States are struggling to take advantage of federal funding to cap and remediate orphaned wells, E&E News reports. There may be as many as 800,000 abandoned oil and gas across the country releasing toxic, cattle-killing pollution into soil and groundwater and heat-trapping methane into the atmosphere. With $660 million of federal funds now available, states now have incentives to seek out and inventory orphaned wells (thereby increasing the official tally), but higher-than-expected labor costs and confusion over well remediation prioritization, methane monitoring, and other requirements attendant to the funding are also slowing the process of cleaning up the toxic mess left behind by over a century of polluting fossil fuel companies. “It’s a constant game of catch-up,” Jason Simmerman, the Ohio DNR’s orphan well program manager, told E&E News. “We find new wells every week in the state of Ohio.” (E&E News)
