凯特·黄浦/聚光灯 宾夕法尼亚州 驶入布拉德福德时，芭芭拉·拉克森提醒人们留意沿镇而建的炼油厂冒出的火光。
KATE HUANGPU/Spotlight PA Driving into Bradford, Barbara Laxon tells people to look out for the flare coming from the oil refinery running along the town.
现年74岁的拉克森，大部分空闲时间都用于带人参观，展示她所在城镇中石油和天然气工业留下的痕迹——从麦当劳停车场里的一台抽油机，到当地一所小学附近隐蔽的井口。
At 74, Laxon spends much of her free time taking people on tours to show the traces of the oil and gas industry in her town — from an oil jack located in the parking lot of a McDonald’s to hidden wellbores near a local elementary school.
在逛完城镇后，拉克森会带人们进入阿勒格尼国家森林，寻找废弃的油井。她把车停在公路边，小心翼翼地引导游客穿过沼泽般的树林，并提醒他们注意脚下。
After exploring town, Laxon leads people into Allegheny National Forest to find abandoned oil wells. Parking on the side of the highway, she guides visitors carefully through swampy woods, warning them to watch their step.
“我们会走那些小路，沿着路走，看看能不能发现什么，”拉克森说。“你能看到黏糊糊、亮闪闪、棕褐色的东西顺着山坡流下来。”她原本没想过自己的退休生活会是这样。这位前职业治疗师大约十年前从佛罗里达州搬到宾夕法尼亚州，以便离儿子更近。不久之后，她加入了“拯救我们的溪流”组织——一个致力于封堵宾夕法尼亚州废弃油井的环境倡导团体。
“We would take the little side roads and just walk up the roads and see if we could see anything,” Laxon said. “You could see the slimy, shiny, brownish stuff trailing down the side of the hill.”She didn’t envision spending her retirement this way. The former occupational therapist moved to Pennsylvania from Florida about a decade ago to be closer to her son. Soon after, she became involved in Save Our Streams — an environmental advocacy group that seeks to plug abandoned oil wells in Pennsylvania.
宾夕法尼亚州有数千口这样的油井。确切数量未知，但估计范围从约2万口到高达75万口不等。这些油井可能排放甲烷，这是一种温室效应比二氧化碳强25倍的气体，并可能泄漏有毒物质，污染周围环境。
Pennsylvania has thousands of these wells. The full number is unknown, but estimates range from around 20,000 to as high as 750,000 . They can emit methane, a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, and leak toxic substances that pollute their surroundings.
根据州法律，油井运营商有责任封堵油井。当无法确定所有者，或者油井早于1984年规范石油和天然气钻探的州法律时，环境保护部负责封堵工作。
According to state law, operators of wells are responsible for plugging them. When an owner can’t be identified, or when the well is older than the 1984 state law that regulates oil and gas drilling, the Department of Environmental Protection is responsible for the plugging.
但在实践中，企业往往逃避责任，导致政府承担不断增加的巨额开支。宾夕法尼亚州2022年的一份报告发现，该行业存在一种“不合规文化”，特别是在“不当弃置油气井”方面。宾夕法尼亚州的监管机构很难摸清州内所有废弃井的位置，更不用说将其封堵了。
But in practice, companies often skip out on their responsibilities, leaving the state responsible for a steadily increasing bill. A 2022 state report found a “ culture of non-compliance” in the industry, particularly with regard to “improper abandonment of oil and gas wells.”Pennsylvania regulators struggle to identify where all of the state’s abandoned wells are, much less plug them.
拉克森在退休后的几年里一直试图寻找这些油气井，至少承担了部分政府的责任。她和该组织的其它成员会去寻找那些没有记录的井眼，这就像是一场“寻宝游戏”，足迹遍及从匹兹堡到泰特斯维尔的宾夕法尼亚州西部地区。在记录下这些油气井及其周边环境、它们是否在泄漏液体或甲烷之后，维权人士会将他们的发现告知州政府并将其公布在网上。
Laxon spent years of her retirement trying to locate those wells, taking on at least part of the government’s responsibility. She and other members of the organization would go on “scavenger hunts” for undocumented wellbores, traveling across Western Pennsylvania from Pittsburgh to Titusville. After documenting the wells — their surroundings, whether they were leaking fluids or methane — the advocates would inform the state of their discoveries and post findings online.
拉克森经常发现，州政府的数据并未反映出他们团队的调查报告。但她觉得有义务坚持下去。
Often, Laxon found the state’s data didn’t reflect her group’s reports. But she feels obligated to keep trying.
