Thanks to 25 million dollars from the federal Infrastructure Law and another 12-million from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, over 580 orphaned wells have been plugged since mid-January. Louisiana Department of Natural Resources spokesperson Patrick Courreges says the highest number ever plugged by the state in a year is 239.
“When we went out with this, we were hoping to at least double what our regular average is, somewhere in the 300 to 400 range and we got a real chance by the time the funding wraps up at the end of September to have 600,” said Courreges.
The state has roughly 4,500 orphaned well sites, most are in the Shreveport-Monroe area. Courreges says these wells have the potential to contaminate water supplies and they can emit methane or other air pollutants.
“There’s all kinds of reasons to want make sure that whatever is down at the bottom of that well doesn’t have a pathway up, the way we do that is by clearing those well heads and plugging them up for cement,” said Courreges.
Courreges says once this current funding runs out, they expect to get more.
“We think we’ve made a pretty good case that if there’s potential in later rounds of funding to boost the share of what Louisiana gets, we can prove to them that we are a good investment in knocking out a lot of wells in a hurry,” said Courreges.
Comments