An abandoned oil well in a residential yard in Ohio Township, Pa. Photographer: Bobby Magill/Bloomberg Law
By Bobby Magill, Bloomberg Law
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland visited the Pittsburgh area Thursday to announce the plugging of the first 10 abandoned oil and gas wells in the area paid for with funds from the 2021 infrastructure law.
But with 27,000 known abandoned oil wells to plug across Pennsylvania and possibly hundreds of thousands more left to discover, the announcement underscored the daunting task ahead for Congress and the federal and state agencies in charge of finding and capping oil and gas wells.
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Rewriting Pennsylvania’s abandoned and orphaned gas well legacy
Haaland, standing in front of a derelict oil well in Ed and Mary Vojtas’ front yard in Ohio Township, Pa., said the well is leaking gas and will be one of the state’s first to be plugged with federal infrastructure money.
“These wells emit methane, they litter the landscape with rusted dangerous equipment posing safety hazards and threats to wildlife,” Haaland said. “Many of these wells have been left behind in backyards.”
Pennsylvania, the birthplace of America’s oil industry, has more documented orphaned wells than any other state. Its effort to plug the state’s orphaned wells using federal infrastructure funding starts soon, with 10 wells in the Pittsburgh area, Richard Negrin, acting director of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, said, speaking alongside Haaland.
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland speaks about orphaned oil wells in Ohio Township, Pa., on Feb. 9, 2023. Photographer: Bobby Magill/Bloomberg Law
Until now, Pennsylvania was able to plug “only a handful” of abandoned wells annually, but federal funding will allow the state to plug 235 wells in 2023, Negrin said.
Millions of Wells to Cap
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