How do oil wells contaminate the water?
Abandoned and improperly plugged oil wells are one of the most severe of Texas’ natural resource woes. An abandoned oil well serves as a vertical pipeline with the capacity to transport brine water from deeper geologic formations directly into our shallow freshwater aquifers. Groundwater moves sluggishly, so contaminants that penetrate our aquifers can linger for hundreds of years. The levels of chloride contained in the brines exceed those found in seawater by as many as four times.

Brines can invade drinking water supplies directly, through imperfections in the well casing, or indirectly through nearby wells, such as the large numbers of abandoned wells throughout the state. A casing job in an area of average acidity is estimated to be effective for 20 years after which time it must be tended to and plugged. Oil drilling began in earnest in Texas in the early 1900’s and many of the wells sitting abandoned in Texas today have been rotting for almost a century.

Where do abandoned wells come from?
Oil production in Texas peaked in the mid 1970’s. At that time it was the accepted business practice for an oil company to own a well until it went dry and then as the responsible party, the oil company paid to plug the well. That changed during the oil depression of the mid 1980’s when many oil companies disappeared and many thousands of wells were abandoned. Major oil companies began selling off thousands of wells that were not located in “core areas” and moving operations to more profitable areas overseas. Often, depleted wells were “downloaded” or sold off to small operators with no assets and no financial means to plug wells. This practice was legal and larger oil companies took full advantage of it. By 1990 the number of wells that needed to be plugged grew to a staggering 64,000. That number has exploded now to 116,500 wells in 2003.

What has been done?
In 1983 the Texas Legislature recognized the problem and gave the Railroad Commission the authority to begin plugging abandoned wells. With the oil depression of the mid 1980’s the number of orphaned wells multiplied into the thousands as wells became uneconomic and many companies disappeared. In 1991 the 72nd Texas Legislature created the Oilfield Cleanup Fund within the Railroad Commission to deal with the burgeoning abandoned well problem. In 2001 The 77th Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill-310 that increased funding to the state Oilfield Cleanup Fund in an attempt to increase the number of abandoned wells plugged each year. SB-310 also for the first time required mandatory financial assurance from anyone who operates or owns oil wells.

The growing problem:
In 1998 the TNRCC reported 77 cases of groundwater contamination in 54 Texas Counties from oil and gas operations. By 2000 that number had grown to 201 cases in 78 Texas Counties and in 2001 the TNRCC reported 217 cases in 81 different Texas Counties from oil and gas operations. There are 254 counties in Texas and many speculate that the number of reported cases of groundwater pollution is significantly under reported and will increase exponentially in the near future.

How many wells are there in Texas?
There are approximately 354,616 oil and gas wells in Texas today. Of these 114,259 wells or 32% are shut-in, depleted and are not expected to produce another barrel of oil. These wells are waiting to be plugged by someone. Many of these wells have been idle for decades and some irresponsible oil operators refuse or can’t afford to spend the money necessary to honor their obligation to plug the depleted wells.

The economic challenge:
The Railroad Commission estimates an average cost of approximately $4500 to plug a well. Many feel this estimate is low and place the average cost across the state at $9,000 per well, for a total cost of $1 billion dollars needed to protect our aquifers. Each year the Railroad Commission spends approximately $6 million plugging wells. At that current rate of plugging it will take 166 years to plug the 116,500 wells on the waiting list to be plugged today. This does not count the 240,357 wells that still produce and will also need to be plugged in the near future. This plugging could cost a minimum of $2.5 billion additional dollars.

We are concerned that the enormous amount of money needed to clean up this mess will ultimately come from Texas tax payers instead of being used for new schools, hospitals and highways.

After 30 years, why does the problem persist?
The Texas Legislature has addressed the unplugged oil well problem in three sessions in 1983, 1991 and 2001. For the past 22 years responsible legislators and regulators have sought to address the problem by stopping its growth, and by providing funds to plug the then existing well inventory.

Throughout this time many hundreds of responsible oil companies and operators have been good corporate citizens and paid the cost to plug the wells they owned. Unfortunately, many other irresponsible oil well owners have avoided their public duty and manipulated ineffective State laws that allowed them to escape the financial obligation to plug depleted wells and protect our aquifers.

In each legislative session some members of the oil lobby have sought to delay and ultimately avoid the responsibility of plugging wells. In August of 2002 one of these groups filed a lawsuit to prevent the Railroad Commission from enforcing new laws recently passed in 2001 to stop the spread of unplugged oil wells. Not all of the oil companies supported this action but few spoke out against it.

What must be done?
Today members of the Texas Legislature are faced with enormous responsibilities to solve on behalf of the citizens of this state. With increasing demands for school funding, budget shortfalls, insurance and tort reform, many in our increasingly urban legislature are unaware of the unplugged well problem and only hear the voice of the oil lobby that seeks to avoid the expense of cleaning up the mess.

We must support the efforts of the Texas Railroad Commission to ensure that anyone who wants to operate an oil well in Texas must first have the money to plug it when the well runs dry. If an operator does not have the money, then they cannot operate the well. No more exceptions made at the expense of the few who profit at our expense!