These abandoned oil wells in Kansas pose groundwater, safety issues

KANSAS ( KSNT ) – Five abandoned oil and gas wells identified in Kansas pose threats to surface water, groundwater and public safety, according to the Kansas Corporation Commission (KCC).

Since the creation of the state well-plugging fund, 11,240 abandoned wells have been plugged. After Kansas was awarded $25 million for the initial federal grant under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act in 2021, the KCC put out a Request for Proposal for eight projects containing more than 2,300 wells to be plugged over the course of the next two to three years. As of September 2024, 5,285 wells still need to be plugged in Kansas.

There are currently five abandoned wells listed as a top priority. Wells in this group pose a risk of discharging oil or brine into surface waters, creating ongoing or potential impacts to groundwater supplies and of creating an ongoing threat to public safety.

The five wells were located in Cowley, Allen, Labette, Neosho and Wilson counties. This is down from nine wells listed in the 2023 KCC report.

Wells that pose a threat to public safety run the risk of active gas flows, danger of ignition or large or open holes. This year there were 67 groundwater, surface water and well problem remediation sites. The KCC also found in its annual report that seven public water supplies needed remediation. The KCC noted that some sites impact multiple resources.

“The influx of Federal funds has greatly increased the number abandoned wells being plugged, but it doesn’t eliminate the need for the state program, which is supported by the Abandoned Oil and Gas Well Fund,” the KCC wrote in its annual report. “There are still more wells to be plugged than the Federal grants will cover. The plan is to plug as many wells as possible using both Federal and State funds.”

Oil and gas drilling started in the late 1800s and spread east to west through Kansas. Development of drilling regulations didn’t begin until the late 1930s with comprehensive regulation not established until the 1970s, according to a KCC report.

Many oil wells were never properly plugged off, leaving potential environmental consequences up to a century later, according to the KCC. Many wells weren’t documented and have been buried or overgrown, making them hard to find.

On July 1, 2021, House Bill 2022 in the Kansas Legislature merged the Abandoned Oil and Gas Well Fund and the Well Plugging Assurance Fund so the KCC would have all well-plugging funds available to use. Money collected from leasing public land to drilling operations under the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920 was going to the Abandoned Oil and Gas Well Fund prior to the merger.

The KCC expects more wells to be added to the list of abandoned wells as companies go bankrupt, new well-locating techniques are created and as staff respond to additional complaints.

“There’s a lot of data that needs to be combed through and at that time we had gone through a staff transition where certain data hadn’t been entered into the database,” KCC Conservation Division Director Ryan Hoffman said about the uptick in the number of abandoned wells following the adoption of HB 2022. “That’s why there was an increase in wells there. It was more of catching up on data cleanup.”

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