SANTA FE – A $54 million project to stabilize a decommissioned brine well that’s threatening an area of Carlsbad is ready to begin.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reports that the Carlsbad Brine Well Remediation Authority signed off on the final proposals to acquire access to land in the area.
It means the process of buttressing the well to prevent a massive collapse could start Sept. 30.
That’s 11 years after the well was closed down.
The brine well was drilled in the 1970s into a shallow layer of salt about 500 feet below the surface.
It operated for decades, producing nearly 7 million barrels of brine for oilfield use.
The process also hollowed out an area the size of two football fields, eventually destabilizing the land above.
