Pa. hearing on HB 364 spotlights thousands of abandoned oil and gas wells, funding and bonding debate

The House Environmental Resources & Energy Committee convened a public hearing on the abandonment of oil and gas wells and House Bill 364, hearing testimony from Department of Environmental Protection officials, academic and advocacy researchers, and industry representatives about the scale of undocumented wells and options to fund and enforce their plugging.

Committee members were told the issue matters because improperly abandoned wells can release methane and volatile organic compounds, contaminate groundwater and present explosion risks, while the cost to locate and plug wells could run into the billions. Kurt Kaplowski, head of the DEP Oil and Gas Program, told the committee the Commonwealth often acts as “the plugger of last resort” and described a mix of historic, reporting and staffing problems that leave many wells unaccounted for.

DEP testimony and outside witnesses gave several data points and proposals. Kaplowski described a recent DEP contract with Harrisburg University and Indiana University of Pennsylvania to digitize and georeference legacy maps: more than 2,800 maps processed and about 31,500 well features identified, only ~6,500 of which matched existing DEP records within 100 feet — a preliminary indication of roughly 25,000 undocumented well features uncovered by the mapping work. He told the committee that DEP’s internal analysis finds about 3,100 wells…