LAKE CHARLES (AP) – The Environmental Protection Agency says it will begin in August cleaning up a nearly three-mile portion of Bayou Verdine, one of the Calcasieu Estuary’s dirtiest waterways.
Activist Charlie Atherton, of the Calcasieu Estuary Environmental Task Force, said the development is welcome news after environmentalists pushed for 30 years to get the waterway cleaned.
up.
Bayou Verdine is a small Calcasieu River system tributary. Federal and state scientists have said for years that dangerous chemicals and industrial trash that originated at a refinery and industrial plant ended up in the bayou. The substances eventually settled into the water bed, contaminating fisheries and wildlife.
“From day one, we made it very clear we just wanted it cleaned up. We had to do what we had to do to force industry to sit down with the federal and state agencies and respond to the public,” Atherton said.
Environmental consultants in Baton Rouge created the cleanup plan, which hazardous materials workers will use to dredge up contaminated soil and then pump water and waterbed to a pond on Trousdale Road. Eventually, the secured pond will be covered. Collected natural and manmade debris will be sent to a landfill.
EPA officials intend to have the project completed by 2015.
Numerous studies were conducted, but the federal government started major research projects in the late 1990s. One, released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Louisiana Department of Enviornmental Quality in 2010, said ConocoPhillips and Sasol North America, which have facilities near the bayou, both exceeded the amount of chemical discharges allowed by law into Bayou Verdine.
The report said Conoco was responsible for the release of ethylene dichloride, crude oil, diesel, hexavalent chromium and cobalt. Identified substances from Sasol were EDC, benzene, toluene, chromium, zinc, chloroform and methyl chloride.
The two companies spent $12 million years ago to clean up a section of the bayou.
ConocoPhillips and Sasol have agreed to a $6.4 million settlement to address the three-mile stretch of contaminated water and sediment, where the newest round of work will begin south of the I-10 bridge. Both companies also agreed to pay about $10 million in cleanup costs.
When the final phase of work is completed, ConocoPhillips and Sasol will have spent $28 million in fines and hazardous waste removal.
“ConocoPhillips has been working closely for several years with federal, state and local officials on an effective cleanup plan for Bayou Verdine,” ConocoPhillips adviser Janet Grothe said in an email. “The approval of the Removal Action Work Plan is a milestone in the process of preparing to implement the cleanup that will benefit the people and wildlife of Louisiana.”
Attempts to contact local Sasol officials for comment were unsuccessful.
 
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