JENNINGS, La. (AP) – An abandoned industrial facility just northeast of Jennings has been proposed for listing as a federal Superfund site, a designation reserved for some of most difficult hazardous waste cleanups.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday that the site of the old EVR-Wood Treating facility and the adjacent Evangeline Refining Company has been proposed for inclusion in the Superfund program.
The EPA said the land where the facilities once operated is contaminated with arsenic, chromium, copper and other hazardous substances that pose a threat to nearby wetlands and fisheries in area waterways.
Tom Harris, with the state Department of Environmental Quality’s remediation division, tells The Advocate (http://bit.ly/A0tS4J ) contamination at the site was documented several years ago, but the cleanup work will likely run “into the millions of dollars.”
He said the contamination dates as far back as the 1930s and 1940s, when “housekeeping and environmental concerns were not a high priority.”
For instance, to preserve lumber, the wood was often thrown into a large, creosote-filled hole, which was filled up again and again as the creosote seeped down into the soil, he said.
“Of course, a lot of that went into the ground,” Harris said.
He said contamination has affected soil and ground water as deep as 35 feet.
The EPA will take the lead on cleanup, but Harris said there is a range of approaches, from the most expensive option of digging up all the contaminated dirt to the less costly option of capping the contamination with a few feet of clay.
The EPA has set a 60-day public comment period on the proposed Superfund listing.
The cleanup approach and timeline have yet to be determined.
“Typically, these sites can take several years or longer to clean up,” EPA spokeswoman Jennah Durant said.
Harris said none of the current property owners, to his knowledge, are considered legally responsible or capable of paying for the lingering contamination.
Part of the EPA’s Superfund process includes research to determine if any company or person can be identified as responsible for a portion of the cleanup expense, said Michael Hebert, who is overseeing the Acadia Parish site for the EPA.
The site in Acadia Parish was one of 10 proposed and nine finalized Superfund sites across the U.S., the EPA announced Tuesday. It was the only site proposed in Louisiana.
 
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