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Forrest Smith was forced to step down last month as the National Park Service’s chief petroleum engineer after the agency did not renew his contract.
Smith was the sole employee responsible for cleaning up abandoned oil and gas wells at national parks across the country, most of which were drilled before a park was established.
“There’s nobody left in the national parks who can confidently oversee this work with the expertise that I have,” said Smith in an interview with the New York Times. “I don’t think you could just pick somebody up and throw them in and expect them to do a really great job.”
The wells are a threat to the environment and public health as they can release harmful gases like methane and benzene into the atmosphere and risk contaminating groundwater.
Report: Idled oil and gas wells on public lands threaten wildlife and communities
A new report, “A Growing Risk on Public Lands” examines the threat of idled oil and gas wells on wildlife, recreation, and communities in five Western states: Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. The report is co-authored by the National Wildlife Federation, Public Land Solutions, and the Western Organization of Resource Councils, and makes the case for keeping current bonding reforms in place so that oil and gas companies (not taxpayers) pay to clean up the mess left behind after drilling.
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From funding cuts to staffing shortages and now a lengthy government shutdown he created, Donald Trump is going out of his way to put Western communities in the literal line of fire and undermine fire prevention efforts.”
