Another Abandoned Well Story

Winter sledding in 2009 at their grandparents house in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho turned frightful for 5 year old Mason and his 7 year old sister Maya when their last run of the day found them crashing and tumbling off the sled right into a 2 foot by 2 foot concrete opening for a well on the property.  The unknown well was located at the very bottom of the hill in a patch of weeds, was not covered and was nearly filled with icy water.  Maya was able to get out, but brother Mason could not.  He went under several times as Maya worked to extricate him.  Exasperated, she wedged the sled into the hard packed snow and dropped the rope into the well telling Mason to hold on as she went for help.  Running up the hill screaming "Mason is drowning!", she soon caught the attention of granddad Mike.   The race back down the hill was won that day and Mason was pulled out unhurt, though a little rattled.  There is no doubt about it - Maya saved the life of her brother by her quick thinking and hard-charging run up the hill.

Once again we see the potential danger of abandoned, improperly maintained wells.  I cannot overstate how important it is to bring these dangers to the attention of the proper authorities - starting with the landowner and then upward if not taken care of immediately.
 
The plugging of abandoned wells might be a great program for groundwater districts or other civic groups interested.  GMD 4 has already inventoried our district area and caused the plugging of just over 2,000 abandoned wells that were located.  Not only are these wells a danger to life and limb, but they can also be conduits for surface contamination of the groundwater.  Something to consider, anyway.  For the rest of our abandoned well stories, click on the "wells and accidents" tag below.

Another Near Miss...Abandoned Well Accident

It was a beautiful Saturday morning in the Burgoyne Bay Provincial Park on Saltspring Island, British Columbia even though it was late November, 2011.  A family of four (Dad, Mom, son and daughter) were hiking near the base of Mount Maxwell.  The kids were just off the trail some 20 feet or so when the 9 year old daughter stepped down on ground that gave way beneath her.  In a heartbeat she was waist deep in a hole - only because she was able to grab nearby branches.  The old well would have consumed her entirely had her frantic grab not been successful.  Dad was there in just a few more seconds and got her pulled to safety. 

Again, we have an abandoned well story that turns out happily.  But I was intrigued by the rest of the story as reported by the Gulf Islands Driftwood, which goes on to write:  "When the family returned on Sunday for a closer look...they estimated the well to be at least seven meters (24 feet) deep.  Not wanting to attract any attention to the site, the [family] capped the hole with several sheets of plywood and covered the area with leaves and branches."

Yikes!  Anyone see a problem with this remedy?  Fortunately cooler heads prevailed as the paper also reported:  "...an employee with the company that manages the Island's provincial parks, said this was the first time she's heard of such an incident on the island.  She said an effort will be made to contact the family, locate the hole and inform BC Parks about the danger."  We can only hope that BC Parks will actually remediate the old well once located.

It is literally astounding how many such stories there are of people and animals falling into wells.  If you own such a well, make sure it is protected if active and plugged if abandoned.  

Another Abandoned Well Tale

It was late October last year and CJ was out alone very early Saturday morning (1:30 A.M.) rabbit hunting of all things, near Merritt Island, Florida.  His next step would be onto an old piece of plywood that was covering an abandoned well that he never knew was there.  The fall wasn't too far, but the 12 feet of cold dirty water in the bottom sure made things difficult for him - being fully dressed and all.

He started screaming for help but at that time of night, it turned out to be pretty hopeless. He worked at keeping his head above water by using several methods - each as equally exhausting as the one before it - and was beginning to think the end was near after getting no help.  He took up screaming once more when daylight arrived.

His luck would change, however, when by 10:00 A.M. a man walking his dog heard the distress calls and called 911.  By 10:30 A.M. - after nine hours of cold, clinging and clutching - the firefighters arrived with a ladder to help him out.  Just another reminder that abandoned wells pose threats to our groundwater resources and ourselves at some point in their existence.  Don't let it happen any more.  Know of an abandoned well?  Contact someone to take care of it permanently.  The landowner or a local official (City, Township or County) would be good first calls.  Environmental agencies or even law enforcement might also be options.  No question about it, CJ was a very lucky man that night even though he bagged not a single rabbit.

