{"id":58447,"date":"2024-05-25T01:23:14","date_gmt":"2024-05-25T01:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/25\/these-teens-adopted-an-orphaned-oil-well-their-goal-shut-it-down\/"},"modified":"2024-05-25T01:23:14","modified_gmt":"2024-05-25T01:23:14","slug":"these-teens-adopted-an-orphaned-oil-well-their-goal-shut-it-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/25\/these-teens-adopted-an-orphaned-oil-well-their-goal-shut-it-down\/","title":{"rendered":"These Teens Adopted an Orphaned Oil Well. Their Goal: Shut It Down."},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"text-align:center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1050\" height=\"550\" src=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/05\/24\/multimedia\/24CLI-orphan-wells-01-zktb\/24CLI-orphan-wells-01-zktb-facebookJumbo.jpg?resize=1050,550&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"These Teens Adopted an Orphaned Oil Well. Their Goal: Shut It Down.\" title=\"These Teens Adopted an Orphaned Oil Well. Their Goal: Shut It Down.\" \/><\/div><p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As a child in Bolivia, Mateo De La Rocha told his family he wanted to work as a garbage man when he grew up. In La Paz, his home city at the time, trash piles were everywhere. In Mr. De La Rocha\u2019s eyes, the local sanitation worker was the only person cleaning up pollution. \u201cI didn\u2019t really see anyone doing anything about it, apart from the garbage man,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">His family later moved to the United States, and now Mr. De La Rocha is a high school senior in Cary, N.C., who has found a unique way to clean up pollution: Along with two friends, he recently raised $11,000 to plug an abandoned oil well in Ohio that was leaking gas close to a barn on a horse farm. It\u2019s an unusually niche cause for young environmentalists to take up, but one with a potentially significant effect on global climate change.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As many as 3.9 million abandoned and aging oil and gas wells dot the United States, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The reasons for abandonment vary, but at least 126,000 of these wells are orphans, meaning there\u2019s no longer an owner or company that state regulators can hold responsible for them. And many of the wells leak methane, a greenhouse gas that\u2019s nearly 30 times as powerful as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere over a period of 100 years, and even more powerful over shorter time periods.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The E.P.A. estimates that abandoned wells collectively released 303,000 metric tons of methane in 2022, roughly equivalent to how much carbon dioxide 23 gas-burning power plants might release in one year. This estimate, however, is highly uncertain.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act allocated $4.7 billion to states, tribes and federal agencies to plugorphaned wells, but given their sheer number and the enormous geographic area they cover, these federal funds will not be enough.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cNo single group is going to solve this problem,\u201d said Andrew Govert, the program manager of a Department of Energy initiative to find undocumented orphaned wells and establish best practices for measuring their pollution. \u201cI think it\u2019s going to take NGOs, government, industry. It\u2019s kind of all hands on deck.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<h2 class=\"css-13o6u42 eoo0vm40\" id=\"link-4e23647c\">Taking Initiative<\/h2>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">After completing his Advanced Placement environmental science class, Mr. De La Rocha, 18, said he realized that the methane from these abandoned wells was an issue in which individual people could potentially make a difference. He invited his friends and classmates Sebastian Ng and Lila Gisondi to join him. They call themselves the Youth Climate Initiative.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cWhen Mateo approached me about this and I really looked into these methane wells and what we can do about it, it really kind of flipped a switch,\u201d Mr. Ng, 17, said. Before, he had felt like there wasn\u2019t anything he could do about climate change, he said, and he would simply joke about the world ending.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">For Ms. Gisondi, 18, talking with her friends about these methane-emitting wells brought climate change from the back of her mind to the forefront. \u201cIt was something that I felt like I could actually help with,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">When a well is no longer being used to pump oil and gas, it\u2019s supposed to be closed off with cement in a process called capping or plugging. But many have been left open, often in disrepair, polluting groundwater and leaking toxic gases like hydrogen sulfide into the air. The wells can be extremely dangerous for people nearby.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">After more research, the trio connected with a nonprofit organization called the Well Done Foundation that plugs orphaned wells. The organization was founded by Curtis Shuck, a veteran of the oil and gas industry who came across his first abandoned well in 2019.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">When Mr. Shuck saw that first well, he recalled thinking, \u201cThis is embarrassing for me as somebody who\u2019s been in the business, and this can\u2019t continue,\u201d he said. \u201cThis orphan well thing has been everybody\u2019s dirty little secret.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He secured the domain name and nonprofit registration for the Well Done Foundation later that same day. Since then, his organization has surveyed more than 1,700 abandoned wells around the country and plugged 44 of what they identified as the most problematic ones.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The students in North Carolina agreed to sponsor the 45th, an orphaned oil well on the horse farm in Ohio, near Cuyahoga Valley National Park. The well is next to the farm\u2019s barn and only about 100 yards from the landowners\u2019 house.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Melissa and Bill Simmons bought the property in 2016, with two sons and several horses and chickens in tow. Nearly all the properties they had considered in the region had old oil or gas wells on them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">At first they thought, \u201cEverybody else has these things,\u201d Ms. Simmons said. \u201cIt must be OK.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The well on their farm had been drilled in 1983 by a company called Pine Top, which is now out of business.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">About a year after moving in, the Simmons family noticed the well was leaking gas. The boys could hear it hissing when they were outside doing chores. When it rained and water collected in the pumpjack\u2019s nooks and crannies, the family could see gas bubbling up through the water. And eventually, they could smell gas inside the barn and had to leave the doors open, fearing a buildup and explosion.