The U.S. has millions of old gas and oil wells. Here’s what it takes to plug them up

Even when something is buried, it doesn’t mean it’s gone. That’s the lesson unfolding in a quiet Ohio neighborhood, where a leaky natural gas well from over a century ago is finally being sealed—again. Millions of similar “orphan wells” lie scattered across the country, many unrecorded and quietly polluting soil, water, and air. With old cement giving way and bankrupt companies shirking cleanup, the burden of repair is falling to taxpayers. The job is massive, expensive, and far from finished—even when it looks like it is. Camila Domonoske with NPR has the final pat of a three part series on the simmering orphan well problem; we shared part two in yesterday’s edition.

Camila Domonoske

NPR

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