Published on May 6, 2012 by SaveOurStreamsPA
The Allegheny National Forest is plagued with abandoned,wells that have been left behind, unplugged by oil and gas operators. Not only are many of these wells spewing methane into the atmosphere, but fluids are being released from these wells and are being consumed by game and wildlife.
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| A deer drinks contaminated water from unplugged well |
That poor deer and the other wildlife. I wonder how much it would cost/ how many materials and how many man-hours- to cap that well? Would it explode if they DID cap it? If they put a pipe to allow the methane to escape, would contaminated water come up too, making a drinking fountain for poor, unsuspecting wildlife? Is it as simple as putting a concrete plug in?
ReplyDeleteYes, poor deer and also poor family who may one day consume it.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't even try to estimate the cost to plug this well.
It is in the Allegheny National Forest located approx.
1600 feet from the nearest road.It is in a low lying area, off of (old) 321, along Kinzua Creek's bank,near Westline,PA.
To plug it,trees would have to be removed,a road would need to be
built and that road would have to be built through the wetlands.
Plugging requires heavy equipment.
Problem wells may and often do cost over $150,000-$700,000 to plug.
I don't have a clue how much it would cost to construct a road.
In 2009 the DEP's entire plugging budget was approx
$390.000 for the year.
There are hundreds of thousands of lost and abandoned wells
in Pennsylvania and many are similar to this one.
This one is probably pouring MANY millions of cubic feet of methane into the atmosphere every year for decades.
The DEP's plugging program does try to plug as many unplugged wells as possible on their budget.
Many lost and abandoned wells are just like this well or worse.
This well will probably remain unplugged for the life
of the planet.