CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A federal program prompted by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is almost finished and one of their projects is here in the Coastal Bend.
The sites of abandoned oil and gas wells out at Padre Island National Seashore are being cleaned and restored.
3News went out to find what those sites look like, and what is being done to bring them back to their natural state.
Neil McQueen, co-chair of the Coastal Bend chapter of the Surf Rider Foundation said there are several wells across Texas that need to be addressed by the grant.
"There are hundreds if not thousands of orphaned wells across Texas that have not been properly plugged. And yes, it's high time this has happened," he said.
"We hope they continue until they get them all plugged."
McQueen is talking about part of the $1.8 billion dollars being used to clean up 11 abandoned oil wells located at Padre Island National Seashore. It's part of the Restore Act, created after the Deepwater Horizon disaster.
Charles Sassine, a biological science technician at the Padre Island National Seashore spoke to 3News about the harm these wells cause the local environment.
"When these oil and gas pads are down, that's called disturbed habitat. And what it does, these caliche and these artificial road materials bring in other elements like calcium and magnesium which act like it's a fertilizer to our native sand."
Sassine, said the contamination chokes out natural grasses that keep the dunes in place.
3News set out to find one of the biggest sites which are unmarked and finally found a work road. After hiking in to see what it looked like, the 3News team found what is called the lemon site or the lemon pad. It's an area of beach land about 300 yards across and you can tell that something's happened here because there's very little growing.
It is about a half mile in from shore and 15 miles south of Malaquite Beach. It is one of the 11 sites they want to clean up.
After removing the soil, crews replanted natural grasses and we're told it will look untouched in just a few months.
At one point earlier this year, there were ten dump trucks making two trips a day to cart off contaminated soil.
Sassine said he believes the program is doing what it is meant to do.
"The seashore will be returned to its natural state after these are done."
You can learn more at the link here.
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