California will receive more than $35 million in federal funding to help address the scourge of abandoned oil wells that are leaking dangerous chemicals and planet-warming methane into areas across the state, including many in Los Angeles.
The Biden-Harris administration's investment is among the “largest ever in American history to address legacy pollution,” U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said Friday during a joint announcement with the Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and California Undersecretary of Energy. Quyen Nguyen.
California will use the funds to plug and remediate 206 high-risk orphan oil and gas wells and decommission 47 production facilities with about 70,000 feet of associated pipelines.
“Clogging dangerous orphan wells and addressing legacy pollution across our country will have a profound impact on our environment, water quality, and the health and well-being of our communities,” Haaland said.
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The Golden State is home to at least 5,300 abandoned or orphaned oil wells, or wells for which there are no parties legally responsible for plugging them, according to estimates from the California Geological Energy Management Division. More than 35,000 wells are known to be inactive and thousands more will soon reach the end of their lives.
Many are located in and around communities where residents have become ill from their toxic emissions. What's more, many unclogged wells leak methane, a planet-warming gas that is more than 25 times more powerful than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere.
California Deputy Secretary of Energy Le-Quyen Nguyen (left), U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass announce federal funding to plug and remediate orphan oil wells.
(Hayley Smith/Los Angeles Times)
“We have thousands of orphan wells in California, and each well poses a risk to public health, safety and the environment, as well as further contributing to climate change,” Nguyen said. “The funding Secretary Haaland announced today will continue our push to plug these orphan wells in California, as well as remediate those sites and eliminate that legacy contamination. “It will also have a significant and positive impact on our communities, as well as creating good jobs.”
California's grant is part of a larger $660 million grant formula that will be awarded to states on an ongoing basis, Haaland said.
As part of its award, California will also work to detect and measure methane emissions from orphan oil and gas wells, detect impacts to ground and surface water, and prioritize cleanup of wells near disadvantaged communities.
The grant program stems from a total investment of $4.7 billion from President Biden's Bipartisan Infrastructure Act to plug orphan wells across the country.
Other funds include more than $565 million in seed grants that have already been awarded to 25 states, including $25 million to California. A planned matching grant program will also provide up to $30 million each to states that commit to increasing their spending on orphan well cleanups.
Bass said it was too early to specify how much of the latest state award will go to Los Angeles. However, state officials said some of the initial funds are being used to plug 19 wells that remain unplugged at the moment. AllenCo drilling site in South Los Angeles, which are among more than 370 high-priority wells identified in the first round of planning.
Residents living near the AllenCo site have complained for years of headaches, nosebleeds, respiratory illnesses and other health problems. Among them is Nalleli Cobo, who grew up about 30 feet from the site and was diagnosed with reproductive cancer at age 19.
“I have lost my childhood because of the fossil fuel industry and I have also lost my future because of the fossil fuel industry, and that is not the reality our community should be facing,” Cobo said. “When you ask a person what belongs to a community, not many people will say an oil well.”
It noted that about 18 million Americans live within a mile or less of an active oil or gas well.
Friday's federal investment announcement is “definitely a step in the right direction,” he said, “but we need to make sure that we are prioritizing communities as sacrifice zones, because we are the frontline communities that live day in and day out breathing these toxic emissions.” ”.
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 disadvantaged communities.
“This is an environmental justice issue,” Bass said. “Today we are joining forces across city, state and federal governments to continue our work to end oil drilling in neighborhoods across the city of Los Angeles to protect the health of Angelenos and advance our vision of environmental justice.”
Since the enactment of Biden's Bipartisan Infrastructure Act in 2021, states have plugged more than 7,700 orphan wells and reduced approximately 11,530 metric tons of potential methane emissions, according to the Department of the Interior.
Gov. Gavin Newsom also signed AB 1167 in October, legislation that will require companies that acquire oil wells to obtain bonds to properly seal the wells once their use has ended. Some local communities, such as Culver City, have banned new drilling and are taking steps to phase out existing wells.
“California is one of the states that is leading the way in putting these new resources to work, because it will take all of us working together to ensure we are making the kind of lasting impact that will last for generations to come.” Haaland said.
But while the federal support is encouraging, there is still a lot of work to be done, said Brenda Valdivia, a lifelong resident of the Vista Hermosa Heights neighborhood in Los Angeles.
Valdivia said he developed an autoimmune disease and suffered two strokes after his exposure to nearby wells.
“We could always do more,” he said.
Times staff writer Tony Briscoe contributed to this report.
