Unplugged and abandoned oil wells on public lands in Oklahoma are among those targeted in the Department of Interior handout of nearly $110 million, according to OK Energy Today.

The department recently announced that $109.6 million will be used by five federal agencies to work on plugging and reclaiming orphaned oil and gas wells in national parks, national forests, national wildlife refuges and on other public lands and waters.

The five federal agencies within the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture, which includes the Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, and the U.S. Forest Service, will address 484 high-priority, polluting wells that pose threats to human health and safety, the climate, and wildlife. The announcement brings the total distributed to address orphaned wells on federal lands to $250 million, the entirety of the funding made available in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for work on federal lands.

Nearly $18 million will be allocated to clean up 288 wells in Louisiana, Michigan, Montana, Oregon, Oklahoma and Texas. This effort will be coordinated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

This year’s funding is part of an overall historic $4.7 billion investment from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to address orphaned oil and gas wells across the nation that will create good-paying union jobs, catalyze economic growth and revitalization, improve public health and safety, and reduce harmful methane leaks. Methane pollution from many of these unplugged wells is a serious safety hazard and a significant driver of climate change, with methane being more than 25 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere.

“Toxic orphaned wells pose a significant threat to American communities and our environment,” said Secretary Deb Haaland. “I’ve seen firsthand how orphaned oil and gas wells left behind by extractive industries lead to hazardous pollution, water contamination, and safety hazards. This crucial funding reflects President Biden’s vision for a cleaner, safer and more equitable future. It’s a win-win-win – reducing harmful methane emissions, restoring our treasured landscapes, and creating good-paying jobs.”

The allocation is part of a total $250 million provided through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to clean up orphaned well sites on federal public lands and is in addition to $4.3 billion to plug orphaned wells on state and private lands and $150 million for clean-up on Tribal lands. It is estimated that the money distributed for public lands will plug over 1,000 orphaned wells. To date, 199 of these orphaned wells have been plugged.

The recent $109.6 million investment will fund cleanup efforts across 13 states and the Gulf of Mexico Outer Continental Shelf, covering a diverse array of projects, including plugging, reclamation, methane measurement, and infrastructure removal at various national parks, wildlife refuges, national forests, and offshore oilfield locations.