45.1-361.9 - Appeals; venue; standing. - Virginia Statutes

§ 45.1-361.9. Appeals; venue; standing.

A. Any order or decision of the Board may be appealed to the appropriatecircuit court. Whenever a coal owner, coal operator, gas owner, gas operator,or operator of a gas storage field certificated by the State CorporationCommission is a party in such action, the court shall hear such appeal denovo. The court shall have the power to enter interlocutory orders as may benecessary to protect the rights of all interested parties pending a finaldecision.

B. Unless the parties otherwise agree, the venue for court review shall bethe county or city wherein lies the gas, oil, or geophysical operation whichis the subject of such order or decision.

C. The Director and all parties required to be given notice of hearings ofthe Board pursuant to the provisions of § 45.1-361.19 shall have standing toappeal any order or decision of the Board which directly affects them. Thepermittee or permit applicant, the Director, and those parties with standingto object, pursuant to the provisions of § 45.1-361.30, shall have standingto appeal any order or decision of the Board which directly affects them;provided, however, with the exception of an aggrieved permit applicant or theDirector, no person shall have standing to appeal a decision of the Boardconcerning a permit application unless such person has previously filed anobjection with the Director pursuant to the provisions of § 45.1-361.35. Thefiling of any petition for appeal concerning the issuance of a new permitwhich was objected to pursuant to the provisions of § 45.1-361.11, §45.1-361.12 or by a gas storage field operator who asserts that the proposedwell work will adversely affect the operation of a State CorporationCommission certificated gas storage field shall automatically stay the permituntil such stay is dissolved or the appeal is decided by the circuit court.However, in an appeal by a gas storage field operator such automatic stayshall not apply to oil, gas or coalbed methane wells completed more than onehundred feet above the cap rock above the storage stratum.

(1990, c. 92; 1997, c. 759.)