well. Location data was determined by matching the unique well numbers to the permits list, above.
Marcellus Shale violations in West Virginia through September 6, 2011. Please click the image for a dynamic view.
The violations list did not mention whether or not the well was a Marcellus Shale well, nor did it give location information. Both of these categories were determined by matching the well number to the permits list.
Is Morgan County West Virginia, within the Marcellus Shale? If so, is fracking currently being done in this county?
According to the West Virginia DEP Resource Extraction Data Viewer (http://tagis.dep.wv.gov/fogm/), there are three wells in Morgan County. Based on the old permit completion dates, it is likely that these are all conventional wells (although since two of the three wells have permit issue dates in the year 2067, there are serious questions about the accuracy of the data).
So, what are these violations and what is being done about them?