Wetterling Well- short lived & leaky

photo provided - Wetterling well, Owego

Back in October, Owego residents living near McHenry Road were surprised to see a well rig in their neighborhood. The well was drilled, the rig and truck traffic disappeared, and that was the end of it - or so people thought.


By late October, Carrizo had their exploratory data and were preparing to plug the well. That's when they noticed some bubbling. Gas was leaking between two of the casings.

This new information comes from a pair of DEC inspection reports obtained through a Freedom of Information request submitted by an Owego resident. It makes for interesting reading.

On Oct 25 the DEC inspector notes that gas was leaking at a rate of 15-20 cubic feet a day. The well operator, Carrizo was  concerned about Hurricane Sandy and proposed monitoring the gas leak. A couple weeks later, on November 13, Al Owings of Carrizo calls DEC and asks whether they can abandon the well with a vent pipe.

Notes from DEC investigator: "I told him that I did not know and that NY has no specific regulatory guidelines about the matter."

Now there's a rig back on the pad, and it appears that Carrizo is going to plug the well - the first real "Marcellus" well in Tioga County. Granted, it was a vertical well and drilled primarily to extract data, not gas. Vertical wells, while allowed under current permits, are not the most efficient way to exploit shale gas - but they serve well for exploring the new formations.

The Wetterling well was drilled to 4745 feet, not as deep as some of the wells around the area (some go deep into the Trenton Black River formation around 10,000 or so feet below the surface). There was no horizontal drilling, no hydrofracking. And yet it still sprung a leak.

Methane leaks are not unusual for shale gas wells in Pennsylvania. In fact, citizen reporter Vera Scroggins recently compiled a stack of "Letters of Determination" from PA's Department of Environmental Protection advising homeowners that they have methane - and other contaminants - in their water wells, and that gas drilling activities in the area may have affected their water supply. This is not the kind of letter anyone living near a well wants to receive - whether they live in Bradford County, PA or Owego, NY.

Tom Wilber has posted more about this on his excellent blog, Shale Gas Review.

Abandoned Gas Wells a Problem for Current Drillers

Koabel well: not producing, not plugged, just forgotten and rusting.

In June, Shell was drilling a well down in Tioga county (PA) when a 30-foot geyser of methane and water shot up out of the ground. It was still shooting out a week later.

That gas didn't come from any of the wells that Shell was drilling. What most likely happened, say state regulators, is that the hydro-fracking activity at Shell's wells displaced shallow pockets of gas that moved underground until it found a route to the surface.

Those routes can be water wells and old or abandoned gas or water wells. The problem, according to Fred Baldassare, is that old abandoned gas wells can have leaky, rotten or even nonexistent casings. He should know, because he studied well problems for PA's Department of Environmental Protection for 25 years. Methane can eas­ily move into nat­ural faults and cracks, fol­low­ing a path toward the sur­face that can travel through aquifers - and that, he thinks, is most likely how gas ended up geysering 30 feet into the sky.

There are tens of thousands of abandoned, unplugged and forgotten gas wells in the Appalachian gas fields. The NY Department of Environmental Conservation's Division of Mineral Resources sees those wells as a major problem. Their annual reports list 4800 known abandoned wells, but state regulators believe there are at least that many (possibly more) yet to be discovered. They could be in forests, playgrounds, beneath backyards and even under buildings.

Can DEC adequately monitor NYS drilling?

Used with permission

One of the things DEC stresses in its newest edition of the draft SGEIS is that the well casings will protect our water from any contamination.

OK, but folks who find old wells wonder just how committed DEC is to keeping that promise. After all, there’s loads of wells across the state that haven’t been properly plugged and abandoned.

Back in 1984 Chesapeake drilled this well into the Queenston formation in the town of Sennett, NY just east of Auburn. DEC has been notified that this well should be plugged and abandoned. But the question remains: why did the DEC and Chesapeake allow the condition of this well to degrade to this extent? And how many more wells are out there like this?

