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Murkowski pursues legacy well funding $50 million put in helium bill to clean up abandoned federal wells, address an ‘environmental crime’ against Alaska, senator says Wesley Loy For Petroleum News
Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski is floating a new idea for funding the cleanup of “legacy wells,” and she’s already found some support among her congressional colleagues.
Murkowski said she recently included language in a pending bill, the Helium Stewardship Act of 2013, to provide $50 million for cleaning up abandoned federal oil wells, including those in and around the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
The bill, S. 783, deals with the federal government’s helium program. The Bureau of Land Management operates the Federal Helium Reserve, and also manages the NPR-A.
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on June 18 approved the bill.
In a June 21 press release, Murkowski said sales of crude helium from the Federal Helium Reserve are expected to generate $495 million over the next 10 years.
Murkowski said in addition to the more than 100 legacy wells in Alaska, about 90 abandoned federal wells are in the Lower 48.
She and other Alaska officials have been pushing the BLM to deal with the legacy wells, which were test holes federal departments drilled between 1944 and 1982. The officials contend the BLM has neglected junky and possibly contaminated drill sites, with many wells never properly plugged and abandoned.
The BLM recently developed a priority list for dealing with the worst of the wells.
Plaudits for funding effort “I’m pleased to win the support of the energy committee to help fund what is really an environmental crime committed against Alaska by the federal government. The abandoned wells in the NPR-A have been a problem that has been, for the most part, ignored by federal managers,” Murkowski said. “The excuse from BLM has been that it lacks the money to adequately address its responsibilities in Alaska. My hope is that this will remove that excuse and speed remediation of abandoned wells on federal land.”
State Rep. Charisse Millett, R-Anchorage, who also has been outspoken on the legacy well issue, hailed Murkowski’s efforts to secure cleanup funding.
“As Alaskans we all want to preserve and protect the arctic wilderness and we can thank Senator Murkowski for her efforts to get the well sites plugged and remediated,” Millett said in a June 25 press release. “This may be the start of a concerted effort to halt the environmental damage caused by the wells.”
On June 26, Gov. Sean Parnell signed a legislative resolution Millett sponsored calling on the BLM to plug and reclaim the “travesty wells” as soon as possible.
North Slope Borough Mayor Charlotte Brower also expressed appreciation for Murkowski’s efforts to “find workable solutions to the legacy well issue.”
Those efforts stand “in stark contrast to recent proposals to strip money away from local communities and the State of Alaska to fix what is ultimately a federal problem,” Brower said.
Alaska elected officials were upset to see that the president’s 2014 budget proposal included language that would divert the state’s share of NPR-A oil and gas revenue to pay for legacy well cleanup.
The helium situation Under the Murkowski legislation, the money for legacy well cleanup would come from what’s long been a source of debate and controversy — federal helium.
Congress created the federal helium program in 1925 to ensure helium would be available for defense needs.
The government today has an underground facility near Amarillo, Texas, to store crude helium, which is derived from natural gas deposits. The federal program supplies about 42 percent of U.S. demand for the light gas, which is used in everything from computer chip manufacturing to scuba diving to medical procedures to blimps and balloons.
The BLM operates a helium extraction plant, and six private helium refineries draw crude helium from the Federal Helium Reserve.
For many years, presidents and members of Congress have tried to get the federal government out of the helium business. And the helium program is scheduled to terminate in October.
But the concern is that the private sector hasn’t yet stepped up to replace the government as a helium supplier.
The Helium Stewardship Act, which Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Murkowski introduced together on April 23, would extend operation of the Federal Helium Reserve and possibly raise government prices for crude helium.
Wyden, a Democrat, chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and Murkowski is the top-ranking Republican member.
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