Hutchinson — Hutchinson is moving ahead with efforts to find the estimated 150 to 160 abandoned brine wells around the city, only one of which has been plugged since last year's natural gas leaks.
On Thursday, the Hutchinson City Council voted to fund a $63,244 feasibility study by the Kansas Geological Survey to locate the old wells. That represents only the first phase of the agency's proposed program of finding the wells using electromagnetic and high-resolution magnetic methods.
The costs will be ongoing, said City Manager Joe Palacioz. And the search will be cheap compared to the fix.
Plugging the old brine wells used for solution mining of salt could cost from $30,000 to $80,000 apiece, city officials say.
"It depends on how much is actually down in the hole," said Dennis Clennan, director of public works and engineering, noting that wells were not cased all the way down.
Hutchinson received a $400,000 state grant, but Clennan said he expected that would be used up in the search.
"The issue really is whether or not it's our responsibility to do this," Clennan said, because the state now regulates brine wells.
Palacioz said he thought more wells would be found under privately owned land than on public land.
But both Clennan and Palacioz favored the study.
Councilman Brad Dillon asked what problems the city could encounter if it found the wells but couldn't afford to plug them.
Probably, Clennan said, at least a temporary plugging can be done.
The city staff said it wasn't aware of the abandoned wells until the natural gas explosion crisis a year ago. The wells acted as conduits for underground gas rising to the surface. Two lives were lost and property damaged during the gas crisis.
"It's important that we find them, because we simply don't know what's out there," Clennan said.
"There may be half a dozen or more of these wells that are in locations where the groundwater is being threatened, and we just don't know that."
About 10 brine well sites were identified during last year's crisis. Kansas Gas Service paid for plugging the only one that's been closed off since then.
The city staff has raised the possibility of pressing private parties to pay for plugging future wells, if a chain of ownership can be found.
Researching mineral-rights records and other documents at the Reno County Courthouse are expected to be part of the overall project.
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