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WELLSBURG - Chesapeake Energy's plan to drill for natural gas underBrooke High School should not create any problems for the more than1,000 students who attend there each day, County SuperintendentKathy Kidder-Wilkerson said. The lease agreement Brooke County Schools officials signed withChesapeake will pay the district $661,500 in lease money, based ona rate of $3,500 per acre on 189 acres. The district also willreceive 18 percent of production royalties once Chesapeake gets thegas flowing from the Marcellus Shale underlying the high school. Chesapeake is proceeding to drill many wells in Brooke County, inaddition to Ohio, Marshall and Wetzel counties. Along with drillingoperations come truck traffic as well as potential environmentalconcerns from the drilling and fracking operations. As Ohio County Schools officials continue to object to Chesapeake'splans of drilling a well near Wheeling Park High School, Brookeofficials seem eager to proceed with their drilling project. WhileBrooke stands to collect $661,500 up front and additionalsubsequent funding for drilling there, Ohio County officials willnot gain any money for the drilling near Wheeling Park becausethose mineral rights are owned by the Park System Trust Fund. Though she declined to comment at all on the Ohio County situation,Kidder- Wilkerson said Chesapeake is doing all it can to preventany possible problems in Brooke County. "And the drilling will not be on our property," she said. When Kidder-Wilkerson said there will be no drilling on schoolproperty, she's referring to horizontal drilling, a technique thatallows drillers to access gas in a pooled unit from a central wellsite. This process will allow the gas trapped under Brooke HighSchool to be released through a well that is drilled on someoneelse's surface property. The well bores are drilled vertically downinto the earth before being turned horizontally to extend out intothe adjacent mineral beds. As for the truck traffic, Kidder-Wilkerson said her school has notyet experienced any problems with this, adding that she does notforesee any issues with the trucks sharing the roads with schoolbuses and student drivers. "This is probably two to three years in the future that we will beseeing this," she added of the timeline for drilling and fracking. Chesapeake spokeswoman Jacque Bland said the drilling plans forBrooke High School, like every drilling plan the company has, willbe "evaluated independently to see if additional measures would bebeneficial." "Safety of area residents, our workers and the environment isalways our top priority," she said. "The West Virginia Departmentof Environmental Protection requires the submission of a sitesafety plan as part of a permit application. Chesapeake continuesactive communication with key stakeholders, and will keep themaware of our plans and coordinate our activities accordingly." As for the $661,500 in lease money - and subsequent 18 percent ofproduction royalties once Chesapeake begins pumping gas from thebeneath the high school - Kidder-Wilkerson said there is not yet adefinitive plan for how to spend the money. "We could put it into a special projects fund; we could use some ofit to help get matching grants," she said. "We will not be using itfor day-to-day operations." With so much drilling taking place in Brooke County and throughoutWest Virginia's Northern Panhandle, drilling companies have beenbringing in many out-of-state workers to complete the projects,partially because they say local residents are not qualified to dothe work. Kidder-Wilkerson said her school district is working toformulate a plan to possibly offer some technical training to highschool students that may give them a chance to work in the naturalgas industry. "We know there are concerns out there, but there are also a lot ofopportunities that we otherwise did not have," she added. Staff Writer Warren Scott contributed to this report. I am an expert from indoorledlightfixtures.com, while we provides the quality product, such as China Track Lighting Spotlights , China Ceiling Recessed Spotlights, Decorative Ceiling Light Panels,and more.
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