A Bradford couple whose home was destroyed nearly 13 years ago was interviewed by Cynthia McFadden on NBC’s Nightly News with Lester Holt, which aired Wednesday night.
McFadden opened her interview with Beverly Butler with, “The fact that the two of you got out is such a miracle.” The Butlers’ home exploded in December 2010. Both, in their seventies at the time, were treated in a Buffalo, N.Y., hospital.
Beverly Butler told McFadden, “We were lucky. We had somebody watching over us.” And, she believes it is a higher power putting her on a mission. “I want answers,” she said in the interview, “The kids kept telling me, ‘Mom, there’s something else He’s got in store for you, something else you have to do,’ and I kinda figured maybe this is it, what He wants me to do.”
Then she clarified her statement, “Make sure that this does not happen to anyone else.”
What happened to the Butlers has happened before in the Bradford area. Abandoned and orphaned wells throughout the region could be the problem.
According to the U.S. Department of the Interior, “Millions of Americans across the country live within just one mile from an abandoned coal mine or an orphaned oil and gas well.” There is recent legislation and new funding available to address the wide-spread problem. One in particular, the Federal Orphaned Well Program, an effort led by the Orphaned Wells Program Office, provides $250 million to federal land managers at the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture to inventory, assess, plug and restore orphaned well sites. Eligible bureaus are the Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement and the U.S. Forest Service.
Per McFadden’s report, a water source within the Allegheny National Forest tested positive for arsenic at twice the Environmental Protection Agency’s allowable limit for drinking water. Why? Because a nearby well had been leaking methane and methane leads to a release of arsenic.
“Methane gas alone is not toxic and does not cause health problems in drinking water but at elevated concentrations it can escape quickly from water causing an explosive hazard in poorly ventilated or confined areas. Escaping gas may seep into confined areas of your home, where it may reach dangerous concentrations. There have been cases in Pennsylvania where houses, camps, or wells have exploded due to methane accumulation,” wrote Bryan Swistock, former senior extension associate, water resources coordinator at Pennsylvania State University.
For fiscal year 2023, well-plugging projects and projects consisting of only post-plugging activities (such as reclamation, remediation, equipment removal and inventory), at 48 wells in the Allegheny National Forest are federally funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Federal Orphaned Well Projects.
Plugging wells is a priority to not just homeowners but to the whole community.
The Biden administration has, through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), included $4.7 billion to plug wells across the country. In July, it was announced that $660 million comes from the $2 billion in formula grants to be provided to states over the coming years.
In the President’s press release from July, it stated, “Plugging orphaned wells advances the goals of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Methane Action Plan, as well as the Interagency Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities and Economic Revitalization, which focuses on spurring economic revitalization in hard-hit energy communities. The program is also part of the Justice40 Initiative, which is advancing environmental justice by ensuring that 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain federal investments reach disadvantaged communities that are marginalized and overburdened by pollution and underinvestment.”
Under the Phase 1 of State Formula Grant funding, Pennsylvania was eligible for $76,406,474 of the total grant of $305,625,896. This is in addition to the BIL performance grants.
In Pennsylvania, Gov. Josh Shapiro has stated that plugging these wells is a priority for his administration as well. As the state budget has now been released, line items for well plugging will be analyzed carefully.
