Hutchinson ? Efforts to find and plug the abandoned salt brine wells that allowed natural gas to escape into the city and cause explosions are nearing an end as federal and state funding dwindles.

The abandoned wells provided a pathway to the surface for underground natural gas that leaked from the Yaggy storage facility west of Hutchinson in January 2001, causing explosions that destroyed several buildings and killed two people.

Data gathered by the Kansas Geological Survey and other organizations after the explosions pinpointed 29 more abandoned wells than officials knew about two years ago, Steve Williams, a civil engineer for the city, said Tuesday in a report to the Hutchinson City Council.

“Early on, they said we could have as many as 160 brine wells,” he said. “We originally applied for $9 million for the project.”

Scientists from the Geological Survey searched the city in three surveys in the past two years, Williams said.

Some of the wells identified as brine wells turned out to be water wells. Others have been plugged. Now the city has about $165,000 in grant funds left from the original $890,000, Williams said, and few projects to complete in the future.

One area of the city — off Main Street where the Carey Ice and Salt company was once located — has not been explored because of buildings now on the site, Williams said.

“So, what you’re telling is that we’re done?” asked Mayor Barry Law. “We’ve located all the brine wells that we can find? But it isn’t to say that we’ve sent equipment into every residential section of the city. When we’ve looked for the brine wells, it’s just been in open spaces?”

Williams said salt plants mainly were located near railroad lines, and not in other parts of the city.