Repairing the Damage from Hazardous Abandoned Oil and Gas Wells: A Federal Plan to Grow Jobs in the Ohio River Valley and Beyond

After more than a century of oil and gas drilling, unplugged or improperly plugged abandoned oil and gas wells are causing extensive environmental damage and imposing health and safety risks because they are leaching pollutants into the air and water. Some of these abandoned wells are leaking large amounts of harmful methane into the atmosphere, which is a powerful greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change, as well as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that damage local air quality. Leaks from abandoned wells, such as oil, brine and drilling byproducts, have also been linked to the contamination of groundwater supplies and soil, which can undermine drinking water, agriculture activity and property values. There have also been several public safety concerns such as dangerous explosions due to leaking gas or methane from wells. The four states of the mid and upper Ohio River Valley region make up a large portion of the nation’s abandoned wells—one- third—and one in five wells that are in production today. The region would not only disproportionately benefit from a large-scale well plugging program, but it would also greatly benefit from more local jobs and income, especially since many of these rural areas have been economically stressed for decades. There has been growing attention at the state and federal level to address the problems associated with millions of abandoned and orphaned oil and gas wells across the nation. There is also great concern about the large share of low-producing wells that could be abandoned relatively soon, as well as the cost of plugging high volume hydraulic fracturing wells.