There are more than 20,000 abandoned oil and gas wells scattered across West Virginia, putting communities at risk for water contamination and increased exposure to environmental pollutants.

State lawmakers said a new law will make it easier to fill those wells. Previously, state code required removal of mining infrastructure before wells could be plugged with cement and other materials.

Gov. Patrick Morrisey said at a recent news conference the new law will allow operators to fill wells without removing the largest mine shaft.

"This will provide operators with greater flexibility, especially when dealing with older wells in poor structural condition," Morrisey explained.

West Virginia historically has only been able to plug just a few wells a year because of lack of funding. Federal investments through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 has led to the plugging of around 275 wells within the last three years. The state's new well plugging law goes into effect July 10.

Morrisey noted safely plugging a well can cost between $60,000 and $200,000 but argued doing so is necessary because untreated wells can expose communities to harmful chemicals.

"Abandoned and orphan wells can pose a significant threat and safety risk and can potentially impact surface and groundwater drinking water sources, land and air quality," Morrisey outlined.

According to advocacy group West Virginia Rivers, more than half of West Virginians live within a mile of an active oil and gas well.


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Over the past 12 months, 884 oil and gas spills were reported near homes in Greeley, Fort Lupton, Kersey, La Salle and Platteville, according to Spilling the Truth, a new public alert system launched by Colorado Rising for Communities.

Christiaan van Woudenberg, principal data analyst with EcoCarto, said the goal is to make it easier for residents to know about the risks to agricultural land, livestock, water resources and community health. In April alone, 229 spills were reported in Weld County, more than six per day.

"The number of spills that we're seeing have just grown so dramatically," he said. "Really in the last months, we've seen, again and again, a record number of oil spills reported in Weld County."

Spilling the Truth taps data compiled by the state's Energy and Carbon Management Commission, and is summarized by neighborhood in both English and Spanish. Postcards are sent out once a month, and alerts can also be found online at corfc.org/spills. The Colorado Oil and Gas Association and Weld County did not respond to requests for comments before deadline.

Alerts will also be shared across social media platforms in an effort to increase awareness and industry accountability. Woudenberg says currently, oil and gas operators are focused more on mitigation, not prevention. At the most, they have to file a spill report, do lab analysis and haul away some contaminated soil to the local landfill.

"So what we'd really like to see happen is that the operators themselves are more focused on preventing these spills," he continued," he continued. "And that the regulatory agencies put in place rulemakings and practices that really direct these oil companies to do that."

Because many well sites are only inspected once every few years, Woudenberg said it is hard to estimate the number of spills that go undetected. He noted that there are some 11,000 producing wells in Weld County alone, not counting shut-in wells and temporarily plugged and abandoned wells.

"Every oil well ever drilled in Colorado will eventually leak," he said. "This is a forever problem. The more wells you drill, the greater this problem is going to be for future generations."


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Research indicates living shorelines are more effective at protecting Florida's fragile coastal areas from the wave action of hurricanes and other major storms than artificial structures.

A study analyzed the results of shorelines in the regions around Cedar Key, an island off Florida's Nature Coast, during Hurricane Idalia in 2023. Researchers found living shorelines reduce wave energy and storm surge by 28% in hurricane environments.

Savanna Barry, regional specialized extension agent at the Nature Coast Biological Station in Cedar Key and the study's co-author, said it demonstrated natural barriers can be more effective than artificial structures.

"Living shorelines basically restore a gradual slope from the dry land to the ocean," Barry explained. "That shoaling natural slope, along with all of the complexity of the biological components, is what blows down currents and wave energy."

The study found living shorelines, typically constructed from recycled oyster shells or other materials, better protect communities from storm surge, sea level rise, and erosion. Officials hope to include the study data in future updates to the region's Big Bend Seagrasses Aquatic Preserve Plan.

Living shorelines are less expensive to create, more resilient to storms and have less maintenance costs, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Barry noted natural solutions are often more adaptable and resilient to changing conditions than seawalls and other complex structures.

"There is a direct economic benefit to the homeowner or property owner to install this," Barry pointed out. "It was eight and a half times cheaper to install a living shoreline and 2.7 times cheaper to maintain a living shoreline than a seawall."

The Big Bend Seagrasses Aquatic Preserve spans nearly 1 million acres off Cedar Key. Barry stressed it is crucial to commercial shellfish, including Cedar Key clams, oysters, pink shrimp and blue crab. All the state's aquatic preserves have management plans to guide the use of natural resources.

Support for this reporting was provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts.


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As the U.S. Senate considers President Donald Trump's "Big Beautiful Bill" recently passed by the House, clean energy advocates are sounding the alarm.

Garrett Royer, political director for the Colorado chapter of the Sierra Club, said the budget reconciliation package would endanger Colorado's clean air and water, fast-track reckless oil and gas development and raise costs on working families, all to give more tax cuts and handouts to billionaires and corporate polluters.

"This is a highly destructive bill that's going to threaten thousands of Colorado's jobs by gutting investments in clean energy, especially in rural and vulnerable parts of the state," Royer contended.

One of Trump's central campaign promises was to repeal climate action written into President Joe Biden's Inflation Reduction Act. The bill currently before the Senate would gut clean energy tax credits and investments, expedite drilling and eliminate public health protections from tailpipe, methane and other pollution. The administration said these moves are necessary for the U.S. to achieve energy dominance.

Royer noted since its passage, the Inflation Reduction Act has sparked $560 million in investments in Colorado clean-energy projects and created more than 3,700 jobs. He argued reversing course would blunt efforts to bring less expensive solar and wind power onto the grid and Colorado working families and businesses will be on the hook for the higher costs of oil and gas.

"The best way that we achieve global energy dominance, if that's truly what the goal of the Trump administration is, would be to invest in as many energy solutions as possible, rather than only advocating for the most expensive forms of energy," Royer emphasized.

A coalition of nonprofits and 16 states are taking the Trump administration to court for freezing $5 billion in funds already allocated to build out electric vehicle charging stations every 50 miles on major corridors across all 50 states. According to the American Lung Association, a large-scale transition to EVs could save more than $1 trillion in health costs, and result in 110,000 avoided deaths.


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