The Department of the Interior recently announced a $16.73 million investment to assist five tribal nations in cleaning up orphaned oil and gas wells on their homelands, including the Jicarilla Apache Nation.
This investment will support economic opportunities to address legacy pollution, reduce harmful methane leaks and tackle environmental hazards that threaten tribal communities. This builds on $12 million in grants announced last month by the department and $40 million allocated last year.
“Ensuring that tribal leaders have the opportunity to invest federal resources as needed is key to honoring tribal sovereignty. Our administration is committed to reducing legacy pollution on tribal lands, improving public health and creating economic opportunities,” said Secretary Deb Haaland.
Funding awarded may be utilized to plug, remediate or reclaim orphaned wells on tribal lands, restore soil and habitat in areas degraded due to orphaned wells, decommission or remove associated infrastructure, identify and characterize additional undocumented wells on tribal land, and set up well-plugging capacity where not already established.
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provides a total of $4.7 billion to address orphaned wells across the country, including $150 million specifically for tribal communities. Additional phase two tribal grants will be awarded and announced on a rolling basis.
Tribes may also request direct assistance from the Department, through “In Lieu of Grant” funding, to administer and carry out plugging, remediation and reclamation activities on the tribe’s behalf.
Orphaned oil and gas wells have the potential to jeopardize public health and safety by contaminating groundwater, seeping toxic chemicals, polluting drinking water sources, emitting dangerous pollutants and harming wildlife. Methane leaking from many of these unplugged wells is a severe safety hazard, a significant cause of climate change and more than 25 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere.
The awards fund two categories of activities. Implementation grants support plugging, remediation and reclamation activities at orphaned well sites on tribal lands, including preplugging assessments; removal of contaminants from soil, groundwater, surface water and sediment; and restoring resources degraded by orphaned wells or associated pipelines, facilities and infrastructure. Program development grants support capacity-building activities that help tribal recipients prepare for future plugging, remediation and reclamation activities. Program development funding assists tribes in locating, inventorying and assessing orphaned wells, and in amplifying tribal capacity and expertise through job creation, training and administrative support.
Tribal phase two projects
The Jicarilla Apache Nation received a $3,162,500 implementation grant.
This project will evaluate and prioritize identified orphaned wells, inspect each location to estimate current contamination of surface water, groundwater, and measure current emissions of methane and other gases, and plug, remediate, reclaim up to 19 orphaned well sites and adjacent lands.
Other trial nations receiving funding include:
• The Chickasaw Nation received a $499,993 implementation grant.
• The Chippewa Cree Tribe of the Rocky Boy Reservation received a $2,006,533 implementation grant.
• The Comanche Nation received a $1 million program development grant.
• The Osage Nation received a $10,059,548 implementation grant.
