Are the legacy wells ‘historic’ sites?

Alaska officials keep heat on BLM to remediate old wells; agency denies it plans to use historic preservation act to avoid cleanup

Wesley Loy

For Petroleum News

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has drafted a report summarizing the status of so-called legacy wells the federal government drilled long ago on Alaska’s North Slope.

The wells are located mainly in the BLM-managed National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.

The BLM, an Interior Department agency, is feeling pressure from Alaska elected officials and state drilling regulators to tend to the legacy well sites. These officials say dozens of old wells were never properly plugged and abandoned, and might pose an environmental and public safety hazard.

Further, they note that no private company would be allowed to leave wells in such condition.

The BLM recently submitted its draft legacy wells summary report to the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, which regulates drilling throughout Alaska. The report has write-ups and photos for each well.

Cathy Foerster, the commission chair and an engineer, has been particularly forceful in calling upon the BLM to plug and abandon the wells and clean up barrels and other debris on the well sites.

She was alarmed that page summaries for numerous wells included the following language:

“The BLM will need to prepare a determination of eligibility pursuant to Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act. If the site is determined not eligible, then the surface debris should be removed as funding allows or in conjunction with other scheduled operations, if possible.”

To Foerster, this sounded suspiciously like the BLM was aiming to avoid cleaning up the well sites under the guise that they constitute “historic” sites.

BLM explains

The report is a draft, and the language could have been better, she said.

The fact is that, for wells 50 years old or older, the BLM by law must consult with the state historic preservation officer, Curtis said.

It’s simply a process the BLM is required to go through, she said.

“It doesn’t mean we won’t be able to clean up those sites,” Curtis said, even if they’re eligible under the National Historic Preservation Act.

Further, the historic preservation process wouldn’t necessarily delay or prolong a cleanup, she said. It could involve work such as taking pictures or writing a report.

The draft report is not for public release, Curtis said. The final report will be public, and will help the BLM develop a five-year strategic plan for dealing with the legacy wells, she said.

The Navy, the U.S. Geological Survey and their contractors drilled some 136 exploratory wells and boreholes between 1943 and 1982. The drilling was to assess the NPR-A’s petroleum potential. The wells and boreholes are now the BLM’s responsibility.

BLM officials note they have stabilized, at great cost, a number of legacy wells that posed a threat due to coastal erosion. They have said they doubt other wells pose much of a threat.

But state officials point to evidence some wells are leaking natural gas, or might contain hazardous fluids. And they say surface junk could injure someone.

BLM officials say funding is an issue in addressing the wells.

But Alaska officials don’t want to hear it.

“The situation in the NPR-A represents the pinnacle of environmental negligence and hypocrisy,” U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said in a Feb. 27 press release.

Alaska officials say the Interior Department has disallowed oil and gas exploration for environmental reasons in parts of the NPR-A, and holds private industry to high standards, yet hasn’t cleaned up the legacy wells.