The program for our August meeting was presented by Steve Sowers OERB Environmental Director. OERB (Oklahoma Energy Resource Board) was established in 1994. It is funded through a voluntary 1/10th of 1% assessment on the production of oil and natural gas in Oklahoma. It is governed by a 21 member voluntary, unpaid board. Their mission is to clean up abandoned well sites and to educate the public about oil and gas production and conservation. It was the first program of its type in the United States. By statue 50% of the budget is allocated to environmental restoration. Public and student education get the other 50%. Their FY09 budget was $8.25 million while FY10’s is $5 million.
Orphaned/abandoned well sites are those with no identifiable responsible party. OERB’s cleanup responsibilities include only surface damage. They don’t plug wells. The landowner submits the site for approval. The Oklahoma Corporation Commission (OCC) then determines who the responsible party is or if there is one at all. In Osage County this is done by the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs). In general an abandoned well site cleanup consists of four phases.
Phase I preliminary assessment.
Phase II sampling, determination of the scope of work needed, cost estimation & prebids.
Phase III bidding, contracting, verification of scope of work, actual construction.
Phase IV final report preparation.
Since the discovery of oil in Oklahoma in 1897 there have been a half million wells drilled here. Prior to the Clean Water Act of 1981 there were no real rules governing oil and gas producers regarding the environment. During clean up of these sites most of what OERB does is to just speed up what Mother Nature would do naturally. Their goal is to get the land back to a productive state. Most sites have a lot of concrete and trash type debris. Some of this can simply be buried on site with a three foot cover of dirt. Much of the concrete is recycled by Campbell Asphalt. Weathered hydrocarbons can be used for roadbeds or plowed back. This is acceptable as long as they haven’t been refined.
If the area is salt impacted the cleanup takes longer. Simple crude oil spills take less time. Sites that have an environmental, health or safety issues get top priority. OERB works with many other agencies during these cleanups. If navigable waterways are involved the EPA will step in and help. They also work closely with the Army Corp of Engineers, DEQ and the Nature Conservancy (especially in Osage county).
In the first year of their existence OERB completed the clean up of 69 sites. In 2008 1,035 sites were completed. This year they will probably complete 700-800 sites. In total 9,500 sites have been cleaned up. It is estimated there are 35,000 to 51,000 remaining.
Besides environmental cleanup OERB is involved in student and public education. They reach 100,000 students a year with over one million in total so far. They have a scholar program and a conservation education assistance fund for low income families. They directly contribute 76,000 jobs to the state directly plus another 245,000 indirectly. They have contributed 2.05 billion in taxes to the state.