Long-Ignored ‘Orphan’ Wells, Abandoned Mines Are Now Urgencies, With $5 Billion in Funds

A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) contractor keeps a bag of lime on hand to correct the PH of mine wastewater flowing into a series of sediment retention ponds, part of danger mitigation in the aftermath of the blowout at the site of the Gold King Mine outside Silverton, Colo., in 2015. Brennan Linsley/AP Photo

Defunct oil/gas wells and abandoned mines have long been lore-of-the-ore backstories in literally and figuratively shaping much of the U.S. landscape because, until recently, there was no comprehensive plan to plug these often hazardous sites.

In fact, listing oil/gas wells and mines without liable owners was arduous because many pre-date environmental regulations have no records or are locked in court proceedings that can last years and usually end up in bankruptcies.

Without liable owners to bill, local and state governments paid to plug “orphan” wells to prevent them from leaking toxic substances into the water and air. Few were eager to catalog a deficiency rooted in cost-aversion, so numbers have been underestimated.

But that has changed. With money on the table, suddenly, heretofore uncounted orphan wells are being counted coast-to-coast.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), adopted by Congress in November 2021, authorizes $4.7 billion to plug abandoned wells, prompting states to update their databases to apply for grants.

In 2022, states reported more than 120,000 abandoned wells, a nearly 50 percent increase from the 81,000 reported in 2021 (pdf) to the U.S. Department of Interior (DOI). Ohio, which received $25 million in remediation grants, reported the highest number of orphan wells of any state—20,439—after reporting just 891 in 2021.

In January 2022, DOI announced that states could apply for $1.15 billion in grants based on three criteria: the number of orphan wells in each state, the estimated cost of cleaning up those wells, and job losses in each state between March 2020 and November 2021.

The third component is fostered by the REGROW Act, built on a North Dakota program to put displaced energy workers to work plugging orphaned wells, which was incorporated into the BIL.

In August 2022, 24 states received another $560 million to begin plugging more than 10,000 orphaned wells. A total of 22 states received $25 million each, while Arkansas and Mississippi got $5 million apiece.

Defunct companies in the past often abandoned oil and natural gas wells that stopped producing, such as this one near Bigfoot, Texas, where an old wrench rests on oil sludge. Eric Gay/AP Photo

Far Less Than What Lies Below

Most concede that those figures are still far less than what actually lies below, and the $4.7 billion allocated to deal with it is, literally, a drop in the bucket.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that there are 2.1 million unplugged abandoned wells nationwide. Other estimates, such as by Carbon Tracker, top 2.6 million.

DOI’s Bureau of Land Management Abandoned Mine Lands program lists 57,586 “known abandoned mines” on federal lands with at least 80 percent warranting investigation, but those numbers haven’t been updated since 2017.

The National Park Service reported about 2,000 unplugged wells on its lands. In January, it was using BIL money to begin plugging 10 wells in Jean Lafitte National Park in southern Louisiana.

An Ohio River Valley Institute April 2021 report estimated that there were 538,000 unplugged abandoned oil/gas wells in Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. There could be hundreds of thousands more in the region.

“Oklahoma is home to over 17,800 documented abandoned gas and oil wells,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) said. “If left unplugged, abandoned wells can leak methane, contaminate groundwater, and damage land cultivation at a significant cost to landowners.”

In 2021, an estimated 9 million people live within a mile of an orphan mine, the Environmental Defense Fund stated, using 2020 census data. With the boom in previously unreported unplugged wells being reported, that estimate was raised to 14 million in 2022.

As the numbers of reported orphan oil/gas wells mount, so does the projected collective remediation price tag, with some estimates exceeding $280 billion.

A warning sign from the city is displayed in front of the Animas River as orange sludge from a mine spill upstream flows past Berg Park in Farmington, N.M., on Aug. 8, 2015. Alexa Rogals/The Daily Times via AP

A Boost for BIL

Mullin is among four co-sponsors of the proposed Abandoned Well Remediation Research & Development Act, which would supplement the $4.7 billion BIL program to ensure that “funds are dedicated to thoroughly-researched efforts that maximize benefits for affected communities and the energy sector.”

“Our bill will provide the resources needed to improve methods for identifying, repurposing, and remediating these wells, thereby cutting costs for landowners and eliminating the potential for environmental hazards,” he said in a statement accompanying the bill.

Co-sponsor Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) said, “There are more than 2 million abandoned oil and gas wells across America that pose tremendous health, safety, and environmental risks to the surrounding communities.”

The New Mexico Energy, Minerals & Natural Resources Department received $25 million from BIL and has plugged 23 abandoned wells since September 2022, it reported, removing “carbon emissions equal to 2.85 million miles per year by a gasoline-driven vehicle.”

Among commonly cited issues in maintaining a chain of liability is low bonding requirements in many states. In the four upper Ohio Valley states, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, for instance, bonds cover just 7.6 percent of the average remediation cost.

Remediation costs can vary widely by size, geology, depth of the well, surrounding terrain, and state regulations. The cost to plug wells in the Upper Ohio Valley can range from $6,500 to at least $87,500.

The cost to plug all abandoned wells in the region could top $34 billion, the Ohio River Valley Institute estimates, although the work also could generate and sustain 15,151 jobs for more than 20 years.

Frozen in Liability Limbo

A 2022 proposal, the “Good Samaritan Remediation of Abandoned Hardrock Mines Act,” introduced by Sens. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and Jim Risch (R-Idaho) with 18 co-sponsors, addresses remediation for thousands of “abandoned legacy mines” that has been frozen in liability limbo.

Because current law potentially exposes mining companies to new liability if they engage in remediation projects, they’re reluctant to volunteer equipment, resources, and expertise to restore abandoned mines. Nonprofits and other “Good Samaritan” groups also hesitate to get involved because of liability concerns.

There are more than 140,000 abandoned hardrock mines in the United States, of which 22,500 pose environmental hazards, according to the Government Accountability Office.

“Unfortunately, liability rules would leave these ‘Good Samaritans’ legally responsible for all the pre-existing pollution from a mine, even though they had no involvement with the mine prior to cleaning it up,” the bill reads.

Congressional lawmakers have attempted to work around the liability issue for more than a dozen years, with the 2022 bill the latest effort in clarifying that “Good Samaritan” efforts in mine remediation shouldn’t incur liability. Proponents want to see it advance in 2023.

National Mining Association Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Katie Sweeney encouraged House lawmakers to approve the “Good Samaritan” legislation, which has been vetted and endorsed by a wide range of advocacy groups, such as Trout Unlimited.

“This would not only allow the processing of tailings and other mine waste from historic mining operations long since abandoned and with no current liable owner but also provide the added benefit of cleanup and remediation activities that if left alone, will continue to degrade the water quality conditions and pose ongoing safety risks to surrounding habitat and neighboring communities.”