Park Sites To Benefit From Funding To Clean Up Abandoned Oil Wells

Published Date

December 22, 2024

More than $13 million is going to the National Park Service to reclaim abandoned oil well sites/NPS file

National park units from Texas to Ohio and Wyoming will benefit from millions of dollars released to address orphaned oil and gas wells.

This past week the Interior Department announced that $109.6 million would be distributed through President Biden’s Investing in America agenda to address abandoned wells in national parks, national forests, national wildlife refuges. Of that total, $13.2 million was earmarked for the National Park Service to address 24 sites in the park system.

According to the National Park Service, some of that funding will go to Big Thicket National Preserve in Texas, Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area in Kentucky and Tennessee, Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio, and Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve and Louisiana to plug wells and reclaim the sites.

Parks with submerged well sites and infrastructure that will be inspected with some of the funding include Lake Meredith National Recreation Area in Texas, Chickasaw National Recreation Area in Oklahoma, Gulf Islands National Seashore in Missippii and Florida, Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area in Wyoming, and Amistad National Recreation Area in Texas.

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