The person who sent me this photo has asked DEC for more information about whether and how this well has been abandoned, and what sort of testing – above and below ground- has been done.

He’s also posted a full DEC file on this well – photographs he took at the Avon DEC office. You can see more photos and documents at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~springport/pictures385/potter_web/

EPA Continues to Plug Abandoned Wells in NY

In a press release today EPA reports the agency has plugged close to 300 abandoned – and in some cases leaking – oil wells in Western New York. This was part of an effort to prevent any remaining oil that may be in the wells from reaching nearby lakes, rivers and streams. The abandoned wells, many of which no longer have owners, have not been maintained for decades, reported the EPA. The wells were deteriorating to the point at which crude oil could leak from broken well casings, pipes and storage tanks. To prevent future leaks, EPA has had the wells filled with concrete and a fine clay substance called bentonite to immobilize any remaining oil.  

“Oil is one of the worst water pollutants, and the abandoned oil wells like the ones that EPA has cleaned up represent a threat to our most vital natural resource – clean water,” said EPA Regional Administrator Judith Enck. “By plugging hundreds of abandoned oil wells, we’re protecting public health and the environment, and fixing a problem that had been decades in the making.”

Since 2005, EPA has overseen the plugging of 294 wells at six locations in western NY:

136 wells plugged at the Curtis Farm Oil Wells Site in Bolivar near the Little Genesee Creek, a tributary of the Allegheny River.

91 wells plugged at the West Union Oil Wells Site in West Union, near the New York/Pennsylvania border in Steuben County. Areas from which contaminated soil was removed were filled with clean soil. Students from SUNY-Brockport helped replace native plants that were damaged or destroyed during the removal.

34 wells at the Weston Lot 7 Oil Wells Site in Olean, which borders Mix Creek, a tributary of the Allegheny River.

31 wells at the Ballard Oil Lease Site in Bolivar, near the Little Genesee Creek.

1 well at the Dodge Creek Oil Well Site in Clarksville, bordering Dodge Creek, a tributary of the Allegheny River. Dodge Creek is a trout habitat and home to the Eastern Hellbender salamander, a species of listed special concern in New York State.

1 well at the McGraw One Oil Well Site in West Union, near Marsh Creek, a tributary of the Genesee River.

Later this summer, EPA will oversee the plugging of abandoned wells on the Burrows Oil Lease Site in Olean. The site comprises 13 crude oil production wells, some of which are leaking or show evidence of past leakage. The site borders Mix Creek, a tributary of the Allegheny River.

DEP Plugs 11 Abandoned Wells in Erie County, PA

One thing EPA and other officials emphasize when they talk about hydro-fracturing shale wells or converting old Trenton-Black River wells into underground disposal wells: Make Sure All Abandoned Wells in the Area Are Plugged! You can even hear them capitalize each word when they speak.

So today's news from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection is good news for the people in Erie County. DEP announced that between December 2009 and March 2010 they "successfully eliminated potential pollution and public safety hazards" by plugging 11 abandoned gas wells. 

The problem with abandoned gas wells, says DEP Northwest Regional Director Kelly Burch, is that they "can pollute streams and drinking water supplies and, in some situations, pose explosive dangers to nearby residents and communities. This is a public safety concern, as well as an environmental protection issue."  

Five of the 11 wells were in the City of Erie, four in Millcreek Township, one in North East Township, and one in Girard Borough, some located in densely populated neighborhoods. Many of the plugged wells had been venting gas or were found as a result of gas migration problems.

So, who pays for plugging abandoned wells? According to DEP these 11 wells were plugged using Pennsylvania’s Orphan Well Plugging Fund - at a cost of $137,348. The plugging program is funded by a surcharge on drilling permits, with as much as $200 from an individual permit fee going to the fund. 

DEP also notes that Pennsylvania has the greatest number of abandoned wells in the Appalachian region, and is ranked one of the top five states nationally. They've documented more than 8,700 wells throughout the state that were abandoned before passing modern oil and gas drilling regulations.