According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, some landowners are drilling 11th-hour water wells on their property to stop, or at least delay, the drilling of natural gas wells.

There’s even a term coined for the tactic, the “water well gambit.”

One company, EQT Corp. is now taking some West Virginia landowners to court over the tactic.

Read it:

“The oil and gas company is involved in two lawsuits with landowners in West Virginia who, the company insists, acted with “unclean hands” by sinking water wells in an area where EQT wanted to tap the Marcellus Shale.”

Landowners who use these tactics often don’t own the mineral rights under their property. According to the article, it’s common in West Virginia and Western Pennsylvania for land, coal mineral rights and oil and gas to be owned by several different entities, making it relatively simple for gas companies to drill on surface land they don’t own.

Outcomes mixed

Don’t think drilling a water well on your land is a permanent fix for gas drilling. Legal results in West Virginia’s court system have been mixed.

One case in 2012 ended with the landowners being ordered to plug the well so EQT could drill.

In 2010 a judgement in support of landowners was made. The judge determined that the landowners drilled the water wells legally.

» Via: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette › Drilling water wells is one way to foil the frackers