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Legislator rips BLM on legacy well issue House resolution urges federal agency to reclaim abandoned well sites in National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska; BLM has cited huge costs Wesley Loy For Petroleum News
An Alaska state legislator says the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has “ignored its responsibility” to properly square away dozens of old, abandoned well sites on the North Slope.
Rep. Charisse Millett, R-Anchorage, on Jan. 17 introduced House Joint Resolution 29 urging the BLM “to plug legacy wells properly and to reclaim the legacy well sites as soon as possible in order to protect the environment in the Arctic region.”
A resolution does not carry the same weight as a bill that can become law. Rather, upon passage, a resolution merely expresses the Legislature’s viewpoint on a given subject.
In a press release, Millett noted the federal government drilled the exploratory wells decades ago in what is now known as the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
She contends the BLM, as landlord for the reserve, has failed for many years to properly secure the wells and well sites.
“If a private company left this mess behind it would be slapped with fines in the billions of dollars and demonized by media outlets and environmental organizations,” Millett said. “Because the state can’t fine the federal government we can’t force it to take action. Federal agencies like the BLM stonewall private sector oil and gas exploration in the name of protecting the environment — but ignore its own wells that pose an immediate threat to the arctic ecosystem. This is really a disgrace.”
Several co-sponsors Several other House members have signed on as co-sponsors of the resolution, including Reps. Max Gruenberg, D-Anchorage; Anna Fairclough, R-Eagle River; Chris Tuck, D-Anchorage; Steve Thompson, R-Fairbanks; and Beth Kerttula, D-Juneau.
The resolution has been referred to the House Resources Committee. Millett is not a member of that committee.
As Petroleum News went to press, a spokesperson in BLM’s Anchorage office had not yet responded to a Jan. 25 request for comment on the resolution.
Millett’s press release says only seven of some 137 wells the government drilled in NPR-A from the mid-1940s to the early 1980s have been properly plugged and cleaned up.
“The remaining sites are littered with scrap metal and wood, rotting buildings and rusting barrels,” the press release says. “The unplugged wells also threaten to contaminate ground water. Three wells can no longer be found.”
Long-simmering issue Millett isn’t the first state official to criticize the BLM over the legacy wells.
Members of the state agency that regulates drilling, the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, also have questioned BLM’s handling of the wells.
In 2009, commission member Cathy Foerster began pressing for a status report on the old wells — were they suspended, shut-in or what?
A BLM official replied that the agency, at “enormous expense,” had plugged 13 legacy wells over a seven-year timeframe, and that other wells were believed to pose no risk.
Millett argues money shouldn’t be an excuse for more progress on the wells.
Her resolution says the federal government has received nearly $9.5 billion from lease sales in NPR-A and on Alaska’s outer continental shelf.
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