EGLE division outlines orphan‑well work, groundwater database and push for Class VI primacy

Chair Cabot convened the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy and approved minutes for March 4 before hearing a presentation from Adam Weigant, director of the Geologic Resources Management Division at the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE).

Weigant told the committee the division manages roughly 15 regulatory programs covering oil and gas, gas storage, disposal wells, mining and large water withdrawals and that the work increasingly relies on one-time federal grants. “We regulate things cradle to grave with respect to the oil and gas industry,” he said, describing the division's long record of oversight and program changes to address legacy wells.

The division highlighted three near-term priorities: completing orphan‑well work funded by federal grants and state appropriations; building a Groundwater Data Management System and monitoring network to support water‑withdrawal assessments; and pursuing state primacy for EPA's Class VI underground injection control program for carbon capture and sequestration projects.

Orphan wells and federal funding Weigant said Michigan's orphan‑well program, funded in part by an oil and gas severance tax and recent federal grants, plugs wells when no responsible operator exists. He said the state's long-standing orphan program has plugged roughly 396 wells with state severance revenue before recent federal support and…