With Respect to Orphaned Wells, PA DEP Doesn’t Know Jack Squat

Last week, MDN reported on new (to us) information shared at a Pennsylvania House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee hearing that the state's program to plug orphaned and abandoned oil and gas wells is, quite frankly, a hot mess (see Plugging PA’s Abandoned & Orphaned Wells is a Hot Mess). The Dept. of Environmental Protection's (DEP) recordkeeping of old wells is rife with errors. And the price to plug orphaned wells has ballooned from $17,500 per well in most cases to now over $110,000! An editorial appearing in the Williamsport Sun-Gazette takes the federal and state governments to task for spending big money on a problem they can't even accurately describe or outline.

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