A. With the exception of an aggrieved permit applicant, no person shall have standing to appeal a decision of the Director to the Board concerning a new permit application unless such person has previously filed an objection with the Director pursuant to the provisions of § 45.2-1637.

Terms Used In Virginia Code 45.2-1625

  • Appeal: A request made after a trial, asking another court (usually the court of appeals) to decide whether the trial was conducted properly. To make such a request is "to appeal" or "to take an appeal." One who appeals is called the appellant.
  • Board: means the Virginia Gas and Oil Board. See Virginia Code 45.2-1600
  • Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
  • Gas or oil operations: means any (i) activity relating to drilling, redrilling, deepening, stimulating, production, enhanced recovery, converting from one type of a well to another, combining or physically changing to allow the migration of fluid from one formation to another, or plugging or replugging any well; (ii) ground-disturbing activity relating to the development, construction, operation, or abandonment of a gathering pipeline; (iii) development, operation, maintenance, or restoration of any site involved with gas or oil operations; or (iv) work undertaken at a facility used for gas or oil operations. See Virginia Code 45.2-1600
  • Gas or oil operator: means any person who operates or has been designated to operate any gas or oil well or gathering pipeline. See Virginia Code 45.2-1600
  • Oil: means natural crude oil or petroleum and other hydrocarbons, regardless of gravity, that are produced at the well in liquid form by ordinary production methods and are not the result of condensation of gas after it leaves the underground reservoir. See Virginia Code 45.2-1600
  • Person: includes any individual, corporation, partnership, association, cooperative, limited liability company, trust, joint venture, government, political subdivision, or any other legal or commercial entity and any successor, representative, agent, agency, or instrumentality thereof. See Virginia Code 1-230
  • Process: includes subpoenas, the summons and complaint in a civil action, and process in statutory actions. See Virginia Code 1-237
  • State: when applied to a part of the United States, includes any of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the United States Virgin Islands. See Virginia Code 1-245
  • Well: means any shaft or hole sunk, drilled, bored, or dug into the earth or into underground strata for the extraction, injection, or placement of any gaseous or liquid substance or any shaft or hole sunk or used in conjunction with such extraction, injection, or placement. See Virginia Code 45.2-1600

B. When a person applies for a hearing to appeal a decision of the Director to the Board, the Board shall, at least 20 days prior to the hearing, give notice by certified mail, return receipt requested, to the person making the appeal and, if different, to the gas or oil operator subject to the appeal.

C. Upon submittal of the petition for appeal of a decision of the Director to the Board, the Director shall forward to the Board (i) the permit application or order and associated documents; (ii) all required notices; and (iii) the written objections, proposals, and claims recorded during the informal fact-finding hearing.

D. In any appeal involving a permit for a new well that was objected to (i) pursuant to the provisions of § 45.2-1611 or 45.2-1612 or (ii) by a gas storage field operator who asserts that the proposed well work will adversely affect the operation of a gas storage field certificated by the State Corporation Commission, the filing of a petition for appeal shall stay any permit until the case is decided by the Board or the stay is dissolved by a court of record. However, in an appeal by a gas storage field operator, such automatic stay shall not apply to any oil, gas, or coalbed methane well completed more than 100 feet above the cap rock above the storage stratum. In any other appeal, the Director may order the permit or other decision stayed for good cause shown until the case is decided by the Board or the stay is dissolved by a court of record. An appeal based on an alleged risk of danger to any person not engaged in the gas or oil operations shall be prima facie proof of good cause for a stay.

E. The Board shall conduct all hearings under this section in accordance with the formal litigated issues hearing provisions of Article 3 (§ 2.2-4018 et seq.) of the Administrative Process Act. However, any person to whom notice is required to be given pursuant to subsection B shall have standing to be heard at the hearing. The Board shall render its decision on such appeals within 30 days of the hearing’s closing date and shall provide notification of its decision to all parties pursuant to the provisions of the Administrative Process Act (§ 2.2-4000 et seq.).

1990, c. 92, § 45.1-361.23; 1997, c. 759; 2021, Sp. Sess. I, c. 387.

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