“我有曾孙辈，他们就住在这里。他们在这里长大，呼吸着这里的空气，喝着这里的水，”拉克森说。“他们无处可去。他们被困在这群山之间的盆地里，面对着所有这些有毒气体和其它乱七八糟的东西。”几十年来，宾夕法尼亚州一直致力于封堵数以万计被遗弃的油气井。
“I got great-grandkids, and they live here. They’re growing up and breathing in the air and drinking the water,” Laxon said. “They can’t get away. They are stuck down here in this little bowl in between these hills with all of these noxious fumes and all the other stuff.”For decades , Pennsylvania has worked to plug its tens of thousands of abandoned oil and gas wells.
该州不仅留存着19世纪传统油气产业遗留下来的数千口无主废弃井，还有数千口较新的废弃井。归根结底，确保所有这些废弃井都被封堵是州政府的责任。
Not only does the commonwealth have thousands of orphaned wells left behind from the historic oil and gas industry of the 19th century ; there are also thousands of newer abandoned ones . In the end, the state is responsible for ensuring all of them are plugged.
环保局一直在努力解决这个问题，但废弃井的数量庞大、封堵成本高昂以及州政府资金有限，导致进展零敲碎打——随着新油气井的不断钻探，情况尤为如此。
The DEP has chipped away at the problem, but the sheer number of abandoned wells, the high cost of plugging them, and limited state funding have made progress piecemeal — especially as new wells are drilled.
根据该州最新的石油和天然气报告，2023年钻探了177口新的常规油井，但在同一年，近700家运营商未能提交年度产量报告，而环境部（DEP）正是依赖这些报告来确定哪些油井需要封堵。
According to the state’s most recent oil and gas report, 177 new conventional wells were drilled in 2023, but in the same year, nearly 700 operators failed to submit the annual production reports that the DEP relies on to check which should be plugged.
1984年《宾夕法尼亚州石油和天然气法》要求所有者和运营商在停止生产后一年内封堵其油井。环境部有权执行和强制实施该法律，使用诸如拒绝发放许可证、设立留置权甚至提起刑事指控等手段，迫使所有者采取行动。
The Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Act of 1984 requires owners and operators to plug their wells within one year of ending production. The DEP is authorized to implement and enforce the law, using tools like permit denials, liens, and even criminal referrals to compel owners to act.
然而，根据环境部石油和天然气管理办公室副秘书库尔特·克拉普科夫斯基的说法，执法工作“需要大量时间”。他在2025年6月向宾夕法尼亚州众议院环境和自然资源保护委员会表示，“案件可能需要一年甚至更长时间”。
However, enforcement takes “a significant amount of time,” according to Kurt Klapkowski, deputy secretary of the DEP’s Office of Oil and Gas Management. He told the Pennsylvania House Environmental and Natural Resource Protection Committee that “cases can take upwards of a year or more” in June 2025 .
克拉普科夫斯基在其证词中写道：“环境部继续处理多起涉及不当弃置的案件，这些案件是在五年前启动的。”
“DEP continues to manage several cases involving improper abandonment that were initiated more than five years ago,” Klapkowski wrote in his testimony .
油井所有者在钻井前还需缴纳保证金，作为安全押金。如果他们在油井停止产油后未进行封堵，保证金将被没收归州政府所有。
Well owners also put down a bond before digging the well, which acts as a safety deposit. The bond is forfeited to the state if they do not plug the well after it finishes producing oil.
然而，单口常规油井的保证金仅为2500美元，多口常规油井的保证金为25000美元，而封堵一口油井的成本则从数万到数十万美元不等。倡导者和一些议员曾推动提高保证金价格，或允许环境质量委员会调整其价格，但这些努力尚未成功。
However, the cost of a bond is only $2,500 for a single conventional well or $25,000 for multiple conventional wells, while the cost of plugging a well ranges from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars . Advocates and some lawmakers have pushed to increase the price of bonds or allow the Environmental Quality Board to adjust its price, but those efforts have yet to succeed.
根据社区和经济发展部在2022年底发布的一份报告，行业内的“不合规文化”加剧了这种失衡。
That imbalance is exacerbated by the “culture of non-compliance” in the industry, according to a report by the Department of Community and Economic Development in late 2022.
该研究发现，运营商经常未能报告单口油井的运行状态，导致环境部无法确定某个场地是在使用中还是已被弃置，以及是否必须封堵。
The study found that operators often failed to report the operating status of individual wells, preventing the DEP from determining whether a site is in use or abandoned and must be plugged.
报告称：“未按规定进行报告，剥夺了环保局（DEP）公众获取有关各个油井运行状况的关键信息的权利。”
“The reporting non-compliance denies DEP and the public critical information about the operating status of individual wells,” the report said.
该文件接着写道：“未进行报告似乎已成行业常态，而非个别现象。”
The document continued: “the failure to report seems to be an industry-wide rule rather than the exception.”
