{"id":26228,"date":"2016-03-03T11:49:59","date_gmt":"2016-03-03T17:49:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=26228"},"modified":"2016-03-03T12:04:25","modified_gmt":"2016-03-03T18:04:25","slug":"as-budgets-narrow-and-dedicated-funds-are-diverted-agency-slows-plugging-of-abandoned-wells","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2016\/03\/03\/as-budgets-narrow-and-dedicated-funds-are-diverted-agency-slows-plugging-of-abandoned-wells\/","title":{"rendered":"As Budgets Narrow and Dedicated Funds are Diverted, Agency Slows Plugging of Abandoned Wells"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_26230\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-26230\" alt=\"Jack Romine stands near a makeshift chimney state inspectors installed over an abandoned, leaky well that was discovered near his home in Bartlesville, Okla.\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/03\/20160225-jack-bartlesville-pics013_WEB.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/03\/20160225-jack-bartlesville-pics013_WEB.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/03\/20160225-jack-bartlesville-pics013_WEB-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/03\/20160225-jack-bartlesville-pics013_WEB-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2016\/03\/20160225-jack-bartlesville-pics013_WEB-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Joe Wertz \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jack Romine stands near a makeshift chimney state inspectors installed over an abandoned, leaky well that was discovered near his home in Bartlesville, Okla.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>Oklahoma has hundreds of abandoned oil and gas wells, the byproduct of a century of petroleum production. Left unrepaired, many of these wells can endanger people and the environment. The state has a fund to plug abandoned wells, but some of that money has been diverted due to budget cuts.<\/p><p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=https%3A\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/250027987&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=false\" height=\"150\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p><p><!--more-->Jack Romine discovered natural gas without spending a dime on exploration, drilling or production.<\/p><p>Such an oil-field discovery would be welcomed in the boardroom of an Oklahoma energy company, but this natural gas is coming from a well the preschool teacher doesn\u2019t own. In fact, Romine didn\u2019t even know the well was there.<\/p><p>\u201cI just wanted it to be like The Clampetts,\u201d Romine says, laughing. \u201cYou know, bubbling oil, but I got gas.\u201d<\/p><p>The well beneath Romine\u2019s property, on the edge of a wooded neighborhood in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, isn\u2019t profitable \u2014 it\u2019s a problem. His home is situated on a slope. When it storms, rainwater tends to flow across a patch of lawn on the side of his house. Romine said a small piece of metal has always poked out of the ground in that side-yard, but one rainy day he noticed the object was bubbling.<\/p><p>\u201cIt keeps bubbling,\u201d he says.<\/p><p>Romine called his local gas utility, but the bubbling wasn\u2019t coming from a leak in a service line. The utility called the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, whose inspectors determined the piece of metal was evidence of an abandoned, unplugged well.<\/p><p>The bubbling, inspectors wrote in a state filing, suggests the well is actively \u201cpurging a small amount of gas to the surface\u201d \u2014 a \u201cserious threat.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Not if, but when<\/h3><p>The abandoned well Romine unwittingly discovered and more than 650 others across the state need to be plugged. The companies that operated these wells can\u2019t be found or just don\u2019t exist anymore.<\/p><p>\u201cMany times you&#8217;ll never find a responsible party because these wells, we may not even have any records on them,\u201d says Corporation Commission spokesman Matt Skinner. \u201cThey may date back a hundred years before record-keeping was required.\u201d<\/p><p>Skinner says abandoned wells are regularly discovered across the state especially in areas, like Bartlesville, that experienced oil booms in the 1920s and 1930s. Many operators declared bankruptcy, went bust and disappeared. The oil and gas wells they left behind were capped and plugged \u2014 with drilling mud.