By Mella McEwan
October 17th, 2025
The agency typically plugs an average of about 1,300 orphaned wells each year, which has not kept pace with the annual number of wells that are added to the list, according to Commission Shift.
“I’m still hearing from affected people out in the field that they have a well that’s leaking, an investigator goes to look at it, they say, ‘It’s not leaking bad enough, call us when it’s leaking more.’ … There are examples of these sites becoming worse problems because the Railroad Commission couldn’t get to it fast enough,” Commission Shift Executive Director Virginia Palacios said in a statement.
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