Up to $560 million is being made available in Washington for state efforts to do away with abandoned or orphaned wells. The funding will target an estimated 10,000 wells.
An additional $33 million is going toward plugging wells still in existence on federal lands.
The funding is coming through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and represents the first round of what will eventually be a more than $4.7 billion effort.
As administered by the Department of the Interior, the funding will be used in 24 states, including most of the states of the West. Those states, on average, are getting around $25 million each to both measure methane as well as clean the derelict wells.
The funding will target some 250 wells in Arizona, 710 in Colorado, and around 200 in New Mexico. Texas, meanwhile, is working to plug up to 800 wells.
According to the Western Governors Association, millions of Americans live “within a mile of abandoned or orphaned wells, which can pose health and environmental risks.”
There are thought to be at least 129,000 such wells on both private and public land across the country. Kansas has the most such wells at more than 2,300, followed by Kentucky with nearly 1,200, and Oklahoma at just under that number.
In a statement, Deb Haaland, Interior Department Secretary, said her department is “working on multiple fronts to clean up these sites as quickly as we can by investing in efforts on federal lands and partnering with states and Tribes to leave no community behind.”
By Garry Boulard
