A friend of Shale Watch from Prairie County passes on some information on some bills that you should be paying attention to. First up is SB 897 which lays out a procedure for counties that do not have road maintenance agreements to be compensated for the damage caused by transportation of heavy loads of materials and production fluids from oil and gas exploration. That bill has been sent to the Senate Committee on City, County and Local Affairs. The second bill is SB 115, which would give city and county governments more input on who gets a permit to dispose of drilling waste. A lot of county governments have felt like they had no recourse in dealing with the gas industry because they’ve had no legal authority to deal with the issuing of permits, fixing roads, etc. This bill would give local governments more options. The bill is slated to come up before the Senate Committee on Public Health, Welfare and Labor on Monday.