SEAL BEACH : Council Backs Bill on Abandoned Wells
The city is urging the Legislature to order oil companies to plug and seal abandoned oil wells that pose a health and safety hazard, and which are eyesores on the landscape.
A resolution passed by the City Council this week puts the city’s voice behind a bill sponsored by state Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach) to sharply increase the fees oil companies must pay for wells that have not produced oil or gas for five years.
The city took an interest in the bill because it is “looking to the future and the eventual closing down of oil operations on the Hellman Ranch property,” Development Director Lee Whittenberg said. There are 52 wells on the property and an additional half dozen elsewhere in the city, he said. Only two wells have sat idle for more than two years.
The city’s resolution says that more than 40,000 of the state’s 92,000 oil, gas and injection wells are idle; more than 14,000 have not produced for five years or longer.
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