Abandoned Wells in PA

June 29, 2012

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Laurie Barr <saveourstreamspa@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Jun 29, 2012 at 11:12 AM
Subject: Open Letter to the People of Lawrence County,PA, Please read and share.
To: Margaret Henry

 Open Letter to the People of Lawrence County,PA,

On a USGS map, published in the early 1900’s, the locations of
hundreds of oil and gas wells left behind by operators  in what is
historically known as the “Bessemer oil and gas field” are marked.

Presently, above the surface, little evidence remains, to reveal the
remnants of the oil and gas exploration of the past.

*A portion of a 1927 USGS Farm-line map, showing the locations of legacy

 wells drilled in the town of Bessemer and the surrounding area can be
viewed here.

Hidden below the surface, these legacy wells have garnered little
attention. Bessemer Boro, North Beaver Township, Mt Jackson, and
surrounding cultivated farm fields have developed over the historic
oil and gas field.

With the increase in drilling activity and exploration brought about
by the shale gas boom, the risks associated while new  drilling occurs
in proximity to historic oil and gas fields, seems to be viewed as
inconsequential by local land and mineral owners as they anticipate
additional revenues that new exploration may bring.

According to Damascus Citizens for Sustainability, in an article
titled; RISKS AND RICHES IN THE FRACKING ERA, published on April 3,
2012; “In Lawrence County, about 4,000 leases have been signed.”

 Link: http://www.damascuscitizensforsustainability.org/2012/04/risks-and-riches-in-the-fracking-era/

Over the years, numerous cases of methane and fluid migration have
occurred near active drilling in proximity to historic fields. These
cases are fairly well documented.

Homes have exploded, lives have been lost and aquifers have been contaminated.

Many of these cases are detailed in the Pennsylvania Department of
Environmental Protection’s draft report titled “Stray Gas Migration
Associated with Oil and Gas Wells” dated 10/28/09.

In McKean County, Pennsylvania, two homes were destroyed. The first
was destroyed on December 12, 2010, and the second on February 28,
2011. These homes were located about two and half miles apart in an
area peppered with historic wells. Active drilling was underway.

In March of 2011 Federal officials, State Department of Environmental
Protection representatives, local Emergency Management officials and
others met in Bradford to discuss concerns over gas migration and the
home explosions. During a press briefing held after that meeting,
Sheriff Brad Mason talked with members of the local (Bradford, McKean
County, PA) media “We talked about the cause and effect of natural gas
migration in the Bradford area.” He continued “Which everyone by this
time knows it has caused ignition points and house fires, explosions
in the area.”

Pennsylvania’s United States Senator Robert P. Casey wrote a letter to
Steven Chu, Secretary of the United States Department of Energy about
his concerns related to gas migration issues on March 28, 2011. “I am
deeply alarmed to learn of yet another gas-migration-related explosion
in Pennsylvania.  According to the Pennsylvania Department of
Environmental Protection (PA DEP) Emergency Response Program, there
have been dozens of gas migration incidents in northwestern
Pennsylvania recently. “

He continued, “We need to ensure that Pennsylvanians, as well as all
U.S. residents, are not in any danger from the extraction of these
valuable domestic sources of energy.  I urge you to coordinate with
local, state, and other federal entities to ensure that appropriate
actions to protect public health are implemented.”

On Nov 1st , 2011 Save Our Streams PA kicked off a scavenger hunt for
lost, orphan and abandoned wells. Part of Save Our Stream PA’s mission
is to raise awareness in communities where legacy wells may pose a
threat when active drilling is taking place or planned.

Members of Save Our Streams PA recently toured the Bessemer oil and
gas field. Remnants of historic oil and gas exploration litter the
historic Bessemer field and numerous wells appear to have been left
unplugged.

I am hoping the residents of Lawrence County will become informed,
contact their local officials who are there to help and ask them to
take action to protect the residents, public and private water
sources, property, infrastructure and environment from these risks.

Sincerely,

Laurie Barr

Board Member

Save Our Streams PA

*Maps that provide information on historic well locations can be
obtained by contacting

The  DEP Northwest Regional Office:

 230 Chestnut Street, Meadville, PA 16335
Phone: 814-332-6945 (business hours)
1-800-373-3398 (after hours)

__._,_.___

Filed under events Tagged with ,

Abandoned wells

June 2, 2012

Yesterday on the NPR station WSKG broadcast of Living on Earth ( http://www.loe.org/) there was a segment on locating abandoned oil/gas wells in PA – very interesting and relevant.

Some excerpts:

DOE Looks for Orphan Wells

CURWOOD: It’s Living on Earth, I’m Steve Curwood. For more than 150 years prospectors in the United States have drilled countless holes in the ground in search of oil and gas. Most of the resulting wells were sealed once they became unprofitable. But improperly sealed ones can lead to explosions and other hazards.
With the gas rush now underway in the Marcellus Shale in the Eastern U.S., the federal Department of Energy has made the search for so-called “orphan wells” a high priority.