报告还发现，尽管环保局可以强制油井封堵作业人员加大力度，但该机构在其总法律顾问办公室和地区油气作业局（特别是实地检查人员和执法人员）方面仍需要增派人手，以便“切实加强监管”。该州通过几种不同的方式为废弃油气井的封堵提供资金，主要取决于许可证和影响费。
It also found that while the DEP can compel well pluggers to step up, the agency needs additional staffing in its Office of Chief Counsel and Bureau of District Oil and Gas Operations, particularly field inspectors and enforcement personnel, to “effectively administer increased oversight.”The state funds the plugging of abandoned oil and gas wells a few different ways, largely depending on permitting and impact fees.
去年夏天，立法人员还在州预算中向一个专门用于封堵废弃油井的基金拨款1900万美元。但这笔资金并不直接用于支付给封堵作业承包商；而是用于支持环保局负责管理和检查油气井的团队。
Last summer, lawmakers also appropriated $19 million to a fund dedicated to plugging abandoned wells in the state budget. But that money doesn’t go directly toward paying contractors for plugging; it supports the DEP’s team that manages and inspects oil and gas wells.
更多的资金将通过《基础设施投资和就业法案》（Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act）提供的联邦资金到位，以解决这一问题。总体而言，宾夕法尼亚州预计到2030年将获得近4亿美元的资金。
More money, in the form of federal funds from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, is coming to address the issue. In total, Pennsylvania is slated to receive nearly $400 million through 2030.
截至目前，该州收到的资金刚过总额的一半——约为2.14亿美元。据环保局发言人尼尔·谢德（Neil Shader）称，截至去年7月，宾夕法尼亚州已花费了其中的3180万美元——这涵盖了该机构过去五年中完成的大多数油井封堵费用。
So far, the state has received just over half of that total sum — about $214 million. According to DEP spokesperson Neil Shader, Pennsylvania has spent $31.8 million of that as of last July — which has covered the costs of most of the well plugging the agency has done over the past five years.
除了这些资金外，该州还使用了来自环保局（EPA）、能源部和美国森林服务局的联邦资金来封堵油井。
Alongside those funds, the state also used federal money from the EPA, Department of Energy, and U.S. Forest Service to plug wells.
据环保局称，过去五年中，宾夕法尼亚州总共封堵了近500口油井。今年，该州已封堵了113口油井。即便以这样加快的速度，环保局仍然无法跟上进度。数千口油井仍未封堵。
In total, Pennsylvania has plugged nearly 500 wells over the past five years, according to the DEP. This year, the state has plugged 113 wells. Even at that accelerated pace, the DEP can’t keep up. Thousands remain unplugged.
“投入更多资源，总能取得更多成果，”克拉普科夫斯基在2025年6月的一场委员会听证会上对议员们说道。“但这既不快，也不容易，更不便宜。”拉克森则表示，她对联邦资金能否在宾夕法尼亚州产生实际影响持怀疑态度。
“We can always do more with more,” Klapkowski told lawmakers at a committee hearing in June 2025 . “It’s not quick, it’s not easy, it’s not cheap.”Laxon said she’s skeptical that federal funding will have an impact in Pennsylvania.
她说，自己之所以有这样的看法，是因为州环境保护局（DEP）。
She feels this way, she said, because of the DEP.
拉克森在“拯救我们的溪流”组织任职期间一直与该机构合作。这位退休人员表示，她曾报告过一些水井，但发现该机构并未在公共地图上更新这些信息。
Laxon has worked with the agency throughout her time at Save Our Streams. The retiree said she’s reported wells and seen the agency fail to update its public map with the new information.
“我们发现了一排20口井，但DEP的地图上却没有列出任何一口，”拉克森回忆道。“我们当然把情况告诉了他们，但他们坚称我们的GPS坐标记录有误。”
“We found 20 wells in a line, and none were listed on a DEP map,” Laxon recounted. “We of course told them about it. And they insisted we had documented the GPS coordinates wrong.”
谢德表示，该机构“无法针对具体个案发表评论”，除非“知道具体是哪些水井被识别出来”。但他补充说，DEP在将某个地点添加到地图前会采取多项措施进行确认，以“确保被报告为废弃或无人管理的水井，并非与现有运营商有关”。据谢德介绍，这些措施包括实地核实、对DEP记录进行行政审查，以及调查确认水井是否不存在责任方。
Shader said the agency “can’t speak to specific instances” without “knowing which specific wells were identified.”But he added that the DEP takes several steps to confirm a site before adding it to the map to “ensure that wells reported to DEP as orphaned or abandoned are not associated with an existing operator.”Those steps, according to Shader, include a field verification, an administrative review of DEP records, and an investigation to ensure there’s no responsible party for the well.
