The Well Done Foundation has announced that Texas-based distillery Tito’s Handmade Vodka and the Felty Family Challenge will fund the non-profit’s first well-plugging project of 2022. The well, known as Fenner #2, was installed near Caddo Lake on the Louisiana/Texas border in 1985, and abandoned in 2017.

Crews expect to begin plugging and site restoration at Fenner #2, part of the foundation’s 2022 “Five Bayous Project,” on Jan. 6, 2022.

“We first learned about Well Done Foundation’s incredible work while reading a news article about them and reached out to understand how we could support their initiatives,” says Lisa Huddleson, director of strategic philanthropy for Love, Tito’s, the company’s charitable arm. “We’re honored to join other donors and help WDF kick off the Five Bayous Project to plug abandoned wells.”

Tito’s will also support the foundation on Gish A #35 and Gish A #31 well projects, both in the same region as Fenner #2. The company also plans to fund a WDF Five Bayous project manager position. The role will review emissions on 70 identified wells in the Five Bayous Project scope, search for other orphan wells in the project region, and coordinated plugging and abandonment work.

“Given that both Tito’s and the Felty Family’s home state is Texas, which shares Caddo Lake, we’re thrilled that they have taken an interest and are supporting our work,” Well Done Foundation Chairman Curtis Shuck says. “The Five Bayous make up a highly important and sensitive ecosystem that feeds into Caddo Lake, and we should do everything we can to sustain and protect them and our orphan well projects do just that. We are making a real difference, one well at a time, through reducing greenhouse gas emissions, improving water quality and delivering surface area restorations — air, land and water.”

The Well Done Foundations, founded in 2019, builds partnerships between regulators, owners and adoptive parties to plug “orphan” oil & gas wells. The non-profit is based in Montana but is also building capacity in Pennsylvania, Louisiana and several other states. For more information, or to contribute or sponsor a well plugging project, visit welldonefoundation.org.