Some of these bills originated with lawmaker and committee concerns while others were generated within the Department of Environmental Protection, the state's main regulator of the industry, but together they address nearly every aspect of oil and gas industry regulation.

Possibly most prominent among the bills is House Bill 4513, which grew out of two years of study in the Joint Legislative Oversight Commission on State Water Resources and would establish statutory requirements for the use of water in Marcellus Shale gas well operations.

The bill, which passed out of the House Judiciary Committee Feb. 25 on a strong voice vote, was introduced by commission Co-Chairman Del. Tim Manchin, D-Marion, with several co-sponsors. It passed the House March 3, the last day for bills to move out of the house of origin, and was sent over to the Senate for consideration.

"We worked real hard at crafting a bill that really placed only minimum requirements on the Marcellus Shale drilling industry to protect waters," Manchin said.

Those protections include reporting the location, quantity and timing of water withdrawals, as well as quantity, treatment, transportation and disposal of wastewater.

West Virginia Environmental Council lobbyist Don Garvin said his group ultimately would like to see permitting rather than reporting requirements, but has supported this bill.

Manchin credits Pittsburgh-based oil and gas company EQT Corp. with stepping up to participate in drafting a bill that he hopes will garner broad support.

"I think that the fact that it was well received by the judiciary committee is a sign that we haven't tried to go too far, and we haven't tried to hurt the industry," he said.

Senate Bill 658, introduced Feb. 22 by Sen. Randy White, D-Webster, parallels this bill, however that bill has been stalled in the Senate Natural Resources Committee.

Other Bills from Outside DEP

Introduced for a second year is House Bill 4001, which would direct the state Department of Environmental Protection to develop a water quality standard for total dissolved solids -- salts that sometimes are produced during fossil fuel extraction and that in recent years have fouled drinking water supplies and harmed aquatic habitat in the Monongahela River watershed.

That bill is sitting in the House Government Organization Committee where it has been since Jan. 13 and will likely die there this week. Garvin said representatives of the Upper Monongahela River Association asked committee chairman Jim Morgan, D-Cabell, to put the bill on his agenda, but that it hasn't appeared there yet.

SB 643, introduced by Jeffrey Kessler, D-Marshall, would create a natural gas resources transportation road system to protect roads and bridges from heavy industrial traffic.

That bill was tabled by the Senate Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, according to staff attorney Mark Matkovich.

Introduced for a fourth year are SB 529 and HB 4408, the Surface Owners' Rights Recognition Act, supported by the West Virginia Surface Owners' Rights Organization. Both of those bills were introduced in early February and are going to die in committee -- HB 4408 in the House Judiciary Committee and SB 529 in Senate's Energy, Industry and Mining Committee.

Other bills have stepped in to accomplish some of the same goals as SB 529 and HB 4408 and have not made much headway, either -- the less stringent SB 668 and HB 4566. SB 668 is still in the Senate's Natural Resources Committee and HB 4408 is in the House Energy, Industry and Labor, and Small Business Committee.

"They're all on life support and probably not going to pass," said public interest lawyer and WVSORO co-founder Dave McMahon.

Bills the DEP Took Part In

In addition to these bills, several have originated within the DEP or with the support of DEP.

SB 405, a rules bill, authorizes the DEP to establish rules in two main areas, according to DEP Office of Oil and Gas Chief James Martin.

One has to do with marking of pipelines.

"There was some work done in conjunction with Office of Miners' Health Safety and Training and the industry and this office in regard to situations where coal companies that might need to do some surface activities would need to have the pipelines in that area marked," Martin said.

DEP filed an emergency rule to lay out the responsibility of oil and gas companies to mark their lines, he said, and this bill incorporates it into statute.

The second main area of SB 405 would create new requirements for the construction of impoundments larger than 5,000 barrels -- essentially, those related to Marcellus wells.

"Basically it requires a registered professional engineer to design the structure and to certify that to the DEP that it was designed and built under those plans," Martin said.

That bill passed the Senate on Feb. 11 and is currently waiting in the House Judiciary Committee.

SB 369, along with House bills 2982 and 4218, addresses the definitions of deep and shallow wells -- a clarification that simply recognizes current technology, in industry minds, but might present a threat to mineral owners, in the view of the WVSORO.

SB 369 passed out of the Senate March 2 and was sent to the House for consideration. The two House bills were introduced in January and haven't moved since.

The latest technology requires a "rathole" of 70 feet below a formation in order to evaluate the formation, according to Independent Oil and Gas Association Executive Director Charlie Burd.

For the Marcellus Shale, the deepest shallow formation, that means drilling temporarily into deep well territory, where the rules change -- requiring, for example, larger spacing between wells.

The state Oil and Gas Conservation Commission has been granting special field rules for Marcellus operations, Burd said; this bill simply would allow a temporary hole of up to 100 feet into deep well territory without the use of special field rules.

But one implication, according to McMahon, is that "Operators won't have to pay surrounding surface owners and won't be subject to forced well spacing -- they can put them as close together and as close to boundary lines as they want and drain the gas out from underneath you."

His organization opposes the bill.

Also affecting DEP statutes but more related to the West Virginia Geological and Economic Survey are SB 382 and its parallel, HB 4219.

Burd said the industry accepts this bill.

"If an operator takes a core sample, if requested, that operator would have to provide the Geological Survey with a section of that core sample for their inspection," he explained, allowing the survey to add the information to its database. "There are some confidentiality provisions in the bill that would protect that information for a period of years."

SB 382 passed the Senate Feb. 16 and is awaiting a vote in the House. HB 4219 was on second reading before the full House on March 2 and was expected to be voted on March 3.

Garvin believes this year's flow of oil and gas bills is just the beginning.

"I do think that lawmakers are aware now of the economic opportunity of the Marcellus Shale but also recognize that the state regulatory system isn't up to the task yet," he said. "I think it's going to be apparent after this summer that West Virginia just is not ready and I think there'll be more to changes come to help DEP regulate the industry."