California is home to thousands of oil and gas wells abandoned years ago and never properly sealed — many of them sitting near homes, schools and businesses from the coast to the Inland Empire.
With no legally responsible party to clean them up, environmental leaders say that 5,356 abandoned and deserted wells now sprawl across Southern California and the state, polluting drinking water and leaking methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.
That is about to change as the state gets millions of dollars in state and federal funding to safely seal old wells.
“Children are growing up where abandoned oil wells are spreading toxins in their backyards and even in school playgrounds,” said U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla at a press conference Wednesday, April 27, as state officials met to discuss funding to speed up the efforts. “This is a really harsh reality, that so many California have been subjected to.”
California Secretary of Natural Resources Wade Crowfoot called the investment “a game-changer” in the state’s effort to safely seal the thousands of orphaned wells.
Nearly $165 million will be available from the federal infrastructure law, which invests billions of dollars in roads, bridges and climate-related programs.
Gov. Gavin Newsom recently proposed additional $200 million dollars in the state budget to seal abandoned wells.
California has 5,356 so-called orphaned wells from the coast to Bakersfield to the Inland Empire, according to state officials. Oil and gas wells are designated orphaned when they are abandoned by companies who refuse to safely plug them. Deserted wells, on the other hand, are those that are not properly maintained. Both can pose threats to groundwater and public safety.
The program will cost California about $974 million and take decades to complete, officials said Wednesday.
Officials with the California Geologic Energy Management Division, or CalGEM, which oversees plugging abandoned wells, said they are working to identify wells that pose the most health and safety risks to disadvantaged communities, to give them priority.
In Los Angeles, nearly 600,000 people live within just a half-mile of oil or gas wells, one of the highest concentration rates in the country.
The cleanup effort “will protect communities, will reduce toxic emissions, and create good-paying jobs at the same time,” Padilla said.
Earlier this year, the Los Angeles City Council took steps to phase out oil drilling and gas extraction in the city after voting in support of a ban on new oil wells. The Los Angeles County of Supervisors voted last year to prohibit new oil and gas wells and phase out existing wells in unincorporated areas. The state is moving toward banning drilling new oil and gas wells within 3,200 feet of schools, homes and hospitals.
The first oil operation in California began in the mid-19th century. After the peak in 1985, production began to decline, resulting in a surge of abandoned and deserted wells.
California Department of Conservation Director Uduak-Joe Ntuk said there are far more wells being plugged these days than being drilled.
The state funding would allow the agency to safely and permanently seal nearly 1,100 wells, with the first contract expected to plug about 200 wells.
“This has been a dramatic scale-up,” Ntuk said, adding the state would prioritize wells that sit near residential homes and schools. “This is going to be a decades-long program that’s been established under the infrastructure bill.”
Source: Orange County Register
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