Finally, if you're interested in these tales of abandoned wells, click on the "wells and accidents" link at the bottom of this article or on the Blogs Label List just to the right of the visitors Cluster Map.  There you'll find all the wells and accidents posts I've done to date - all in one place.  The Blog Label List is alphabetical, so keep scrolling down to very near the bottom to find the "wells and accidents" link.  Enjoy.
 

Wells & Accidents - The Bungled Burgle

It was March, 2011 in Boothtown, a suburb of Halifax, West Yorkshire, England.  It was also very early in the morning - 5:15 A.M. to be precise - when a call came into the local police station regarding a burglary on Bell Street.  Seemed a neighbor took to chasing two men suspected of the burglary, but gave up and called police instead.

Before the police could even get organized another call came in from nearby Claremount Road from a young man who was reporting that he'd fallen down into a well and needed emergency help.  The police started putting two and two together, and you guessed it.  From the paper reporting on the situation:

"It would appear the man who fell down the well was one of the burglars who was fleeing the scene.  He was chased by a neighbour.  He climbed a small wall and dropped down a banking of  approximately 20ft before then falling down a 30ft deep well.   It appears it was uncovered and hidden from view to the fleeing suspect.  A technical rescue team from Cleckheaton Fire Station was drafted in to save the man and brought him up in what firefighters dubbed "a giant nappy" - a support linked to two ropes.  Watch Manager Trevor McDonald from Cleckheaton Fire Station said: "It was quite a  complex technical rescue as it was only around 3ft wide at the bottom of the well with  only enough room to get one firefighter down there.  The man was face down when we found him, but conscious throughout and was talking  to us.""

This 21 year old ill-fated man was arrested on suspicion of burglary when he got to the top of the well and was taken to the hospital where he was found to have a broken vertebrae.  Can you imagine lying face down in a 3-foot shaft at the bottom of a well with a broken back?  And having to call the police for help under these circumstances? 

Once again, we see clearly that not only does "crime not pay", but also that abandoned wells are accidents waiting to happen.  About the only good news is that he survived and we all now know that in Boothtown a good cell phone works from 30' underground.

Wells & Accidents - Little Randy

Typical abandoned irrigation well

Little Randy, just a three-year old at the time, was visiting his grandfather with his family in a small Texas town in the far west of the state.  The kids were out playing near an abandoned irrigation well that simply had a barrel sitting on top of the open, 16-inch casing.  Kids being kids, they moved the barrel to peer down the 300 foot hole.  Kids also being kids, Little Randy managed to step into the well and went feet first down the hole.  He hit water at 68 feet, but was able to keep enough pressure on the sides of the casing to keep his head above water.

Somebody was looking out for Little Randy that day because Manuel Corral just happened to be there working on the farm, and he quickly suggested that they lower him down the well - headfirst with arms outstretched.  He'd grab onto Little Randy and they could haul them both back out.  He argued there was no time for other actions.  Manuel also happened to be of very slight build - a mere 125 pounds.

So it was decided.  They tied a rope to his ankles and down the well he went.  The description from the local newspaper coverage says it best:  "..and he started the 68-foot head-first decent into the small dark well shaft.  He became lodged several times and had to claw himself free.  He became dizzy from the inverted position of his body.  The foul smell of the long unused well, the pain inflicted to his ankles by the rope and the thought that he might become stuck in the well undoubtedly caused Corral to approach a point of panic many times during the long 15-minute period it required to reach the boy.  Only the thought of little Randy in the water below kept him squirming and inching his way steadily closer to the end of his mission.  Finally, Corral reached the cold and crying lad after Randy had been in the well about an hour.  Both were pulled back to the surface."

Are you kidding me?!  What a story.  Manuel may have been slight of build, but in my book he had the heart and guts to match any man alive.  And this all took place the day before Christmas, 1959, so he gave the entire family quite a Christmas present.  Little Randy today still lives in Texas - about 500 miles from that fateful site.

