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DEQ to Test Ground Water in Jennings for Oil-Waste Contamination

Posted on: Wednesday, 12 October 2005, 21:00 CDT

By RICHARD BURGESS

LAFAYETTE - The state Department of Environmental Quality will conduct tests near Jennings to determine if ground water has been contaminated by oilfield waste, agency officials said Tuesday.

What DEQ calls an "area of concern" is located near the community of Evangeline in Acadia Parish about three miles northeast of Jennings.

DEQ staff attorney Lou Buatt said the agency is now identifying residential water wells in the area and will begin testing within a few weeks.

He said the action was spurred by an environmental report prepared in connection with a lawsuit filed against several companies over oil waste contamination in the area, where oil production first began in the early 1900s.

"I think it is actually the oldest oil field in the state," he said.

There are more than 50 oilfield "waste pits" within the 3-square- mile area studied in the report, he said.

The fear is that hazardous contaminants from the oily sludge produced in the drilling process might have leached into surrounding soil and into the upper levels of the Chicot Aquifer, which supplies water to homes in the area.

"We don't know the full extent of the contamination," Buatt said.

He also said the environmental report that was prepared for the lawsuit addressed only one section of a larger area that has a long history of oil production.

"There are also areas (nearby) not covered by this lawsuit," he said. "You would expect to have issues on those properties."

Source: Advocate; Baton Rouge, La.

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