February 4, 2025
In arid West Texas, water seeps and bubbles from old wells, sometimes carrying oil, brackish water or other pollutants to the surface. But the real danger lies underground — where oil, salt, and toxic minerals could migrate into the aquifers …
August 15, 2024
PECOS COUNTY, Texas – On a sprawling ranch in Pecos County in late July, oil well control specialist Hawk Dunlap used a backhoe to uncover an abandoned or so-called zombie well that had sprung back to life despite being plugged …
July 22, 2024
Federal and state officials are developing plans to respond to an oil sheen in the Gulf of Mexico tied to an abandoned platform at least eight miles off the Texas coast. State officials were notified about the apparent spill on …
May 27, 2022
About $33 million of the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure plan recently signed into law by President Joe Biden will go toward cleaning up 277 of an estimated 15,000 abandoned oil and gas wells on federal land, the nation’s interior secretary …
February 1, 2022
The Biden administration on Monday said it would make $1.15 billion available to states to clean up abandoned oil and gas wells as part of a broad effort to reduce U.S. climate warming emissions and improve health and safety in …
August 3, 2021
Rusted pipes litter the sandy fields of Ashley Williams Watt’s cattle ranch in windswept West Texas. The corroded skeletons are all that remain of hundreds of abandoned oil wells that were drilled long before her family owned the land. The …
June 23, 2020
In May 2012, Hanson and Michael Rowe noticed an overpowering smell, like rotten eggs, seeping from an abandoned gas well on their land in Kentucky. The fumes made the retired couple feel nauseous, dizzy, and short of breath. Regulators responding …