BREEN – After several months of trying to get the state of Colorado’s attention about a leaking natural gas well on his property near Hesperus, landowner Randy Kennedy has finally succeeded.
The well – an old, plugged gas well that has been venting methane into the air and soil – is scheduled to be re-plugged early this month.
Getting to this point was anything but easy, Kennedy said.
When he purchased the 80-acre parcel that had been in his family for generations, he planned to revive the farm his father and grandfather once worked. But he noticed a patch of ground where nothing would grow. Aerial imagery from Google Maps and the La Plata County GIS system shows a circular barren spot on the property.
At the center of that circle sits a gas well originally plugged in 1969. The well’s last state inspection was in the 1980s, according to state records. Earlier this year, Kennedy visited the site and noticed something was off.
“I went down there one day and I noticed that I could hear something,” he said. “It had just had some moisture, and I thought I could see something bubbling. I thought, ‘That doesn’t look right.’”
Kennedy first contacted the state in February 2025, without success. Months passed before anyone acknowledged his messages, he said.
“When I first called, they told me the records showed it had been plugged, so their hands were tied,” Kennedy said. “I’ve called the state starting in February probably over half a dozen times. They never pick up. So I’ve left messages. They will not call me back. I don’t know what the deal is. I even called the federal site that has to do with hazards and hazardous material and pipelines.”
He eventually took matters into his own hands and dug into the well, which had been covered by dirt. Kennedy found a large leak, as the well made an obvious hissing sound indicating gas exiting into the atmosphere. The soil surrounding the well was black.
The Durango Herald reached out to the state with questions on Oct. 21, a day before La Plata County Commissioner Elizabeth Philbrick also contacted state officials. On Oct. 22, someone from the state finally called Kennedy back. Since then, he said, progress has moved quickly.
“That was not an acceptable experience for him, and we should have done better in responding to his concerns. Hard stop,” said Kristin Kemp, spokeswoman for the Energy and Carbon Management Commission.
Kemp said the agency looked into why Kennedy’s messages went unanswered. The lapse appeared to stem from two factors, she said: front office protocols for returning calls were not consistently followed, and the voicemail system may have malfunctioned intermittently.
She said that once ECMC staff became aware of Kennedy’s attempts to report the leak, they responded promptly based on the severity of the issue.
Kennedy agreed the state’s recent actions have been appropriate.
“I’m happy with the response I’ve been seeing so far,” he said. “If a rig actually shows up here the first week of December, then I’ll know what they’re saying is actually what they’re going to do. I understand it takes time. You can’t just up and do stuff right away. But my biggest frustration is that no one would return a phone call.”
To ensure a faster response, Kemp recommended that residents use the complaint tool on the agency’s website if they need to request a site investigation. The complaint line is typically answered within 48 hours, she said.
“A release from a plugged well is exceedingly uncommon,” she said.
Colorado has more than 54,000 plugged wells, and only five have failed in the past five years. The cause of the failure on Kennedy’s property remains under investigation.
“We are first focused on getting it plugged, and then secondarily we’ll investigate why it happened,” Kemp said. “But the more pressing matter is getting it plugged, regardless of the why.”
Because the well was previously plugged, it does not qualify as an orphan well under state rules. Whether the state will also conduct soil remediation – which it typically performs during orphan-well projects – remains undecided, Kemp said.
jbowman@durangoherald.com
