Cathy Bussewitz, Martha Irvine, Eric Gay, Larry Fenn, Francois Duckett, Peter Hamlin, Samantha Shotzbarger and Alyssa Goodman teamed up in all-formats to highlight the environmental crisis of an estimated 2 million abandoned oil and gas wells in the United States.
Overcoming the reluctance of landowners fearful their property values would decline if they went public, energy and climate reporter Bussewitz found a fourth-generation Texas rancher who described her beloved land as a “swiss cheese of old oil wells that are just falling apart.” Bussewitz shared the byline with national writer and visual journalist Irvine, who shot video of the site where the rancher had moved 600 head of cattle that may have drunk contaminated water, then combined it with drone footage from the ranch, along with historical photos and footage of abandoned wells. Photographer Gay made striking images of that ranch and another where the rancher had to sue the state of Texas to plug orphaned wells.
Ashley Williams Watt looks at a flag marking a spot where soil samples were taken near one of the biggest spills she’s found at her ranch near Crane, Texas, July 9, 2021. She calls it the “elephant graveyard,” named for a barren wasteland in the movie “The Lion King.” Her version of the graveyard contains the blackened skeletons of mesquite trees; the sand is dark and reeks of oil.
AP Photo / Eric Gay
Ashley Williams Watt walks across the site of an abandoned well at her ranch near Crane, Texas, July 9, 2021. Some of her wells are leaking chemicals such as benzene, a known carcinogen, into fields and her animals’ drinking water.
AP Photo / Eric Gay
The Estes 24 well leaks on the Antina Cattle Co. ranch near Crane, Texas, in this June 2021 photo provided by rancher Ashley Williams Watt. Buried under the sand, the well became unplugged and started leaking a salty brine, a byproduct of oil production that is considered a toxic substance. Watt’s biggest worry is that it will get into her drinking water supply and the watershed, which flows into the nearby Pecos River. Chevron, which is responsible for the abandoned well, has been working to re-plug it.
Ashley Williams Watt via AP
An oil well crew works to re-plug an abandoned well on the ranch of Ashley Williams Watt, near Crane, Texas, July 9, 2021.
AP Photo / Eric Gay
Brine-covered soil cracks as it dries in the hot sun on Ashley Williams Watt’s cattle ranch near Crane, Texas, July 9, 2021. The environmental disaster unfolding on the 75,000-acre ranch offers a window into a growing problem for the oil industry and the communities and governments that are often left to clean up the mess of abandoned, leaking wells.
AP Photo / Eric Gay
Mary Williams Watt rides a horse on one of the family’s West Texas ranch properties in an undated family photo. Watt died in 2018 following a diagnosis of adrenal cortical carcinoma, a rare cancer that affects the glands associated with the kidneys. Though not able to prove it, Watt’s daughter Ashley wonders if toxic substances from abandoned oil wells on the property contributed to her mother’s death.
Courtesy Watt Family via AP
Ashley Williams Watt looks at an abandoned well wrapped with locks and chains on her ranchnear Crane, Texas, July 9, 2021. Some of her wells are leaking chemicals such as benzene, a known carcinogen.
AP Photo / Eric Gay
Ashley Williams Watt watches as a workover rig helps re-plug one of the abandoned wells at her ranch near Crane, Texas, July 9, 2021.
AP Photo / Eric Gay
The charred remains of a home, shown May 4, 2017, where an explosion killed two people in Firestone, Colo. Fire officials said an investigation revealed that the April 17, 2017 explosion was caused by natural gas leaking from a small, abandoned flowline from a nearby well.
AP Photo / Brennan Linsley
Cattle graze near aging oil storage tanks on the Rooke family ranch near Refugio, Texas, May 18, 2017. Oil and gas drilling began on the ranch in the 1920s, leaving dozens of orphaned wells that needing to be plugged for safety and environmental protection.
AP Photo / Eric Gay
Molly Rooke checks on an abandoned well being plugged at her family ranch near Refugio, Texas, May 18, 2021. Rooke, who co-owns the family ranch, had an orphaned well blow out on her property, spewing chemicals into the air. The 15,000-acre ranch contained dozens of orphaned, unplugged wells, many hidden in brush.
AP Photo / Eric Gay
Oil well workers prepare to plug an orphaned well on the Rooke family ranch near Refugio, Texas, May 18, 2021.
AP Photo / Eric Gay
An oil well worker moves equipment at a site on the Rooke family ranch where an orphaned well was plugged, near Refugio, Texas, May 18, 2021. There are 3.2 million abandoned oil and gas wells in the U.S., according to the Environmental Protection Agency. About a third were plugged with cement, which is considered the proper way to prevent harmful chemical leaks. But most, about 2.1 million by the EPA’s count, haven’t been plugged at all.
AP Photo / Eric Gay
A valve handle at a site on the Rooke family ranch where an orphaned oil well is being plugged near Refugio, Texas, May 18, 2021.
AP Photo / Eric Gay
A wildflower blows in the wind near an old pump jack on Molly Rooke’s ranch near Refugio, Texas, May 18, 2021.
AP Photo / Eric Gay
A cow stands in the roadway near the Estes 24 well on the Antina Cattle Co. ranch near Crane, Texas, in June 2021. An oil worker noticed salty brine bubbling up near the site in early June. It was later determined that the source was the Estes 24, a “plugged and abandoned” well that was first plugged in 1995. Buried under the sand, it became unplugged and started leaking the brine, a byproduct of oil production that is considered a toxic substance.
Ashley Williams Watt via AP
Data analyst Fenn and digital artist Duckett leveraged that data into interactives, including an exclusive nationwide map that depicted the known orphaned wells in each state, while digital producers Hamlin and Shotzbarger,with photo editor Goodman, built a powerful presentation on AP News.