Wednesday, 30 September 2026 09:00 AM
Environmental, Social and Governance
Anniversary of Anderson #7 well plugging in Montana becomes catalyst for "A Drop in the Bucket" campaign inviting public to take action on 3.5 million orphan wells
RED LODGE, MT / ACCESS Newswire / September 30, 2026 / Six years ago today, a small nonprofit plugged a single orphan oil well on a Montana wheat farm while the world was consumed by a pandemic. Critics dismissed it as "a drop in the bucket." Today, the Well Done Foundation marked the anniversary of that well by announcing its 130th orphan well project and launching a national campaign built on the very words meant to discourage it.
The Anderson #7 well in Toole County, Mont., was the third orphan well plugged by the Well Done Foundation when it was sealed on Sept. 30, 2020. Drilled in 1929 in Montana's historic Kevin-Sunburst Oil Field, the well had been abandoned since the early 1990s when its last operator, Cavalier Petroleum, filed for bankruptcy. For nearly three decades, local farmer Sam Stewart worked his land around leaking wellheads that no company or agency had come to address.
A Vice News crew traveled to Montana to document the effort. The resulting coverage, which now has more than 1.7 million views on YouTube, introduced a national audience to the estimated 3.5 million orphan oil and gas wells scattered across the United States, and to the former oil and gas executive who believed the private sector could be part of the solution.
It also brought skepticism. With millions of wells abandoned and leaking methane and other harmful gases, some questioned what difference a single nonprofit could make plugging one well at a time.
"I've worn that 'bucket' comment as a badge of honor ever since," said Curtis Shuck, founder and chairman of the Well Done Foundation. "They were right about the scope. Three and a half million is an overwhelming number. But they were wrong about what one well could prove. Anderson #7 proved that the model works: locate it, measure it, plug it, restore the land. Then move to the next one."
From one well to 130
After Anderson #7, the foundation returned to the same 40-acre Anderson Lease and plugged the remaining eight orphan wells by fall 2021. Nearly a century after oil production began on the parcel and roughly three decades after the wells were abandoned, the lease was fully restored to productive farmland.
Since then, the organization's work has expanded to 26 states to measure leaking methane gas, plug wells and eliminate more than 5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions. In the past year alone, the foundation plugged 37 orphan wells at Deep Fork National Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma, one of the largest single-site orphan well projects on federal land.
The National Park Service recently signed a cooperative agreement with the Well Done Foundation to assess nearly 700 orphan wells across 54 national parks in 26 states. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Oracle Corp. and dozens of other partners have also entrusted the organization with well-plugging and assessment work on sensitive lands.
The foundation has also created a workforce development pipeline, training experienced oilfield workers to apply their drilling knowledge to plugging and measurement through its Qualified Measurement Specialist certification program.
"A Drop in the Bucket" campaign
To mark the sixth anniversary of Anderson #7, the Well Done Foundation on Tuesday launched "A Drop in the Bucket," a public campaign inviting individuals, corporations and organizations to contribute to the effort to address the nation's orphan well crisis.
"A drop is not insignificant because the bucket is large," Shuck said. "A drop is how you begin filling it. Every well we plug is methane no longer escaping into the atmosphere. Every acre we restore is land returned to productive use. We're asking people to add their drop."
The campaign directs supporters to welldonefoundation.org, where they can donate to fund well-plugging projects, learn about orphan wells in their state and share the foundation's work. A special edition of the foundation's Carbon Wildcat video series, in which Shuck returns to the Anderson #7 story, accompanies the campaign launch.
Carbon credits born from well plugging
As part of the campaign, the foundation is relaunching its Climate Benefit Unit™ (CBU), a registered carbon credit representing one metric ton of CO₂e permanently eliminated through certified orphan well plugging. WDF was a market disrupter, creating and delivering the first orphan well carbon credit as the initial sponsor of the methodology with the American Carbon Registry. WDF led the way with a market-based approach to scalability.
Each CBU is independently verified for additionality and permanence, rated BB by BeZero Carbon and registered on the blockchain through CarbonPath. WDF is disrupting again: while similar carbon credits are $25 or more per metric ton, CBUs are now available at $7 per metric ton of CO₂e, positioning them among the most affordable high-integrity carbon credits on the market. To learn more or purchase Climate Benefit Units™, visit https://welldonefoundation.org/purchase-carbon-offsets/.
The Environmental Protection Agency estimates there are approximately 3.5 million orphan oil and gas wells in the United States. These wells leak methane, a greenhouse gas more than 80 times as potent as carbon dioxide over a 20-year period, along with volatile organic compounds and other pollutants that can contaminate groundwater and soil. Most were drilled decades ago by companies that no longer exist and have no responsible party to pay for their closure.
###
About the Well Done Foundation: Founded in 2019, the Well Done Foundation mitigates the threat posed by the estimated 3.5 million orphaned oil and gas wells across the United States. WDF locates, measures, plugs, and restores these sites in partnership with landowners, government agencies, corporations, and nonprofits. To date, WDF has plugged more than 130 wells, eliminating over 5 million metric tons of CO₂e emissions. Learn more at welldonefoundation.org.
Media Contact: Dave Tragethon, Communications Director, Well Done Foundation, 503.680.2685 / [email protected]
SOURCE: Well Done Foundation