Drilling plans for cemeteries stir disputes

Energy firms say process won't disturb grave sites

Trustees of this cemetery in Lowellville, Ohio, near Youngstown, recently received a proposal to lease the mineral rights for $140,000 plus a percentage of any royalties for oil and gas. They have not decided on the plan.

COLUMBUS -- Loved ones aren't the only thing buried in the 122-year-old Lowellville Cemetery in northeast Ohio.

Deep underground, locked in ancient shale formations, are lucrative quantities of natural gas.

Whether to drill for that gas is causing soul-searching as cemeteries -- including veterans' final resting places in Colorado and Mississippi -- join parks, playgrounds, churches, and residential backyards among the ranks of places targeted in the nation's shale drilling boom.

Opponents say cemeteries are hallowed ground that shouldn't be sullied by drilling activity they worry will be noisy, smelly, and unsightly.

Defenders say the drilling is so deep that it doesn't disturb the cemetery and can generate revenue to enhance the roads and grounds.

"Most people don't like it," said 70-year-old Marilee Pilkington, who lives down the road from the cemetery in rural Poland Township and whose father, brother, nephew, and niece are all buried there.

Township trustees received a proposal this year to lease cemetery mineral rights for $140,000, plus 16 percent of any royalties, for any oil and gas.

Similar offers soon followed at two other area cemeteries.

Longtime trustee Mark Naples felt the same way as Ms. Pilkington when the issue arose -- despite the fact $140,000 could cover the cemetery's budget, minus road maintenance, for more than 20 years.

"Our concern was we weren't going to let anybody come in there and move anything" in the cemetery, he said. "They weren't going to have my vote for that."

John Campbell, a lease agent for Campbell Development LLC, a company based in Fort Worth, declined a request for more information on his proposal, which was not expected to disturb any graves. He said only that the offer was not accepted.

Concerns are driven largely by a lack of information, said John Stephenson, president of the Texas Cemeteries Association.

"A lot of it just has to do with the way that it's presented," he said. "You're hundreds of feet below the ground, and it's not disturbing any graves."

It's possible to reach oil and gas deposits now from drilling rigs placed sometimes miles away because of advances in what's called horizontal drilling. The technology has made vast new shale energy deposits available.

Mr. Stephenson said revenue from the leases has allowed him to pave roads, repair fences, and make other improvements during hard times. Plot owners have no legal claim to the mineral rights at a cemetery, he said.