Navigating back roads in West Virginia is always treacherous, but residents of Silver Hill and the surrounding areas say driving and living in their area is more difficult and dangerous than ever thanks to recent gas operations.

Chesapeake Energy is currently drilling four gas wells in the area that are 7,500 vertical feet deep, a large depth for wells in this area. The operations not only require a large amount of equipment moving in and out of the area, but also numerous water trucks as the drilling process requires moving a half million pounds of sand into the underground formation. The water carries the sand into the desired area.

All of that activity on country roads like W.Va. 89 (Proctor Creek Road), County Road 3 (Doolin Road), Friendship Ridge, and Macedonia Ridge is causing damage and dangerous driving conditions, according to the area residents, approximately 50 of which attended a community meeting Nov. 14 at the Silver Hill Volunteer Fire Department to express their displeasure and seek some answers to the issue.

“These roads weren’t built for these kinds of trucks,” said Rose Ann Baker, one of the meeting’s organizers. While preparing for the meeting, Baker said 22 big water trucks went by the fire department in a span of two hours.

Co-organizer Bonnie Hall told the residents she met with Chesapeake Energy on Nov. 2 and gave them a list of concerns which included that the roads need sufficient bases for such traffic, personal vehicles and busses are being run off the roadway, large trucks should not be on the roads during school bus hours, lack of wide load signs and lead cars, trucks exceeding the speed limit, and trucks should not block the roadways for extended periods of time. She noted that a recent convoy, in which one truck became stuck in a turn, had the road closed from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m.

Since that meeting, Hall and Baker said they have noticed some improvements. The trucks have slowed and they are watering on Macedonia Ridge for dust.

Randy Orsburn, senior land representative, and Steve Mossor, operations/construction, for Chesapeake attended the meeting and answered some of the citizens’ questions.

They said they have asked their contractors to stop travelling the roads during school bus hours, 6-8 a.m. and 3-5 p.m. “Most of our trucks are complying with that,” said Orsburn. They may have some who have not received that word yet or are not complying, but they are working on alleviating that problem.

Heather Hall, a student at Magnolia High School, spoke about the bus issue. “A lot of us have been complaining about the trucks running the bus off the road,” she said. “What’s going to happen this winter? Someone’s eventually going to get hurt.” As a new driver, she said the trucks scare her when she is behind the wheel.

As for escort vehicles, Orsburn said most water truck convoys have one. “We are getting there,” he promised.

Chesapeake Energy has a “Good Neighbor Policy” through which they donated over $7 million to charity last year, noted Bonnie Hall. “We are just asking them to be a good neighbor to us,” she said.

Baker made a point that Chesapeake is not required to stop transporting during school bus hours, nor are they required to have escort vehicles, except on overside loads. She applauded their willingness to work with the local citizens’ requests.

“We’re lucky, actually, that we have Chesapeake in our area,” said Bonnie Hall. In other areas of Wetzel and Marshall counties different oil and gas companies are working and are not acting as good neighbors. Those in attendance gave Chesapeake a round of applause.

“It’s Charleston that we need to go after. They need to know that Wetzel County residents are not ‘open for business’. We mean business,” said Baker.

One resident suggested they form a committee to go and speak to the legislature about the problem. Also, lists of state figures to call about the issue were handed out at the meeting.

As a side note to the discussion, Baker noted that the majority of property owners do not own their mineral rights. “The only way to fix this long term is to hold our state legislators responsible,” said Woody Ray, who said some laws concerning surfaces rights date back to medieval England. “(Sen. Larry) Edgell and (Del. Dave) Pethtel need to know that this is a major issue. Those two local legislators did attend the meeting.

Edgell told the crowd that the legislature sets out basic guidelines and ethically he can be removed from office for micromanaging if he contacts state agencies for special assistance. He said that is a good policy as if they were allowed to do so, those at the “top of the food chain” would get all of the attention, service, and money. He further noted that both the Speaker of the House and President of the Senate are from the southern area of the state, specifically Wayne County, and they essentially make most of the legislative decisions; the individual elected officials simply vote on the proposals.

Ray asserted that as long as natural resource companies make major campaign contributions, nothing will change.

The Department of Transportation, who enforces weight limit violations, has been very nice to work with, according to Baker and Bonnie Hall. However, the office that serves this area consists of four men and they cover six counties. Even if a suspected overweight truck is stopped by the West Virginia State Police, they can only hold them for an hour and sometimes the DOT cannot arrive at the scene in that time period.

“The state never regulates as well as they legislate,” said area resident Steve Conlon. “We need to get enforcement going on.”

Even when it is enforced, Rose Hall said, “The fines are a joke.” Russ Paden, acting regional DOT supervisor agreed, saying the maximum fine for an overweight truck is $1,500.

As for vehicles speeding on the roadways, Wetzel County Sheriff James Hoskins said it is also a manpower issue with his department. The department has responded to calls from the area about the trucks and all-terrain vehicles, but have yet to catch any violators. Even with speeding, the only tickets they have been able to give are to people driving personal vehicles. Hoskins pledged to do his very best to patrol the affected roads more.

Speaking to the condition of the roads, three representatives of the Department of Highways attended the meeting: Randy Rush, Wetzel County Superintendent; Gary Clayton, Regional Operations Engineer; and Lloyd Adams, District Maintenance Engineer.

“None of these roads were designed for that kind of repetitive load,” said Adams. “We’re going to do what we can to fix the road and maintain it the best we can,” assured Clayton.

The Department of Highways has a mechanism called a Chargeable Maintenance Report (CRM) that evaluates roadways before, during, and after heavy traffic by a certain company. The state is currently monitoring Doolin and Proctor roads in this manner. “We are in agreement to it and they will bill us for any maintenance above core repairs,” said Orsburn.

“Chesapeake has been a pleasure to work with compared to some of the logging companies,” noted Adams.

With the exception of federal funding that must be used on federal roads, the only income the state has to spend on roads comes from the gasoline tax, approximately $240 million per year.

Pethtel said he wanted residents to understand that when the price of gasoline goes up, the tax does not, as it is a flat fee.

Chesapeake’s Mossor also noted that each of the trucks used in the company’s operation pay about $5,000 in diesel fuel tax each year.

Wetzel County Commissioners Don Mason and Bob Gorby attended the meeting as well. “It’s going to take cooperative effort of everybody in this room,” said Mason. “You’ve got to work with these people.”

On that note Paden suggested Chesapeake break up their truck convoys into 15 minute intervals and advised everyone slow down on the roads and take their time.

Mossor asked residents to contact Chesapeake, through a community contact person, with names and license plate numbers of trucks that are not following the rules. “We appreciate you all being our eyes,” he said. “If you can find out who it is that’s misbehaving, we’ll put a stop to it.”

Also, Adams told residents they could call the Wheeling tunnel phone (238-1060) that is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to report any road blockages. He also gave them his number, 843-4317, or Rush at 455-0900.