The NPS Had An Employee Whose Job it Was To Seal Leaky Oil Wells In National Parks - Now He's Been Fired

Until recently, Forrest Smith was the sole employee at the National Park Service responsible for cleaning up dozens of abandoned oil and gas wells at national parks across the country. But last month, the Park Service did not renew Mr. Smith’s four-year contract.

Now it is unclear whether anyone will clean up an estimated 93 abandoned wells on federal lands managed by the Park Service. The wells are at high risk of spewing planet-warming gases into the atmosphere and contaminating groundwater, posing significant threats to the environment and public health.

“There’s nobody left in the national parks who can confidently oversee this work with the expertise that I have,” Mr. Smith, 40, said in an interview. “I don’t think you could just pick somebody up and throw them in and expect them to do a really great job.”

Old oil wells dot federal lands across the country. Most were drilled before the national parks were established. In many cases, the companies that owned the wells went bankrupt and deserted the sites, which are often called “orphaned” wells. Scientists have found that orphaned wells can release methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change, as well as benzene, a chemical linked to leukemia and other blood cancers. Oil and brine can also seep from the wells into aquifers that supply drinking water to nearby communities, research shows.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/31/climate/national-parks-orphan-wells.html