As oil and gas companies are increasingly unable or unwilling to properly close down and clean up well sites, the province is stepping in with additional money.
As the tally grows, the province is left with contaminated sites, a leaking wastewater pond and an escalating cleanup bill estimated to be in the hundreds of millions.
On the cusp of a major fracking boom, B.C.'s Oil and Gas Commission is already struggling to keep up with the ballooning cost of cleaning up inactive and, at times, contaminated sites that have grown by 48 per cent in the last two years.