As I've said before, abandoned wells are accidents waiting to happen, so please get them properly taken care of as soon as possible. This situation had an incredible and amazingly happy ending, but many do not. 

Wells & Accidents - Kathy Fiscus

Kathy Fiscus rescue scene - 1949

One of the more famous abandoned well tragedies took place in California in April, 1949.  It was early evening and Kathy Fiscus was playing in a field with her sister and a cousin when she fell into a 14 inch open water well casing.  The ensuing rescue held the nation captive for the next three days as efforts to save her involved digging, drilling, derricks, trucks, cranes, floodlights and at one time an estimated 10,000 onlookers praying for her quick and successful rescue.  When finally reached, Kathy was found to have succumbed to the lack of air soon after falling into the well.  Such a sad event.

In a twist of fate perhaps, her father worked for the California Water and Telephone Company, which drilled the well some 45 years earlier.  Even more ironic is that he had been involved in testifying to the California State Legislature for a law requiring the plugging of abandoned wells.

This event was also marked as a watershed moment for live radio and TV coverage of events of this nature.  It was covered by TV station KTLA which apparently set the standard for events and TV coverage.  Jessica McClure's well accident was covered in 1987 in much the same way.

This event seemed to leave a mark on America.  Jimmie Osborne, a country singer, wrote and recorded a song in 1949 called "The Death of Little Kathy Fiscus".  His lyrics are simple, but quite accurate.

On April the 8th, the year forty-nine
Death claimed a little child, so pure and so fine
Kathy they called her, met her doom that day
I know it was God, that called her away

Playmates of Kathy, were all havin' fun 
The story was told, they all started to run
And as they looked back, she wasn't there
It's so sad to think of this tragic affair

Just like a beast in a forest that day 
The abandoned well, took Kathy away
For over two days, the well was her tomb
Everyone kept prayin' they'd get her out soon

Thousands were there, from far and from near
Work men they struggled, against sadness and tears 
But after two days, their hopes grew so weak
They called down to Kathy but she never did speak

After working so hard, both day and night 
Digging for hours, she came into sight
The little darlin' was dead, her life it was gone
Now in San Merino, there's a heart broken home

I'm sure she's an angel, in God's peaceful fold 
Playing with children, in a mansion of gold 
As I stand alone, humbly I bow
I know Kathy's happy, up there with God now.

The 1951 movie "Ace in the Hole" was also reported to be inspired by this tragedy, as was one of the vignettes in Woody Allen's 1987 movie "Radio Days" - where a young girl named Polly falls into a well in Pennsylvania.

There is no doubt about it, abandoned wells of any kind are accidents waiting to happen and need to be plugged properly.  Not only are they physical dangers but can also pose water quality problems.  Please do your part if you run across one. Contact your state water agency, a local water agency, your county commissioners, or someone who can effect a timely and safe remediation.

Water Wells and Accidents

Most people don't think of water wells as accidents waiting to happen, but they CAN be if they're not properly cared for.

Between January 1, 2011 and today, a rather cursory Google search counts 93 men, women, children, leopards, lions, cows, horses, elephants, hogs, tigers and deer have slipped, fell, been pushed, jumped, drove, were driven or otherwise ended up in active or abandoned water wells in only 9 Countries around the world.  Unfortunately, only about half were able to be rescued alive, and, these incidences appear to be very under-reported.

These accidents - all of them - should never have happened.  If you have a water well, please take care of it!  If it's an active well, seal it securely.  If it's abandoned, get it filled in and reclaimed properly.  If you think you might have a well on your place, find it, evaluate it and take the appropriate steps to make it completely safe - of course, being careful that when looking or caring for it you don't end up in the well yourself.  There should be plenty of technical help around to guide you in proper procedures, but if you're not comfortable in this regard, hire a well driller to de-commission it. Thanks for listening.

