Ohio to search for abandoned oil wells at Lake Veto
After an out-of-use oil well dating back to the 1930s began leaking into a stateowned lake, Ohio Department of Natural Resources plan to use a detector to search for other orphan wells.
The division likely will use a drone, which will have be equipped with a magnetometer, to fly over the area to check for other orphan wells at Lake Veto in Washington County, according to a staff member at the clean-up site.
“Wells located in the lake but determined not to be leaking would be classified as high-priority wells. The current well was classified as any emergency because it leaked in the lake,” said Stephanie O’grady, a spokeswoman for Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
The division continues to clean up a crude oil spill from a leaking orphan well found in Plum Run, which empties into Veto Lake. The 160-acre lake used for fishing and recreation was constructed by the state in the 1950s.
However, a former landowner remembers wells his family installed dating back to the 1930s. The state has no record of the wells, including the one at the edge of Plum Run that began leaking oil last month.
That’s an issue that’s true for the entire state. No one knows how many orphan wells exist in Ohio.
ODNR has on record as many as 972 annual wells, according to an annual report. However, academic studies estimate there are between 158,000 to 183,000 wells. The average cost to plug a well in Ohio is often between $85,000 to $100,000.
That cost means many landowners have a liability on their property they likely can’t afford to mitigate. Orphan wells can leak methane contributing to climate change, crude oil and in some instances have had hydraulic fracturing waste migrating from class II injection wells resulting in widespread contamination.
A bipartisan infrastructure act would spend $21 billion to clean up Superfund and brownfield sites, reclaim abandoned mine land as well as plug orphaned gas wells.
Rains from Hurricane Ida have slowed down the clean-up process for the leaking well, O’grady said.
The state has hired Nupointe Energy LLC to plug the well, which is estimated to take two to three weeks, depending on weather. It’s unknown how much oil has spilled.
“At this time, no waste has been disposed of. The contractor has identified Kimble Companies as their anticipated disposal subcontractor,” she said.
To clean up and plug the leaking well is estimated to cost $315,000, O’grady said.
“The division is unable to speculate how much oil was discharged from the well or what the cause of the leak may have been,” she said.