With no legally responsible party to clean them up, many of the 5,356 abandoned and deserted oil and gas wells have been polluting drinking water and leaking methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.
An active oil well near homes in Signal Hill at Cherry Ave. and Skyline Dr. on Thursday, Oct. 21, 2021. California is home to thousands of oil and gas wells abandoned years ago and never properly sealed — many of them sitting near homes, schools and businesses from the coast to the Inland Empire.
“Children are growing up where abandoned oil wells are spreading toxins in their backyards and even in school playgrounds,” said U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla at a press conference Wednesday, April 27, as state officials met to discuss funding to speed up the efforts. “This is a really harsh reality, that so many California have been subjected to.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom recently proposed additional $200 million dollars in the state budget to seal abandoned wells. Officials with the California Geologic Energy Management Division, or CalGEM, which oversees plugging abandoned wells, said they are working to identify wells that pose the most health and safety risks to disadvantaged communities, to give them priority.
The first oil operation in California began in the mid-19th century. After the peak in 1985, production began to decline, resulting in a surge of abandoned and deserted wells.
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