Displaying items by tag: historic rugby

Methane emissions, such as those that emanate from this oil well on federal property, are being capped across federal land in the Southeast thanks to a Biden Administration grant.  NPS

Even federally protected areas can be full of old oil and gas wells, and they may need plugging to avoid releasing gas into the air.

ONEIDA — Eric Bruseth of the National Park Service Geologic Resources Division gave a talk on this issue in Historic Rugby at the 2024 Science Meeting, March 13.

Two Tennessee National Park Service areas — Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area near Oneida, straddling the Kentucky state line, and Obed Wild and Scenic River near Wartburg — have over 300 oil and gas wells total throughout the parks. The wells are left over from a time before they were public land. The earliest go back to the 19^th century. The danger, Bruseth said, comes from the methane these wells can continue to release.

“Methane as a greenhouse gas can be up to 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide as far as trapping heat in the atmosphere. So smaller sources can have a bigger impact,” Bruseth said.