Abandoned wells are the focal point of a renewed effort to clean up the wilderness of New Mexico, a project that even U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh has decided to work on with elected leaders.
KOB 4 news reported that Walsh took the trip to New Mexico to tour the site of an abandoned well near Farmington on Aug. 25 and was joined by Congresswoman Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-NM).
"You can't describe it as anything other than a mess, but it's a mess that is on a daily basis harming our environment, and it's not producing anything of good for anybody," Leger Fernandez told KOB 4 news.
While at the site of the abandoned well, both Walsh and Leger Fernandez spoke about the bipartisan infrastructure bills that would include money to cap "orphaned well sites" and would provide $21 billion to environmental remediation to help clean up the area that houses these abandoned wells, according to KOB 4 news.
According to the same article, Victor Snober, the mayor of Aztec, said that legislation such as the infrastructure bills would help create new jobs in his city and other areas.