<\/p>\n<div class=\"related-content alignright\">\n<h4 class=\"related-header\">Related<\/h4>\n<div class=\"links\">\n<h5>Posts<\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2016\/03\/02\/aubrey-mcclendon-dead-one-day-after-being-charged-in-bid-rigging-conspiracy\/\">Aubrey McClendon Dead One Day After Being Charged In Bid-Rigging Conspiracy<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2016\/02\/25\/another-oklahoma-state-park-cast-off-as-department-of-tourism-takes-more-cuts\/\">Another Oklahoma State Park Cast Off As Department Of Tourism Takes More Cuts<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"topics\">\n<h5>Topics<\/h5>\n<p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2013\/01\/disposalTN.jpg\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/topic\/earthquakes-2\/\">Exploring the Link Between Earthquakes and Oil and Gas Disposal Wells<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><p>\u201cAs our field inspectors say, with a mud-plugged well, it&#8217;s not a question of if it&#8217;s going to leak, it&#8217;s when,\u201d Skinner says.<\/p><p>And when the wells do leak, toxic saltwater, oil and natural gas can contaminate sources of drinking water and seep to the surface, polluting the ground and endangering the health and safety of residents.<\/p><p>If an owner can\u2019t be found and forced to make fixes, the state has to hire a crew to plug the well. It\u2019s expensive, averaging about $17,000 per well. Complicated plugging jobs can cost more than $100,000.<\/p>\n<h3>Plugging budget holes<\/h3><p>The dedicated state funding that was set aside to repair and plug abandoned wells is now being diverted, Skinner says.<\/p><p>The Commission, like many state agencies, received a small budget cut during the 2015 legislative session. To make up the 5.5 percent reduction, the Legislature directed the oil and gas regulator to dip into the well-plugging account.<\/p><p>\u201cThe well-plugging fund now, as it currently stands, is used for far more than well-plugging,\u201d Skinner says. \u201dWhat the budget commands us to do is to raid our well-plugging fund in order to fund general operations.\u201d<\/p><p>That move has already reduced the well-plugging fund by $1.2 million, a number that could grow. Lawmakers authorized the agency to use up to $2 million of the well-plugging fund for other needs. The result: Fewer abandoned wells are being plugged, state records show.<\/p><p>Another complication is that money for the plugging account comes from a fraction of a percent tax on oil and gas production, which Skinner says is shrinking alongside <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjqn9CwhqXLAhVItYMKHctpAxwQqQIIHjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnbc.com%2F2016%2F03%2F02%2Foil-prices-edge-up-on-rising-confidence-that-market-has-bottomed.html&usg=AFQjCNEYY-WL9SLiCATtNgq4KM3ntDAM6A&sig2=Gwtp8aq0jw0NveTRLcOe5A\">slumping<\/a> oil prices. The fund itself is set to expire at the end of 2016, but lawmakers appear <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwidsZTthqXLAhUB_GMKHUEMBaEQFggdMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fokenergytoday.com%2F2016%2F02%2Fwell-plugging-fund-makes-it-out-of-subcommittee%2F&usg=AFQjCNH-PL9KpVFmOn_qD3cCzQlWhRXiqA&sig2=-_qSM7tcNMUn9QAMi2MIRA\">poised to pass legislation extending<\/a> the program.<\/p><p>The commission is still paying to plug the most hazardous abandoned wells, and it is maintaining a cushion of cash to pay for well-plugging emergencies. But the commission has \u201cslowed the plugging\u201d of abandoned, unplugged wells that don\u2019t pose an immediate threat to public safety, Skinner says.<\/p>\n<h3>Temporary fix<\/h3><p>Back in Bartlesville, Jack Romine walks up to a giant plastic pipe sticking out of his yard.<\/p><p>\u201cYes, it\u2019s right next to the house,\u201d he says.<\/p><p>The faded, mint-green tube is 10 feet tall and as thick as a tree trunk. The state installed the makeshift chimney to funnel the bubbling, flammable natural gas purging from the abandoned well away from Romine\u2019s home.<\/p><p>\u201cI\u2019m thinking about painting it,\u201d Romine jokes.<\/p><p>The abandoned, leaky well beneath Romine\u2019s property is one of the state\u2019s highest priority plugging projects, records show. Still, Romine says the makeshift chimney has been here for months, and he\u2019s heard no word on when the well will be repaired.<\/p><p>Romine is upbeat, but he and his wife get excited every time a strange car or pickup truck turns onto their street. They\u2019re hoping it\u2019s someone the state sent to plug this leaky well.<\/p><p>\u201cWhen they said the emissions, or whatever you call it, was high enough to be concerned about, then I began to think, yeah, well maybe I ought to not laugh at it so much,\u201d Romine says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The move has already reduced the well-plugging fund by $1.2 million, a number that could grow. The result: Fewer abandoned wells are being plugged, state records show.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":26230,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[490],"tags":[662,663,390,238],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26228"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26228"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26235,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26228\/revisions\/26235"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}