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Ms. Simmons contacted the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. She learned that state officials were dealing with a very long list of orphaned wells \u2014 more than 20,000 documented so far in Ohio, which is one of the country\u2019s oldest oil-producing regions \u2014 and that hers did not warrant immediate action. But after many calls, one official told her about the Well Done Foundation and said the nonprofit group might be able to help.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">They connected at the end of 2021, more than three years after the Simmons family first noticed the well leaking. Mr. Shuck traveled to the farm, confirmed they had a problem and agreed to take on the project.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">After the Youth Climate Initiative joined the effort, they raised money in small increments over the course of about three months. One of the most poignant donations came from Mr. De La Rocha\u2019s 10-year-old cousin, who gave all of his birthday money, a total of $120, to the cause. The fund-raiser was featured <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/gendread.substack.com\/p\/a-north-carolina-teenagers-quest\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">in a popular newsletter, Gen Dread<\/a>, that explores the issue of climate anxiety among young people.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The students also persuaded the Reimer Family Climate Crisis Fund, a small family foundation based in Austin, Texas, that had previously given to Well Done, to match their donations. The $11,000 the students raised will cover approximately 15 percent of the project\u2019s total cost. Well Done will cover the rest of the cost through other donations and sponsors.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Work began this year. On Thursday, contractors began pouring the cement that will plug the well.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<h2 class=\"css-13o6u42 eoo0vm40\" id=\"link-1e414f53\">A National Problem<\/h2>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Well Done Foundation hopes to scale this adopt-a-well model nationally. The organization has also started the process of potentially getting carbon credits issued through the American Carbon Registry, which runs a voluntary market for individuals and companies to purchase credits that fund projects meant to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Research on the methane emissions from abandoned and orphaned wells is still young. In a <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/pdf\/10.1002\/2015GL067623\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">2016 study of 138 abandoned wells<\/a>, the highest emissions rate the researchers measured was about 150 grams of methane per hour. The average for unplugged wells was about 10 grams per hour.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">According to measurements by Mr. Shuck and his colleagues, the well in Ohio was leaking more than 10,000 grams of methane per hour at one point.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Referring to Well Done\u2019s figure, Amy Townsend-Small, a professor of environmental science at the University of Cincinnati who was lead author on the 2016 study, said \u201cthe emission rate is much, much, much higher than any well we\u2019ve ever measured.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Shuck acknowledged that some of the Well Done Foundation\u2019s measured methane emission rates are exceptionally high, which sometimes elicits skepticism. He attributes this to using newer instruments and having measured so many wells.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThere\u2019s lots of ways to test,\u201d said Mary Kang, an assistant professor of civil engineering at McGill University in Montreal and the lead author of the first study <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pnas.org\/doi\/pdf\/10.1073\/pnas.1408315111\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">on methane from abandoned wells<\/a>, published in 2014. \u201cNo one can do it perfectly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Dr. Kang added that there are potential issues with issuing carbon credits in exchange for plugging orphaned wells. One is the fact that wells in the same area could be connected underground through cracks in the rock formations. Plugging one well could simply send methane into the atmosphere through a different, unplugged well.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cIt\u2019s like Whac-a-Mole,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The Biden administration\u2019s signature climate law, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, established a new program through the Department of the Interior that is responsible for handing out $4.7 billion in federal grants.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">\u201cThe problem is so huge,\u201d Mr. Shuck said, that the new federal funds \u201creally are just a down payment. There are so many wells, and these wells are so expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Going forward, the oil and gas industry needs to be responsible for plugging its old wells, said Adam Peltz, an attorney with the Environmental Defense Fund who works on oil and gas issues.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">And in fact, the Bureau of Land Management <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.propublica.org\/article\/oil-companies-must-set-aside-more-money-to-plug-wells-a-new-rule-says-but-it-wont-be-enough\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">recently increased the amount<\/a> of money it requires oil and gas companies to set aside for well-plugging before they even start drilling, to avoid more wells being orphaned in the future.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">But for existing orphaned wells, Mr. Peltz said, especially those that predate modern regulations: \u201cWhatever it takes to plug them.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Now that final exams, sports tournaments and prom are out of the way, Mr. De La Rocha, Mr. Ng and Ms. Gisondi plan to raise money to plug a second orphaned well this summer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/05\/24\/climate\/orphan-wells-capping-methane-leaks.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As a child in Bolivia, Mateo De La Rocha told his family he wanted to work as a garbage man when he grew up. In La Paz, his home city at the time, trash piles were everywhere. In Mr. De La Rocha\u2019s eyes, the local sanitation worker was the only person cleaning up pollution. \u201cI [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58448,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/static01.nyt.com\/images\/2024\/05\/24\/multimedia\/24CLI-orphan-wells-01-zktb\/24CLI-orphan-wells-01-zktb-facebookJumbo.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[56946,38738,1134,56947,15012,7744],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58447"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58447"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58449,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58447\/revisions\/58449"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}