Dan Arthur, the president and chief engineer of ALL Consulting, stands beside a defunct oil well in the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in Oklahoma on March 20, 2024. The well has not been used for years — there’s no pump attached to it. But it hasn’t been properly plugged, either.
September Dawn Bottoms for NPR
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September Dawn Bottoms for NPR
Drilling for oil has been going on in the US for over 150 years. Across the country we have bored millions of holes in the ground to pump the liquid gold that has fueled the country’s energy appetite. But those wells don’t last forever. When the oil begins to dry up, wells are supposed to be plugged to prevent toxic, climate-altering chemicals from escaping. So why then is there, by some estimates, more than 2 million unplugged abandoned wells around the country? Today on The Sunday Story, NPR correspondent Camila Domonoske joins to talk about the lingering effects of these old wells and why it’s so hard to find a long-term fix.
This episode of The Sunday Story was produced by Andrew Mambo. It was edited by Kara Platoni and Jenny Schmidt. Fact-checking by Susie Cummings. Engineering by Robert Rodriguez.
We’d love to hear from you. Send us an email at TheSundayStory@npr.org.