Abandoned Oil & Gas Wells in Kansas

Abandoned oil and gas wells without responsible parties in KS are dealt with depending on their abandonment date - before or after 1996.  Why 1996?  The industry and the legislature locked horns over the problem and it was by mutual agreement that the state would handle the older abandoned wells (before 1996) which most often were old enough that the primary responsible parties (PRPs) were either out of business or gone.  The industry agreed to handle all well abandonments after 1996.

To do all this, the legislature created two funds:  The Abandoned Well / Site Remediation Fund that is to cover the costs of the pre-1996 wells (state responsibility); and a Well Plugging Assurance Fund which the industry would use for post-1996 wells.  The state's fund is pre-set to sunset on June 30, 2016.  The industry fund is supposed to be permanent.  Both funds are administered by KCC.

The state's fund consists of 4 sources and receives about $1.6 million annually, although the actual funding has been somewhat erratic of late, with the state general fund and state water plan fund having contributed zero dollars of late due to the state's economic conditions.  The industry fund is from 4 industry sources and currently has a cash balance of $3.966 million and a non-cash balance of $3.296 million.

The KCC reported on September 9, 2011 the following total program gains from the state funded program (July 1, 1996 - June 30, 2010):  8,200 wells have been plugged (pre-1996 wells) and 5,475 remain on the inventory list to do.  Moreover, 209 additional wells were added to this list during FY 2011.  All the available state funds have been spent each year.  The KCC asked that the state general fund and state water plan funding be reinstated.  They also noted that the average plugging cost per well has been increasing over time, so with the same funds, fewer wells will get plugged as this cost rises.  They said this was due primarily to the contractor costs increasing - as they contract with industry personnel and equipment to do this work.  WOW, Sweet deal - the industry gets out of their responsibility for these wells and then cuts a deal to get paid to do the very same work with the taxpayers footing the bill.  Gotta shake your head, sometimes.

The KCC also reported that no funds have yet been spent from the industry fund (post-1996 wells).  Yikes, does this raise any red flags?  And when this was noted, no committee member asked "Why?"

While it is comforting to know that abandoned oil and gas wells with PRPs are taken care of by the responsible parties, and that such wells without PRPs can also get taken care of, it is not so comforting to know that it's going to take an estimated 40 years to address the currently known list, and that the fund created to do this is slated for sunset in 2016.  Of course, it's already been extended once - so maybe a couple more times won't be asking for too much.  I gotta tell, you, it sure appears to me that the industry has been coddled in Kansas.  I hope I'm wrong.  But I guess, when you carry a purse as big as theirs, you have to be careful how you deal with 'em.

Abandoned Wells - A Few of Our Experiences

Most activities by locals and state governments regarding the handling of abandoned water wells is to offer a cost-share incentive program.  Some are fairly well funded, most are not.  While this makes most people feel good, it is probably the most inefficient and wasteful way to address the problem yet devised by well-meaning activists (pun intended).

We start with the likely premise that abandoned wells are probably illegal by state and/or local law. So why should we be using taxpayers money to help correct an illegal situation?  Even if they're not illegal, which they are in Kansas, we have found the following to be true:

1)  What a land-owner deems an abandoned well and what any responsible cost-share program would deem one to be are very, very different;

2)  Most landowners aren't even aware of the fact that an abandoned well exists on their property even if they did agree on the definition;

3)  Too many landowners don't feel obliged to put any money into a useless object - regardless of the potential liability.

These findings all point to the need for a comprehensive survey by qualified persons if serious about remediating the problem.  Otherwise it's like fixing a few holes in your roof while leaving many more unaddressed.  You also need a process to keep new wells from getting abandoned.  We work with the well drillers and for every redrill, we account for the former well.  A process to follow through is important also. Can't tell you how many reminders were necessary in our program - even to those who initially agreed to plug the well.

