California will receive more than $35 million in federal funding to address the scourge of abandoned oil wells that are leaking dangerous chemicals and planet-warming methane in areas across the state, including many in Los Angeles.
The Biden-Harris administration’s investment is among the “largest ever in U.S. history to address historic pollution,” according to the U.S. Secretary of the Interior. Deb Haaland said Friday during a joint announcement with the mayor of Los Angeles Karen Bass and California Deputy Secretary of Energy Le-Quyen Nguyen.
California will use the funding to plug and remediate 206 orphaned, high-risk oil and gas wells and decommission 47 associated production facilities with approximately 70,000 feet of associated pipelines.
“Capping dangerous orphan wells and addressing historic pollution across our country will have a profound impact on our environment, our water quality, and the health and well-being of our communities,” Haaland said.
The Golden State is home to at least 5,300 abandoned or orphaned oil wells — or wells for which there are no legally responsible parties to cap them — according to estimates from the California Geological Energy Management Division. There are over 35,000 known unused resources, and thousands more will soon reach the end of their lives.
Many are in and around communities where residents have been sickened by their toxic emissions. In addition, many unplugged wells leak methane, a planet-warming gas that is more than 25 times as powerful as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere.
“We have thousands of orphaned wells in California, and each one poses a risk to public health, safety and the environment, further contributing to climate change,” Nguyen said. “The funding announced today by Secretary Haaland will continue our momentum in connecting these orphaned water wells in California, as well as remediating those sites and removing that historic contamination. It will also have a meaningful, positive impact on our communities, as well as create good jobs.”
California’s award is part of a larger $660 million formula grant pot that will be released to states on an ongoing basis, Haaland said.
As part of the award, California will also work to detect and measure methane emissions from orphaned oil and gas wells, screen for groundwater and surface water impacts, and prioritize cleanup of wells near underserved communities.
Read more: Newsom signs bills to crack down on unplugged oil wells and disclose companies’ greenhouse gas emissions
The grant program comes amid a total investment of $4.7 billion from President Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure bill to plug orphan wells across the country.
Other funding sources include more than $565 million in initial grant funding already awarded to 25 states, including $25 million to California. A planned matching grant program will also award up to $30 million each to states that commit to increasing their spending on cleanup of orphan wells.
Bass said it was too early to specify how much of the state’s newest award will go to Los Angeles. However, state officials said some of the initial funding will be used to cap 19 wells that have not yet been capped AllenCo drilling site in South Los Angeles, These are among the more than 370 high-priority wells identified in the first round of planning.
Residents living near the AllenCo site have complained of headaches, nosebleeds, respiratory illnesses and other health problems for years. Among them is Nalleli Cobo, who grew up about 30 feet from the site and was diagnosed with reproductive cancer at age 19.
“I lost my youth to the fossil fuel industry and I also lost my future to the fossil fuel industry, and that is not the reality that our community should be facing,” Cobo said. “If you ask anyone what belongs in a community, not many people will say: an oil well.”
She noted that about 18 million Americans live a mile or less from an active oil or gas well.
Friday’s federal investment announcement is “absolutely a step in the right direction,” she said, “but we need to make sure we prioritize communities like sacrifice zones because we are the frontline communities living day in and day out with these toxic emissions.” “
Read more: California lawmakers have a plan to plug old, vapor-spewing oil wells. Could it backfire?
Officials said the latest round of funding advances Biden’s Justice40 Initiative, which aims to deliver at least 40% of the benefits of certain climate, housing and energy investments to underserved communities.
“This is an environmental justice issue,” Bass said. “Today we join arms with the city, state and federal governments to continue our work to end oil drilling near the city of Los Angeles to protect the health of Angelenos and our vision to promote environmental justice.”
Since the enactment of Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure bill in 2021, states have plugged more than 7,700 orphan wells and reduced about 11,530 metric tons of potential methane emissions, according to the Interior Department.
Governor Gavin Newsom in October also approved AB 1167, legislation that would require companies that acquire oil wells to secure bonds to properly seal the wells once their use ends. Some local communities, such as Culver City, have banned new drilling and are phasing out existing wells.
“California is one of the states leading the way in deploying these new resources, because we must all work together to ensure we make a lasting impact that will last for generations,” Haaland said.
But while the federal support is encouraging, there’s still a lot of work to be done, says Brenda Valdivia, a lifelong resident of L.A.’s Vista Hermosa Heights neighborhood.
Valdivia said she developed an autoimmune disease and suffered two strokes after her exposure to nearby springs.
“We can always do more,” she said.
Times staff writer Tony Briscoe contributed to this report.
This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.
