Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and Representative Sharice Davids (KS-03) led a July 10, 2023 roundtable in Overland Park to promote and educate local leaders on federal funding for addressing the environmental impacts of unplugged abandoned wells. Participants included Elaine Giessel, Sierra Club Kansas Chapter Chair, Susan Duffy, Kansas Corporation Commission Chair, and representatives from industry, labor, and environmental equity organizations.
At least nine million people in the U.S. live near an abandoned well. There may be as many as ten thousand abandoned wells in Kansas that still need plugging. Left unaddressed, pollution from these wells threaten people, livestock and wildlife by contaminating soil, surface waters and groundwater. Some wells continue to emit significant levels of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change. Gas leaks can even cause explosions.
Closing the orphaned wells, a slow, dangerous, and expensive process, advances the goals of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Methane Action Plan, as well as the Interagency Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities and Economic Revitalization, which focuses on spurring economic revitalization in hard-hit energy communities. The program is also part of the Justice40 Initiative, which is advancing environmental justice by ensuring that 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain federal investments reach disadvantaged communities that are marginalized and overburdened by pollution and underinvestment. The bipartisan Infrastructure law provides $4.7 billion in funding to help states plug high priority wells much faster although it's likely that additional funding will be required to complete the work.
Hundreds of old gas wells in and near Johnson County need capping (shawneemissionpost.com)