拉克森还指出DEP如何使用其已获得的联邦资金。此前，Spotlight PA的一项分析发现，每口水井的封堵成本约为10万美元。拉克森质疑为何成本如此高昂，并批评了优先封堵那些最容易封堵的水井的决定。“这笔钱到底花到哪里去了？”她问道。
Laxon also pointed to the DEP’s use of the federal funds it has already received. A Spotlight PA analysis previously found that the cost to plug each well was roughly $100,000 . Laxon questioned why the cost was so high and criticized the decision to focus on the wells that were easiest to plug . “Where did this money go?” she asked.
去年，克拉普科夫斯基在向州众议院环境与资源能源委员会作证时表示，平均封堵成本已降至6.9万美元。
In testimony to the state House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee last year , Klapkowski said the average plugging cost had dropped to $69,000.
肯塔基州和俄克拉荷马州等拥有历史悠久石油钻探产业的其他州，在封堵废弃油井方面也遇到过类似的问题。全国非营利性油气井封堵组织“井道基金会”（Well Done Foundation）的主席柯蒂斯·舒克（Curtis Shuck）将这项工作称为“一项历时数代人的解决方案”。舒克估计，封堵一口井的费用从6 万美元到40万美元不等。
Other states with historical oil drilling industries, like Kentucky and Oklahoma , have had similar issues plugging abandoned oil wells. Curtis Shuck, president of the Well Done Foundation, a nonprofit that plugs oil and gas wells across the country, called the work a “generations-long solution.”Shuck estimates that plugging a well can cost anywhere from $60,000 to $400,000.
舒克说：“这个问题虽然规模庞大，但仍然是可以解决的。它确实能带来改变。我确实认为这对人们来说超级重要。”
“This problem, while the scale is massive, is still solvable. It really does make a difference. I do think that’s super important to people,” Shuck said.
如今，拉克森（Laxon）的重点是教导他人如何寻找油井，而不是自己再去四处搜寻。
These days, Laxon focuses on teaching others how to spot wells rather than going on the scavenger hunts herself.
2021年，拉克森被诊断出患有癌症，由于联邦医疗保险（Medicare）报销方面的并发症，她直到第二年才得以接受治疗。经过六个星期的治疗和放疗后，她很难恢复体力。从那以后，她不得不退居幕后。
In 2021, Laxon was diagnosed with cancer, and due to complications with her Medicare coverage, she was only able to get treatment the following year. After six weeks of treatment and radiation, she had a hard time recovering. Since then, she’s had to take a step back.
拉克森说：“我的身体状况已经无法像过去那样去树林里了。这确实很耗费精力。我再也没有那份力气和耐力了。”如今，她会带着人们和倡导组织参观布拉德福德及周边地区。她曾带领“社会责任医师组织”（Physicians for Social Responsibility）和“食品与水资源观察”（Food and Water Watch）组织进行参观，但她不再独自前往阿勒格尼国家森林（Allegheny National Forest）。
“I’m not in any shape to go out in the woods the way I used to,” Laxon said. “It does take a lot out of you. I don’t have the strength and the stamina anymore.”Nowadays she takes people and advocacy organizations on tours of Bradford and the surrounding areas. She’s led tours with Physicians for Social Responsibility and Food and Water Watch, but she no longer goes out into the Allegheny National Forest by herself.
对这项工作造成的另一个打击是，“拯救我们的河流”（Save Our Streams）组织的一名核心成员生病并搬走了。这让拉克森觉得自己孤立无援。不过，她说她推动变革的脚步还没有停止。
Another blow to the effort was a lead member of Save Our Streams falling ill and moving away. That left Laxon feeling like she was on her own. Still, she says she’s not done pushing for change yet.
拉克森表示，她目前看不到“拯救我们的河流”组织未来的发展方向。她解释说，没有足够 的常规成员或领导者。因此，她现在正投身于地方政治，比如加入当地的绿党分支。不过，她希望最终会有人回来接过这一重任。
Laxon said she doesn’t see a path forward for Save Our Streams right now. There aren’t enough regular members or leaders, she explained. So now she’s getting involved in local politics, like the local chapter of the Green Party. Still, she hopes someone will eventually come back and take up the mantle.
“我一直在努力宣传这件事，因为迟早会有人——你知道的，某个新出现的人——脱颖而出，带领大家前进，”拉克森说道。
“I keep trying to spread the word because sooner or later, somebody’s, you know, some new person coming up is going to catch fire and lead the way forward,” Laxon said.
这篇报道最初由Spotlight PA发布，并通过与美联社的合作进行传播。
This story was originally published by Spotlight PA and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.