![]() Wight has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars - and counting - to clean up just a few of the wells on his property. ![]() Without state or federal funds to clean up the mess, farmers, ranchers and small local governments are struggling to fix the major environmental damage left from decades of drilling. That’s because the commission argues his wells aren’t oil or gas wells because they never successfully produced fossil fuel. But the commission won’t spend a dime on wells like Wight’s. Typically, the Texas Railroad Commission would take responsibility for cleaning up oil and gas wells abandoned by now-defunct drilling companies. Occasionally, Wight’s cattle drink water that has bubbled up to the surface and die, representing thousands of dollars in losses for his ranch. Rather than cap the holes, the wildcatters and their oil companies - now long gone - transferred ownership of unproductive wells to the previous owners of Wight’s ranch to be used as water wells, known as P-13 wells.ĭecades later, some of the wells on Wight’s land are leaking contaminated water, hydrogen sulfide and radioactive materials. Many were unsuccessful, but the drilling opened up layers of porous rock, revealing water and minerals. ![]() Scattered across his sprawling 20,000-acre ranch are more than 100 abandoned oil and gas wells left behind by wildcatters who drilled in random locations for decades looking for oil. Wight is no geologist, but over the years, he’s had to familiarize himself with what lies underground. Schuyler Wight is a fourth-generation rancher who has raised longhorn cattle outside Midland for decades. Sign up for The Brief, our daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news. ![]()
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