The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that there are approximately 4 million abandoned oil and gas wells in the United States, and more than 117,000 of those across 27 states are “orphaned," meaning they are uncapped, unproductive, and with no responsible party identified to manage leakage or pollution risks.
These orphaned gas wells leak and contaminate groundwater and leak methane into the air. Methane is the worst greenhouse gas, which causes our planet to warm.
In California alone, there’s currently more than 5,000 orphaned wells with another 69,000 on the brink of being orphaned in the future.
Dr. Mary Kang, assistant professor in civil engineering at McGill University, said, “Because of these risks, one of the key, the main strategy or what is required by regulation is to plug the wells. But, unfortunately, many abandoned and orphaned wells remain unplugged. Because of that, the $4.7 billion that was mentioned earlier as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law was dedicated to plugging orphaned wells. These are the wells without a responsible party. But, unfortunately, we just did an analysis. The total plugging cost for the documented orphaned wells exceeds the $4.7 billion that has been allocated. This federal funding is not going to be enough.”
It’s not yet clear what funding has been cut from Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recent budget to cap orphaned oil and gas wells.
Many of them are in Southern California, but there are several in and around the Bay Area.
You can see where they are located by visiting edf.org/orphanwellmap.
Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
