News Release

Big Thicket National Preserve and the Railroad Commission of Texas successfully remove navigational hazards in the Neches River

Neches River

NPS Photo

News Release Date: August 8, 2023

Contact: Whitny Howeth, 409-951-6700

KOUNTZE, Texas – Big Thicket National Preserve, in partnership with the Railroad Commission of Texas (RRC), announced the removal of four navigational hazards of abandoned oil and gas wells located in the Neches River.

The National Park Service (NPS) worked closely over two and a half months with the RRC to oversee the removal of surface casings of four oil wells. These wells were originally plugged by operators in the 1970s and 1980s. Over time due to erosion and migration of the Neches River, the casings became exposed, creating navigational hazards in the waterway. To ensure these wells were remediated to the appropriate safety standards, well casings were cut and removed below the mudline (riverbed).  The river's high-water conditions in combination with the wells being located within the main channel of the river required the use of a barge and cofferdam for worker access and execution.

“Our partnership with the Railroad Commission is vital to the continued work in the preserve to remove abandoned oil and gas wells, which can cause environmental and recreational hazards for our visitors,” said Wayne Prokopetz, superintendent of Big Thicket National Preserve.

“The RRC has had more than 40 years of extensive experience working with plugged wells and any issues that may crop up. We’re glad to be able to lend our technical expertise for projects like this to help federal and state agencies when they reach out to us,” said Clay Woodul, RRC assistant director of the oil and gas division for field operations.

Funding for this project came from the NPS Abandoned Mineral Lands Safety and Resource Protection program. The primary goals of the program are to eliminate public safety hazards, rehabilitate affected natural resources, particularly restoration and maintenance of critical wildlife habitat for species of concern affected by abandoned mineral lands, and stabilize culturally significant abandoned mine sites. Because Big Thicket is one of the NPS’s largest “oil and gas” parks by number of wellbores drilled, this project has increased the park’s ability to mitigate the effect oil and gas has on preserve land.

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Big Thicket National Preserve is in southeast Texas, near the city of Beaumont and 75 miles northeast of Houston. The preserve consists of nine land units and six water corridors encompassing more than 113,000 acres. The Big Thicket, often referred to as a “biological crossroads,” is a transition zone between four distinct vegetation types – the moist eastern hardwood forest, the southwestern desert, the southeastern swamp, and the central prairies. Species from all these different vegetation types come together in the thicket, exhibiting a variety of vegetation and wildlife that has received global interest.