….The helicopter has special equipment mounted on long, white poles on either side. At the end of each pole is a white cylinder pointed at the ground. Inside, these canisters are essentially advanced metal detectors. They can pick up cars, natural metals like gold, or the metal casings found in abandoned oil and gas wells.

….An abandoned well, if it’s not properly plugged, it provides a conduit for gases to come to the surface. These gases could be, of course, methane, natural gas, or something like radon.

….The first natural gas well in Pennsylvania was drilled in 1859. But the industry wasn’t regulated until 1956. That left almost a century’s worth of wells drilled, with little or no records of where they were located. It’s estimated there are more than 100,000 of these so-called “orphan wells” sitting in Pennsylvania.

.…One problem with looking for wells, Carter says, is a lot of the metal casings used to detect these wells are gone. 
 (The program does not explain how these wells are located, as the sensing system is based on magnetism detecting the steel casing.)
…..Our story on orphaned wells comes to us from the radio show The Allegheny Front.
From the DEC’s revised DSGEIS
Preliminary Revised Draft SGEIS 2011, Page 7-59
To ensure that abandoned wells do not provide a conduit for contamination of fresh water
aquifers, the Department proposes to require that the operator consult the Division’s oil and gas
database as well as property owners and tenants in the proposed spacing unit to determine
whether any abandoned wells are present.  If (1) the operator has property access rights, (2) the
well is accessible and (3) it is reasonable to believe based on available records and history of
drilling in the area that the well’s total depth may be as deep or deeper than the target formation
for high-volume hydraulic fracturing, then the Department would require the operator to enter
and evaluate the well, and properly plug it prior to high-volume hydraulic fracturing if the
evaluation shows the well is open to the target formation or is otherwise an immediate threat to
the environment.  If any abandoned well is under the operator’s control as owner or lessee of the
pertinent mineral rights, then the operator is required to comply with the Department’s existing
regulations regarding shut-in or temporary abandonment if good cause exists to leave the well
unplugged.  This would require a demonstration that the well is in satisfactory condition to not
pose a threat to the environment, including during nearby high-volume hydraulic fracturing, and
a demonstrated intent to complete and/or produce the well within the time frames provided by
existing regulations.
A criticism of the of this section is that this “proposal” could easily miss wells which have long since been abandoned, especially those from which the casing was removed for scrap steel.  From the DEC’s website:

Long Abandoned Wells Predate Strict Rules

DEC has a strict environmental regulatory program for oil and gas wells drilled in New York. New York has had an active oil and gas industry since the 1880’s and DEC estimates that more than 75,000 oil and gas wells have been drilled in the state. Most of these wells existed prior to the establishment of New York’s regulatory program in 1963 that ensures the proper plugging of wells. DEC has identified about 4,800 unplugged, abandoned oil and gas wells in New York for which no known owner can be located. It estimates that at least as many more unplugged and abandoned wells exist that are yet to be discovered. Many of the older wells were abandoned by their owners when low production and/or low prices made it unprofitable for them to continue production.
I expect that this airborne scanning technology will be cited by the DEC to deflect some of the criticism about undocumented wells.
Jim Weiss
1. They didn’t talk about cost to find/time to find
2. They didn’t talk about cost to plug
3. They didn’t talk about alternative technologies to find (there is ALWAYS som other way(s)
4. They didn’t talk about old abandoned water wells – another contamination vector
5. Sigh,  S

Filed under DEC, Shale Gas Development-Hydrofracking, Spills-Accidents-Suits Tagged with , ,

Oil and Gas Well Abandonment in New York By Ron Bishop

March 15, 2012

sentinel032012.pdf (application/pdf Object).

Ron Bishop. Oil and Gas Well Abandonment in New York
By Ron Bishop, Health/Safety Officer
*Editor’s Note: With the permission of author Ron Bishop, this article is excerpted from an article which has been ac-cepted for publication in a special issue of New Solutions.+ Begins on p. 24.

Filed under Shale Gas Development-Hydrofracking, Water Tagged with , , ,

The Capitol Pressroom for August 8, 2011 | WCNY Blogs

August 11, 2011

The Capitol Pressroom for August 8, 2011 | WCNY Blogs.

Could sealed lawsuits hold data that could alter how the scientific community views fracking and its affect on ground water? We discuss the topic and what it could mean for New York with Catskill Mountainkeeper Program Director Wes Gillingham and Dusty Horwitt, Senior Counsel for the Environmental Working Group.
And we remember Hugh Carey with friends and colleagues from Albany and New Year. Dr. Len Cutler, the Chairman of the Center for the Study of Government and Politics at Siena College navigates us through some of the high points of Carey’s life.

