TDEC Moves to Plug Oil Wells, Producers Fight Back

Tennessee’s environmental regulators are making a new push to fill-in abandoned oil and gas wells on the Cumberland Plateau. The move is meant to protect watersheds. But oil producers say the wells aren’t causing a problem, and closing them is shortsighted.

Some 4,000 wells on the Plateau have been abandoned, according to Paul Schmierbach of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. And he says the open wells could contaminate ground water.

“There is no bond. There is no operator. So there’s no one there to hold responsible. Over time, they may have been produced at some point and then they just stopped.”

Industry representatives, however, count only a few hundred wells as truly abandoned. Tennessee Oil and Gas Association president Scott Gilbert says the rest have clear owners and, most importantly, economic potential. New horizontal drilling techniques could be used to tap natural gas reserves through the old wells.

The state hasn’t always had money to enforce the rule for wells: produce or plug. It uses money from fines for plugging. But now the Big South Fork National Recreation Area has contributed money to the effort. TDEC has asked for bids to plug 72 wells located inside the boundaries of Big South Fork.