Millions of Americans across the country live within just one mile from an abandoned coal mine or an orphaned oil and gas well. These legacy pollution sites are environmental hazards and jeopardize public health and safety by contaminating groundwater, emitting noxious gases like methane, littering the landscape with rusted and dangerous equipment, creating flooding and sinkhole risks, and harming wildlife. President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law delivers the largest investment in tackling legacy pollution in American history.  

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law directed the Secretary of the Interior to establish programs to inventory and properly close orphaned wells. The Law provides $4.7 billion for orphaned well site plugging, remediation and restoration activities on federal, Tribal, state and private lands. This historic investment will reduce methane and other greenhouse gas emissions from orphaned wells, help clean up water contamination, restore native habitat, create good-paying union jobs and benefit disproportionately impacted communities.  The Department prioritizes a coordinated and unified whole of government approach to environmental justice issues and supports the Administration's Justice40 Initiative, a whole-of government approach to advancing environmental justice.

Program implementation is guided by the Department’s Orphaned Wells Program Office, created by Secretary Deb Haaland through Secretary’s Order 3409. 

The mission of the office is to fulfill the orphaned wells requirements of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Secretary's Order 3409 by facilitating the effective, accountable, and efficient implementation of the state, tribal, and federal assistance programs to reduce methane emissions, prevent groundwater and surface water contamination, eliminate health and safety hazards, create good paying jobs and benefit historically disadvantaged communities.

The OWPO’s newly released Strategic Plan, Fiscal Years 2025-2030 communicates how we can serve the orphaned wells community and ensure success in transforming a legacy of environmental pollution into a legacy of environmental stewardship. 

Orphaned & Abandoned Wells Workshop - National Academies 

The National Academies convened a workshop in Washington, DC for DOI’s Orphaned Wells Program Office to discuss existing practices and standards for plugging orphaned and abandoned hydrocarbon wells and included discussions of:

• Historic and current well-plugging standards and design and operational practices used in the United States;
• How these standards and practices may differ based on factors such as well age, well depth, well location, material specification (e.g., casing, line, screening), geologic and geophysical environment, production type, distance to populated areas, and remediation and restoration requirements;
• Consideration of cost, technology, or other factors that impact the development of well plugging plans; and
• Environmental benefits to well-plugging and/or mitigation of adverse environmental impacts from well-plugging (e.g., methane leakage mitigation, groundwater and surface water protection, surface reclamation, landscape/seascape degradation or restoration, and protection of animal and bird migration corridors).
• The workshop included perspectives from the federal government, states, tribes, industry, and other stakeholders. 
• Orphaned Wells Program Office Director Kimbra Davis was featured as a speaker for the workshop.

Watch the recording from the July 18-19 workshop here.

StoryMaps

To learn more about orphaned oil and gas wells, including their environmental impacts and what is being done to clean up these hazardous sites, please visit the Orphaned Oil and Gas Wells 101 StoryMap.

To view an interactive map of orphaned wells plugged across the country between October 1, 2022, and September 30, 2023, with Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funds, including highlights and additional details for a group of sites that represent a range of well conditions, locations, impacts, and histories featured on the map, please visit the Plugging Away StoryMap.

Resources

FY2023 Orphaned Wells Congressional Report

FY22 ECRP Congressional Report

Indian Energy Service Center - Indian Affairs

Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission

Definitions