The training program in Pennsylvania is being expanded to include training in closing old gas wells

There are more than 350,000 abandoned oil and gas wells in Pennsylvania, and state officials want to train more professionals to plug them.

To that end, the Shapiro administration and the United Mine Workers of America union announced a new program this week to register and train apprentices to plug wells.

Operated out of UMWA’s Ruff Creek Training Center in Greene County, it provides potential trainees with the knowledge to plug abandoned wells that may pose health, safety and environmental concerns.

“Sooner or later, every abandoned well a threat to the environment and public health, and we need people with the skills and training to plug the wells and restore the surrounding landscape,” said Deputy Minister for Environmental Protection Jessica Shirley. “In addition to removing the threat posed by old wells, some active wells could find new life as geothermal wells, harvesting buried heat for clean energy..”

Shirley said the state’s uncapped wells account for 8 percent of Pennsylvania’s total methane emissions.

DEP has More than 250 wells were plugged during Shapiro’s tenure, more than in the previous nine years combined, state officials said. Earlier this year, Democratic U.S. Rep. Summer Lee of Swissvale visited a Murrysville family that had discovered an old, leaky well on their property and approached state officials about having it plugged.

The Gas Well Stopping Technician program is registered with the State Department of Labor’s State Education and Training Bureau. Training includes safety, well stopping techniques, cement properties and skills, and soil remediation.

Clemmy Allen, executive director of the UMWA Career Center, said the union is excited about the program.

“Well sealing technician is one of the asked “Occupations for which laid-off miners and their families, as well as anyone else living in rural Appalachian mining communities, can receive training without having to relocate,” Allen said.

The program is one of 53 registered apprenticeships created by the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry since 2023. There are currently more than 15,600 apprentices active in all work disciplines.

In 2022, the US Department of The Department of the Interior initially granted Pennsylvania $25 million to close orphaned and abandoned gas wells.

“This is a positive step to address unemployment in the coal mining communities of Appalachia,” said Cecil E. Roberts, president of UMWA International. “The program will not only help plug leaking gas and oil wells, but will also provide workers with a wage that can support their families. Plugging abandoned and orphaned wells is expected to take decades.”

For more information about the state’s registered apprenticeship program, visit PACareerLink.pa.gov.