Nation’s largest gas well owner asks West Virginia lawmakers to weaken water protections

['Sarah Elbeshbishi', 'More Sarah Elbeshbishi', 'Mountain State Spotlight', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Avatar', 'Where Img', 'Height Auto Max-Width'] Mountain State Spotlight 2025-09-18 00:00:00

Todd Tetrick, senior vice president of upstream operations for the Diversified Energy Company, asked state lawmakers to exempt oil and gas tanks from regulations under the Aboveground Storage Tank Act. The Aboveground Storage Tank Act unanimously passed in 2014 in response to the Elk River chemical spill earlier that year. The storage tanks at Freedom Industries that leaked in 2014. Tanks classified as level 1 are subject to more stringent inspection and reporting requirements than level 2 tanks. Evan Hansen, D-Monongalia, asked during the meeting, later clarifying that those are the ones closest to the public water intakes.