The Well Done Foundation is remediating abandoned and orphaned fossil fuel wells that pollute water, soils and the atmosphere. But plugging a borehole can be even harder than drilling it.
When it comes to plugging abandoned wells in Oklahoma, the Inside Climate organization described Oklahoma as a “State full of derelict oil and gas wells.”
Inside Climate recently focused on a group whose intent is to plug those wells, not just in Oklahoma but in other oil and gas states, New Mexico, Texas and others. It is the Well Done Foundation led by Curtis Shuck.
WDF raises money and awareness to deal with the problem, and the staff of its subsidiary, Well Done, applies for grants, works on site and hires subcontractors to plug, cap and remediate wells. The effort pushes back against what Shuck’s safety supervisor and heavy equipment operator, Dominic Morgan, calls the industry’s “set it and forget it” attitude.
Shuck knows Oklahoma’s abandoned well problem. He spent time last summer in the Deep Fork National Wildlife Refuge.
“In August, heat indexes regularly exceeded 110 degrees Fahrenheit and scant breeze penetrated the dense tangle of trees surrounding the Doneghy #2 well in the Deep Fork National Wildlife Reserve near Okmulgee, Oklahoma. The muggy air was heavy with diesel and gasoline exhaust from constantly running trucks and generators mixed with the smell of crude and gases escaping the well head. Containment trays, cables and hoses lay everywhere, the machinery’s din was unrelenting and construction fans failed to cool anyone off,” wrote J. Matt who was on hand for the sweaty work in eastern Oklahoma.
The exact number of wells in the refuge is unknown, but USFWS logged roughly 500 Deep Fork orphans in its preliminary environmental impact statement for Well Done’s grant-award plugging.
Oklahoma holds the nation’s second largest tally of abandoned and orphaned oil and gas wells, after Texas, but the counts diverge wildly. A 2020 Carbon Tracker report using industry data logged about 288,000 AOOG wells in Oklahoma, while the Oklahoma Corporation Commission listed just 16,978 in 2024, although it noted that was not definitive.