Homeowners Ron and Cindy McCormick walk near a pump jack and other abandoned oil and gas equipment on their land in Hudson, Colorado on Feb. 28, 2024. The land Cindy and Ronald McCormick bought for their “forever” home in the rolling hills of eastern Adams County came with a stunning view of the Front Range. It also came with an out-of-service oil well, an open pit, aging storage tanks, a dilapidated shed and a broken promise from a company to clean it all up.
Colorado is expected to receive at least $79 million in grants and formula funding over the next few years through a $4.7 billion federal orphan well program. Megan Castle, spokeswoman for the state commission, said the new rules are stringent and are designed to make sure companies fulfill their obligations.“How can the companies just walk away? It doesn’t make sense to me,” said Ronald, walking through the tall, dry grasses growing around the old tanks and pumpjack.
The case could dramatically shift the responsibility for the country’s more than 2 million unplugged, non-producing wells, ClientEarth said in a statement. The organization referred to “toxic zombie wells,” ones that produce little or no oil and gas but haven’t been plugged, or closed. The equipment hasn’t been dismantled and the land hasn’t been restored.
There are 1,411 orphan oil and gas sites in Colorado and 649 wells on the sites that have to be plugged according to theThe ECMC updated financial requirements as part of a 2019 law that overhauled Colorado oil and gas regulations. The new rules took effect in April 2022 and were described by state officials as the strongest in the country.
“We have seen some very, very low and unsupported proposals that the commission staff has rejected. That’s good,” Schuwerk said. The commission passed the rules “to ensure that operators are responsible for the lifecycle of the well — from development to plugging and abandonment,” Castle said. The McCormicks had to build their house near the border of their 37-acre parcel instead of near the middle like they wanted to. They wanted the house as far away as possible from the well site.
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