Searching for 'slimy, shiny, brownish stuff': A retiree helps track down Pa.'s abandoned oil wells

After exploring town, Laxon leads people into Allegheny National Forest to find abandoned oil wells.

Parking on the side of the highway, she guides visitors carefully through swampy woods, warning ...

Barbara Laxon stands next to an abandoned, uncapped oil well near Bradford, Pa., on Sept.

Credit: AP/Kate Huangpu Driving into Bradford, Barbara Laxon tells people to look out for the flare coming from the oil refinery running along the town.

At 74, Laxon spends much of her free time taking people on tours to show the traces of the oil and gas industry in her town — from an oil jack located in the parking lot of a McDonald’s to hidden wellbores near a local elementary school.

After exploring town, Laxon leads people into Allegheny National Forest to find abandoned oil wells.

Parking on the side of the highway, she guides visitors carefully through swampy woods, warning them to watch their step.

“We would take the little side roads and just walk up the roads and see if we could see anything,” Laxon said.

“You could see the slimy, shiny, brownish stuff trailing down the side of the hill.” She didn’t envision spending her retirement this way.

The former occupational therapist moved to Pennsylvania from Florida about a decade ago to be closer to her son.

Soon after, she became involved in Save Our Streams — an environmental advocacy group that seeks to plug abandoned oil wells in Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania has thousands of these wells.

The full number is unknown, but estimates range from around 20,000 to as high as 750,000.

They can emit methane, a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, and leak toxic substances that pollute their surroundings.

Barbara Laxon stands next to an abandoned, uncapped oil well near Bradford, Pa., on Sept.

Credit: AP/Kate Huangpu Driving into Bradford, Barbara Laxon tells people to look out for the flare coming from the oil refinery running along the town.

At 74, Laxon spends much of her free time taking people on tours to show the traces of the oil and gas industry in her town — from an oil jack located in the parking lot of a McDonald’s to hidden wellbores near a local elementary school.

After exploring town, Laxon leads people into Allegheny National Forest to find abandoned oil wells.

Parking on the side of the highway, she guides visitors carefully through swampy woods, warning them to watch their step.

“We would take the little side roads and just walk up the roads and see if we could see anything,” Laxon said.

“You could see the slimy, shiny, brownish stuff trailing down the side of the hill.” She didn’t envision spending her retirement this way.

The former occupational therapist moved to Pennsylvania from Florida about a decade ago to be closer to her son.

Soon after, she became involved in Save Our Streams — an environmental advocacy group that seeks to plug abandoned oil wells in Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania has thousands of these wells.

The full number is unknown, but estimates range from around 20,000 to as high as 750,000.

They can emit methane, a greenhouse gas 25 times more potent at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, and leak toxic substances that pollute their surroundings.

According to state law, operators of wells are responsible for plugging them.