 

Filed under DEC, Environment, Water Tagged with , , , ,

Potential-water-impacts.pdf Ron Bishop 7/20/11

August 11, 2011

poetntial-water-impacts.pdf (application/pdf Object).

 

Shale Gas Industry Impacts on Water Quality Finger Lakes Institute  7/20/11

 

Filed under DEC, Economics, Environment, Water Tagged with , , ,

EPA Protects Rivers, Lakes and Streams by Plugging Abandoned Oil Wells in Western New York–July 29, 2011

July 29, 2011

07/29/2011: EPA Protects Rivers, Lakes and Streams by Plugging Abandoned Oil Wells in Western New York.

EPA Protects Rivers, Lakes and Streams by Plugging Abandoned Oil Wells in Western New York

Release date: 07/29/2011

Contact Information: John Senn, (212) 637-3667, senn.john@epa.gov

(New York, N.Y.) Over the past six years, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has plugged close to 300 abandoned – and in some cases leaking – oil wells in Western New York in an effort to prevent any remaining oil that may be in the wells from reaching nearby lakes, rivers and streams. The abandoned wells, many of which no longer have owners, have not been maintained for decades, and are gradually deteriorating to the point at which crude oil could leak from broken well casings, pipes and storage tanks. To prevent future leaks, EPA has had the wells filled with concrete and a fine clay substance called bentonite to immobilize any remaining oil. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation referred the abandoned oil wells to EPA for cleanup.

“Oil is one of the worst water pollutants, and the abandoned oil wells like the ones that EPA has cleaned up represent a threat to our most vital natural resource – clean water,” said EPA Regional Administrator Judith Enck. “By plugging hundreds of abandoned oil wells, we’re protecting public health and the environment, and fixing a problem that had been decades in the making.”

Since 2005, EPA has overseen the plugging of 294 wells at six locations. They are:
· The Curtis Farm Oil Wells Site in Bolivar, N.Y., where 136 have been plugged. The site is near the Little Genesee Creek, a tributary of the Allegheny River.
· The West Union Oil Wells Site in West Union, N.Y. Ninety-one wells were plugged at this site near the New York/Pennsylvania border in Steuben County. Areas from which contaminated soil was removed were filled with clean soil. Students from SUNY-Brockport helped replace native plants that were damaged or destroyed during the removal.
· The Weston Lot 7 Oil Wells Site in Olean, N.Y., where 34 wells have been plugged. The oil rights for the company extracting oil from this site, which borders Mix Creek, a tributary of the Allegheny River, were not transferred when the company’s owner died in 1994.
· The Ballard Oil Lease Site in Bolivar, N.Y. Thirty-one wells have been plugged at this site, which is also near the Little Genesee Creek.
· The Dodge Creek Oil Well Site in Clarksville, N.Y. One well was plugged at this site, which borders Dodge Creek, a tributary of the Allegheny River. Dodge Creek is a trout habitat and home to the Eastern Hellbender salamander, a species of listed special concern in New York State.
· The McGraw One Oil Well Site in West Union, N.Y. One well was plugged at this site after no owner or operator could be identified following a citizen complaint. The site is near Marsh Creek, a tributary of the Genesee River.

Later this summer, EPA will oversee the plugging of abandoned wells on the Burrows Oil Lease Site in Olean, N.Y. The site comprises 13 crude oil production wells, some of which are leaking or show evidence of past leakage. The site borders Mix Creek, a tributary of the Allegheny River.

For a Google Earth aerial view of the oil plugging site, visit: http://www.epa.gov/region2/kml/western_ny_abandoned_oil_wells.kml. (Please note that you must have Google Earth installed on your computer to view the map. To download Google Earth, visit http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html).

Follow EPA Region 2 on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/eparegion2 and visit our Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/eparegion2.

11-100

Here’s what the NYSDEC says about abandoned wells in NY:

“Abandoned Wells

At least 70,000 oil and gas wells have been drilled in New York since
the 1800’s, but information is available for only about 30,000 of
them. Locations for the others are unknown, and wells have been found
in such unexpected places as basements, stream banks and under parking
lots. Abandoned wells may pose hazards not only to walking on the
ground surface if outdoors, but also to ground water resources if not
properly plugged. In addition, they provide a potential conduit for
leakage of oil, gas or brine to the atmosphere, soil or surface
water.”

See: http://www.dec.ny.gov/energy/1532.html

So plugging 300 wells is…I guess you could call it a start. A very
small start. At this rate, it looks as if the well-plugging crew has a
LOT of job security, especially since they are likely to have a lot of
shale gas wells to plug after the companies that own them go belly up.
And then there’s the question of how long the cement in the plugs will
last…yes, I would say the well-plugging crew has no lack of work
ahead of them.

Filed under Environment, EPA Tagged with , ,

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