There are thousands of unmapped, abandoned oil and gas wells in PA. Help find them! Kick off is November 1st!
Check the Scavenger Hunt PA website.
The hunt will end when every abandoned well is properly plugged in Pennsylvania!
Help locate and photograph these wells!
The mission is:
To promote awareness by photographing these wells and matching the photos with the GPS locations on a Google map that will be easily accessible for online viewing.
To call upon our state government to recognize the hazards posed by these wells and provide the resources to plug them adequately.
Pennsylvania is home to thousands of orphan, abandoned, and un-plugged oil and gas wells. Over the years thousands have been left behind, abandoned by the oil and gas industry. Many have been left unplugged. Some wells were inadequately plugged years ago with pine trees or cement that has deteriorated or cracked over time.
Orphan, abandoned, unplugged, or improperly-plugged wells may and often do act as a conduit, or pathway, allowing methane or other fluids to travel to the surface. These wells have the potential to significantly contaminate and harm the environment. Many abandoned wells have not been located. The DEP has records on just over 140,500 wells.
Some experts estimate that more than 325,000 wells have been drilled in Pennsylvania since 1859.
Help locate and photograph these wells!
The mission is:
To promote awareness by photographing these wells and matching the photos with the GPS locations on a Google map that will be easily accessible for online viewing.
To call upon our state government to recognize the hazards posed by these wells and provide the resources to plug them adequately.
Pennsylvania is home to thousands of orphan, abandoned, and un-plugged oil and gas wells. Over the years thousands have been left behind, abandoned by the oil and gas industry. Many have been left unplugged. Some wells were inadequately plugged years ago with pine trees or cement that has deteriorated or cracked over time.
Orphan, abandoned, unplugged, or improperly-plugged wells may and often do act as a conduit, or pathway, allowing methane or other fluids to travel to the surface. These wells have the potential to significantly contaminate and harm the environment. Many abandoned wells have not been located. The DEP has records on just over 140,500 wells.
Some experts estimate that more than 325,000 wells have been drilled in Pennsylvania since 1859.
FOR THE HUNT:
You will need a digital camera and a GPS device (or a GPS-enabled mobile phone) so that you can record the GPS coordinates of the well. You will also need to consult the following link to Pennsylvania's DEP map of these orphan and abandoned oil and gas wells.
(Note: many of these wells have the GPS coordinates listed.) http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate/minres/oilgas/AbandedOrphanWells-2-17-11.xls
You can also view the location of the known Orphan and Abandoned oil and gas wells in Pennsylvania by visiting the Fractracker.org map here.
To view the GPS coordinates on the Fractracker map, click on the "i" next to the magnifying glass and then click on a marker.
3 comments:
http://blog.skytruth.org/2011/10/legacy-of-past-over-7000-abandoned.html
Check it out! Good project - way to go!
This sounds like an Herculean task. Perhaps they could get scout troops and sports teams out there looking.
Good one, Smurfette! The Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts would have steady work for decades!
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