Ross and Shaler residents learn about effort to find townships' abandoned oil and gas wells

Curiosity and concern brought about two dozen people to a gathering Tuesday in Ross to learn more about an upcoming effort to find abandoned and orphaned oil and gas wells in Ross and Shaler.

Susan Pierce of Ross was curious. She said she didn’t know that such wells could be in Western Pennsylvania, thinking it was more common in the northern parts of the state.

“I don’t think I knew Ross even had this. That was my surprise,” said Pierce, who came with her husband, Tim, to the open house at Synergy Lab at Hackers Guild on Babcock Boulevard. “We wanted to get educated.”

Concern motivated Carla Slater to attend with her husband, Jon. Their home of 19 years is near three known wells and, while they’ve never smelled gas there, they have a detector for it.

“I want to make sure I’m not going to blow up,” Carla Slater said. “We are in the danger zone of some sort.”

The search is on track to begin in late July, said Adam Peltz, director and senior attorney with the nonprofit Environmental Defense Fund.

It will include surveys with vehicles equipped with methane sensors, walking surveys with backpack magnetometers and large drones carrying magnetometers in select areas.

Ross and Shaler were among six locations chosen in Allegheny and Washington counties that have cases of gas leaks believed to be coming from unidentified wells. Locating them is the first step toward getting them plugged.

“These wells are a concern because they can give off oil, gases and other toxic pollutants that can harm the water, soil and air,” said Patrice Tomcik, a senior director with Moms Clean Air Force, one of the groups involved in the effort.

While about 30,000 orphaned and abandoned wells have been documented in Pennsylvania, it’s believed there are 300,000 to 700,000 that are not documented, meaning the state does not have records of where they are, Peltz said.

Ross resident Daniel Otte called the number “pretty staggering.”

“I think it’s a great idea that they’re trying to identify that for public safety,” he said.

In the fall, 250 likely wells were found in 8 square miles of rural Clarion and McKean counties. The survey in Ross and Shaler will show how well the technology works in developed urban and suburban areas.

The 48-pound, gasoline-powered drones are capable of detecting the metal casings of wells 40 feet below the surface, including under asphalt and buildings. That could prove fruitful in Ross, where based on stray gas complaints wells are believed to be under Ross Park Mall and its parking lot.

In Clarion County, 35 of 47 detections by the drone were confirmed to be valid, said Neil Keown, with Sawback Technologies of Alberta, Canada. The remaining 12 were not confirmed because their locations were not accessible. In a half dozen other surveys, all of its detections were confirmed, he said.

After the survey has identified suspected well locations in Ross and Shaler, the state Department of Environmental Protection will attempt to verify them, evaluate their hazards and risk, and prioritize them for plugging.

Pennsylvania has $400 million in federal funding to plug such wells. The cost to plug a well can range from between $30,000 and $40,000 to more than $1 million, Peltz said.

Fixing the problem will be a multigeneration process, Peltz said.

“We’re only at the beginning of dealing with this,” he said.

Kurt Klapkowski, the deputy secretary for oil and gas with the DEP, agreed but is hopeful. Because of the time it will take, not all of the money is needed immediately, he said.

“I really feel like we have an opportunity to leave Pennsylvania better than we found it for our kids and our grandkids,” he said.

Those attending the gathering were told they could help the effort by telling their neighbors what they had learned and to tell their elected representatives that it’s an issue so it’s on their radar.

“It’s on mine,” Ross Commissioner Dan DeMarco said.

Residents who see what they suspect could be an orphaned or abandoned well are encouraged to report them to the state.

Natural gas in distribution pipelines has an odor because a substance, mercaptan, is added to it. Gas from wells won’t have that odor or may have a petroleum smell because of oil in the well.

Cliff Simmons, an oil and gas inspector supervisor for the DEP, encouraged residents to get methane detectors for their homes.

“It can save your life,” he said. “It will go off before your house explodes.”