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It’s ironic that flowing wells, remnants from the gas boom era, are making headlines more than a century after they fell into obscurity. Unfortunately, I’m not sure that’s a good thing: on Thursday, the Anderson Herald Bulletin published an article titled “Agencies grapple with location, plugging abandoned wells.” I got asked to be interviewed for the story.

I love flowing artesian wells. I’ve been on a journey to find as many as possible since I first encountered one in college. Flowing water is dynamic, and it ties the wells to our past differently than static structures like schoolhouses and courthouses do. Beyond that, they’re just cool. 

Most of East-Central Indiana’s artesian wells started as gas wells drilled during the 1890s. Unfortunately, abandoned and orphaned examples have drawn attention from legislators because of environmental concerns. You’ll probably find the Herald Bulletin article locked behind a paywall, but here’s a quick summary: the EPA estimates nearly four million old gas wells dot the nation, and many are categorized as “undocumented¹.”

Indiana has nearly 1,500 abandoned wells, but tracking their locations is challenging thanks to outdated and imprecise records. “I think they’ve imported the data from older surveys, so many times the coordinates are approximate²,” I said in my interview. 

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021 allocated $4.7 billion to plug them, but some senators are pushing to streamline the grant application process. Indiana’s Mike Braun is at the forefront of an effort to expedite their remediation. State officials hope to plug at least 350 wells here by September 2024³.

I’ve been to thirty-six flowing wells in East-Central Indiana. I would never advocate for their removal and was uncomfortable contributing to an article that might take the opposite opinion. Fortunately, the reporter, Andy Knight, portrayed me well and quoted me accurately. I appreciate that! As a flowing well fan, though, I made some key points that weren’t included in the final piece.

Not all orphaned or abandoned gas wells in Indiana became artesian wells. In fact, very few of them did. It takes a unique set of topological circumstances to cause an old gas well to flow with water. I’ve found many of them, but flowing wells are pretty rare: of all the gas wells that ever existed in Indiana, I’d estimate that less than 1% began to flow with water.

Regular old orphaned and abandoned gas wells never captured my attention as the flowing ones did. I’ve never bothered to research them, and I’m ignorant of any adverse health effects that stem from keeping them around. On the other hand, artesian water that burbles up through old gas well casings is enormously popular. Some people swear by it, and the water is generally considered safe to drink so long as the casing above the surface is intact.

Flowing wells go deeper than that- they don’t just provide people with free water sustainably sourced from deep aquifers. I’ve been to wells that water livestock, wells that keep flowers alive at cemeteries, wells that form centerpieces at parks, and wells that are so hidden and obscure that they’re just amazing to happen across. The world depends on water in myriad ways, and we need all of it we can get! 

I told the reporter I don’t see a problem with capping abandoned or orphaned gas wells that never flowed with water and no longer serve a purpose. I also made it clear that forcing landowners to plug them seems like an overreach. I’ve heard from several people who have resisted some bureaucrat’s calls to seal their flowing wells, and I unequivocally stand with them. 

I wish that opinion made it into the final article, but the piece was thoughtful and even-handed, all told. If the state wants to incentivize property owners to cap their non-flowing orphaned and abandoned gas wells, I say go ahead. They’ll need some luck finding them, though. I use the same maps the government does, and they suck!

If Indiana officials do proceed with some forcible action to cap extant gas wells, I hope they make efforts to protect our artesian wells. The money used to cap them could be used to educate people about the importance of our flowing wells, the threats they face, how they tie into our history, and how important it is to protect them. There’s an entire environmental aspect officials could market!

Whatever happens, I’ll advocate for flowing wells until I drop. They’re valuable resources! I’ve been fascinated by them for years, and I would hate to live in an area where they no longer exist.

Sources Cited
1 Knight, A. (2024, January 18). Agencies grapple with location, plugging abandoned wells. The Anderson Herald Bulletin. Web. Retrieved January 18, 2024.
2 (See footnote 1).
3 (See footnote 1).