Virginia Oil Gas Development - Recommended Addition to County Comprehensive Plan
Oil Gas Exploration, Drilling and Development Policies
Introduction: Advances in non-conventional oil and gas drilling, known as hydrofracturing, has heightened interest in energy production from hydrocarbon formations in Virginia, including the ______(shale formation/basin) present in ______County. While energy development can bring jobs and economic development to the County, the industrial nature of oil and gas hydrofracturing also can bring unintended consequences that create conflicts with other important County goals and plans. These include: compatibility with traditional rural economic sectors, such as agriculture, forestry, recreation and tourism; increased costs in providing community services to address impacts to roads, emergency services, criminal justice, public health and affordable housing that could potentially result from oil and gas extraction; protection of air and water quality; and conservation of natural resources. County land use policies for oil and gas exploration are intended to augment Federal and State operational regulations governing energy development. The County seeks to provide guidelines for minimizing potential land use conflicts and to ensure that uses of an industrial nature for energy production are sited where transportation and utility infrastructure are sufficient and available to support such uses and where adjacent land uses are compatible.
Objective: County recognizes that landowners with property in the (shale basin/formation), or similar hydrocarbon resource areas identified in the future, may choose to enter into leasing agreements to allow oil and gas exploration and drilling and related activities where hydrocarbon formations are productive and may become commercially viable. It is the County's objective to protect public health, safety and welfare and the environment from adverse effects of industrial scale activities related to energy production from oil and gas exploration and drilling and to minimize potential long and short term land use conflicts between those activities and current or planned land uses.
The County further intends to ensure that activities related to the conversion of hydrocarbon resources to energy will not jeopardize the County's long term commitment to agriculture or introduce industrial activities into agricultural areas and to encourage such uses to locate in areas where transportation infrastructure and utilities are sufficient to support such highly intensive land uses.
Note: The term "oil and gas exploration and development" as used in the following policies is synonymous with and encompasses all on and off-site activities related to oil and gas exploration, extraction, development, infrastructure, site closure, completion, reclamation and transportation. The term "most effective performance technologies and practices" as used in the following policies refers to the application of proven and emerging techniques, technologies or other Best Management Practices used in conducting oil and gas exploration and development which avoid, neutralize, exclude, eliminate, mitigate or minimize adverse on and
off- site impacts to public health and the environment, landowners, and natural resources, and which may reduce conflicts between the goals and policies of the County Comprehensive Plan, potentially affected landowners, and the oil and gas industry. These technologies and practices should be encouraged and, if possible, required, at every level and stage of oil and gas exploration and development.
Policies:
1. The County will promote regulations designed to mitigate the impacts of oil and gas exploration, drilling and development activities on the public health, safety and welfare, as well as all related accessory and ancillary uses, to the extent permitted by State and Federal Law. All applicable standards for noise, dust, odor, vibration, and other County code requirements intended to mitigate off site impacts of uses of an industrial nature shall also apply to oil and gas exploration, drilling and development uses.
2. The County will advocate for the use of the most effective performance technologies and practices among oil and gas exploration, drilling and development operators. The County will request that State and Federal authorities and regulators require adherence to the most stringent guidelines and standards available for regulating all phases of gas and oil exploration, drilling and production for these types of industries and seek commitments for voluntary restrictions that exceed minimum requirements.
3. The County encourages operators to share existing and proposed infrastructure and to co-locate facilities required for oil and gas exploration, drilling and development to use existing utility and transmission right-of-ways to minimize installation of new facilities and to avoid additional disturbance to lands to the greatest extent possible to avoid introduction of potentially incompatible new land uses of an industrial or intensive nature, into residential, rural and agricultural areas, and to minimize the cumulative impacts of such development to landowners, neighboring property owners, the environment, farm activities and environmental resources.
4. Preservation of agricultural lands and resource conservation are primary goals of the County's Comprehensive Plan therefore, the County will discourage the location of oil and gas operations, drilling and development in prime agricultural areas or areas of significant agricultural activity, and will direct such uses to areas that are marginal for farming purposes or located at the edge of active farming operations and that are appropriate for land uses of an industrial nature. If a thorough analysis of alternatives concludes that routing/siting of facilities is necessary on or across agricultural production land, all construction shall be located to minimize disturbance to agricultural resources. Additionally, oil and gas drilling, operations and development located within areas with agricultural uses will be required to:
· Avoid construction activity during growing seasons.
· Restore and reclaim all on and off-site agricultural lands impacted by any activity related to exploration, development, infrastructure installation, closure, and transportation to soil condition, pasture land, productivity, and/or drainage patterns that were in place prior to the initiation of oil and gas operations.
· Restore water resource systems disturbed by infrastructure to their former condition.
5. The County will require that applicants for oil and gas exploration, drilling and development activities provide information about the proposed quantity and source for any water required in the production, processing and exploration of hydrocarbon based resources and for all related oil and gas development activities. All such activities should adhere to local and regional water supply and protection plans and should not make excessive use of public water supplies or groundwater resources. The County will also require baseline testing and monitoring of surface, groundwater and well water quality within and adjacent to drilling and extraction sites prior to construction and during production. Additionally, the County will discourage discharge of wastewater by-products from, or extraction of water for, oil and gas development activities in environmentally sensitive areas as defined in the Comprehensive Plan.
6. To limit the impact of industrial traffic and excessive traffic in rural, agricultural and residential areas, primary access to oil and gas exploration, drilling and development activities shall not be permitted on local roads according to the VDOT functional classification of roadways, and should incorporate restrictions on access hours and routes to avoid hazardous use of roadways and to minimize potential conflicts with school bus routes and schedules, school traffic and other local traffic patterns, as may be identified by the County. Access from or through residential neighborhood streets will not be permitted. To the extent permitted by State law, operators and/or their designated haulers will be required to post bonds with the County or with the State sufficient to cover the cost of excess road maintenance and damages related to oil and gas development activities.
7. The County will require that applicants for oil and gas exploration, drilling and development activities directly engage with local communities, residents and other stakeholders at each phase of the development plan, starting prior to exploration, to provide sufficient opportunity for comment on plans, operations and performance, listen to concerns
and respond appropriately and promptly.
8. To the extent permitted by State law, the County will require explicit commitments by applicants who wish to pursue oil and gas exploration, drilling and development activities in productive hydrocarbon formations such as the ______(formation/basin) to accept responsibility and liability for compensation and/or mitigation of directly and indirectly related costs, nuisances, damages and adverse impacts as a condition for issuance of permits dealing with oil and gas resource exploration, drilling and production. Such direct and indirect adverse impacts may be on-site or off-site and include, but not be limited to, damage to public and private roads, degradation of public or private water supplies or aquifers, degradation of environmentally sensitive areas, and loss of livestock, crops or damage to structures on-site or on surrounding properties.
Model Comprehensive Plan Language – Virginia Oil & Gas Drilling, 1/30/14Page 1