The federal infrastructure bill, passed late last year, will allow Ohio to expand its efforts to find and plug orphan oil and gas wells, according to Farm and Dairy.

Ohio is home to more than 20,000 orphan wells that can pose environmental, health and safety hazards. Although efforts began in 2018 to grow Ohio’s orphan well plugging program, The Infrastructure, Investment and Jobs Act will make an estimated $326 million will be available to Ohio through 2035 for orphan well plugging, remediation and restoration.

With the federal funding available, the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Oil and Gas will be able to hire more contractors and consultants to help with all parts of the plugging process, from flying drones to locate wells and designing plugging plans to plugging the wells.

Learn more: Farm and Dairy > Ohio is expanding efforts to find and plug orphan wells