I've not seen a single, voluntary cost-share plugging program in Kansas or surrounding states that has lasted long enough to come even remotely close to mitigating their abandoned well problem. And even if they do last, they get wells plugged at such a slow rate that it's likely abandoned wells are being added faster than they are being remediated.  If this is true, then whatever money they spent (or are spending) doing a partial job was (is) totally wasted.  Our board felt that the taxpayers were more likey to give them grief for not efficiently spending their dollars on an important water program than they would for implementing a tough, efficient, regulatory program that was going to work. 

We created a regulatory program that inventoried virtually every tract of land in the district and remediated just over 2200 abandoned wells in 3.5 years.  We did so such that our definition of abandoned well was used, the well drillers became part of the program for maintenance, and at a total administrative cost (taxpayers money) of about $32.00 per well - considerably less expensive than the cost-share efforts on-going at the same time in Kansas. No program or approach is perfect, but I'll hold our effort up against any in the country for efficiency and results. 

Always Bothered Me

I ran across the following in a newsletter today:  "State law prohibits the occurrence of uncontrolled irrigation runoff...It is illegal to operate an irrigation system that contributes to wasting groundwater."  The article goes on to say that the management entity has budgeted cost-share funds for the installation of irrigation reuse pits, and that additional state and federal cost-share funds are also available.  I have to ask:  Why is anyone using tax payers money to cost share on fixing an illegal activity?  Especially one that will save the irrigator lots of money.

We ran across the same situation in Kansas years ago regarding the plugging of abandoned wells - also illegal - and also cost-shared by the state and some local entities.  GMD 4 chose to regulate the plugging of these wells over enticing the owners with cost-share funds.  We got 2,000 wells (after an inventory) plugged for an average GMD4 cost of about $30.00 per well.  The cost share programs were getting wells plugged for about $200.00 per well.  Our effort got all the located wells plugged in our district.  Theirs got only 75 or so plugged from conscientious landowners over the rest of the entire state.  Like patching holes in the roof - what good does it do to fix 5% of the holes?

Our program educated and involved the well drillers so that very few new abandoned wells were coming into the system. Theirs was business as usual at the close of the program with landowners walking away from wells at the same pace as before.  The problem would simply return over time.

The regulatory approach was not always easy, but it was remarkably efficient and effective.  I always thought the public footing the bill for this work would take us to task quicker if we chose to use an inefficient and/or ineffective approach to solve the problem. This is actually a bigger waste of public funds in my opinion.  Our board agreed with me and went the regulatory path. Anyway, good luck with cost-sharing these solutions.

Abandoned Well Lore

The following article came from the Tri-Basin NRD Newsletter, Tri-Basin Topics, Volume 22, Issue 2, Spring, 2008. It chronicles the travails of pioneer F. W. Carlin and his run-in with an abandoned well.

On August 14, 1895, a pioneer named F.W. Carlin steered his wagon off on the wrong track as he was crossing the prairie north of Broken Bow, Nebraska. The trail dead-ended at an abandoned sod house. He tried to turn his team of horses around and head back down the road, but one of them balked. He got off the wagon to see what was spooking his horse.

Here in his own words, as reported at the time by the Custer County Beacon, is what happened next: "without a moment's notice, I became aware of the fact that I had stepped into an old well and was going down like a shot out of a gun. I placed my feet close together, stretched my arms straight over my head and said "O God have mercy on me!" According to a later measurement of the well, he fell 143 feet.

Amazingly, the only injuries he sustained when he landed in water and mud at the bottom of the well were a broken rib and a badly sprained ankle. In spite of this amazing stroke of luck, he still faced the staggering problem of getting out of this very deep hole by himself. He struggled for hours before he was able to break away part of a board in the cribbing that lined the well hole. He shoved that board into the sidewall and used it as a seat. There he spent his first, cold, wet night underground. For the next two days he slowly, patiently inched his way up, digging footholds and handholds using his trusty pocketknife.

Emerging from his would-be grave, he gave thanks to God for saving him from death by hypothermia or starvation, but his troubles weren't over. His horses and wagon were long gone, so he had to crawl on his hands and knees a mile and a half to the nearest house, which took all night.

This is one reason why we plug abandoned wells in GMD 4.