§22-6-28 Supervision by director over drilling and reclamation operations; complaints; hearings; appeals. - West Virginia Statutes

§22-6-28. Supervision by director over drilling and reclamation operations; complaints; hearings; appeals.

(a) The director shall exercise supervision over the drilling, casing, plugging, filling and reclamation of all wells and shall have such access to the plans, maps and other records and to the properties of the well operators as may be necessary or proper for this purpose, and, either as the result of its own investigations or pursuant to charges made by any well operator or coal operator, the director may enter, or shall permit any aggrieved person to file before the director, a formal complaint charging any well operator with not drilling or casing, or not plugging or filling, or reclaiming any well in accordance with the provisions of this article, or to the order of the director. True copies of any such complaints shall be served upon or mailed by registered mail to any person so charged, with notice of the time and place of hearing, of which the operator or operators so charged shall be given at least five days' notice. At the time and place fixed for hearing, full opportunity shall be given any person so charged or complaining to be heard and to offer such evidence as desired, and after a full hearing, at which the director may offer in evidence the results of such investigations as the director may have made, the director shall make findings of fact and enter such order as in the director's judgment is just and right and necessary to secure the proper administration of this article, and if the director deems necessary, restraining the well operator from continuing to drill or case any well or from further plugging, filling or reclaiming the same, except under such conditions as the director may impose in order to ensure a strict compliance with the provisions of this article relating to such matters.

(b) Except as provided in subsection (c) of this section, any well operator or coal operator adversely affected by a final decision or order of the director, may appeal in the manner prescribed in section four, article five, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code.

(c) Any person having an interest which is or may be adversely affected, or who is aggrieved by an order of the director, or by the issuance or denial of a permit, or by the permit's terms and conditions, where the subject to such order, permits or terms and conditions is solid waste, may appeal to the environmental quality board in the same manner as appeals are taken under the solid waste management act, section sixteen, article fifteen of this chapter. For the purpose of this subsection the term solid waste has the same meaning as would be given that term pursuant to section two, article fifteen of this chapter but for the exemption related to waste or material regulated by this chapter, chapter twenty-two-b or chapter twenty-two-c of this code.