While current remedies to protect human health and the environment at a north Baton Rouge superfund site are protective, a new five-year review of the Petro-Processors of Louisiana site says it still has not achieved “Sitewide Ready for Anticipated Use” status.
Baton Rouge-based NPC Services filed the latest five-year review report, and third total, with the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana earlier this month.
A letter dated June 13 indicates the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved the report for the site, which the EPA says measures 77 acres and is located near Scotlandville. It was used as a dumping ground for petrochemical waste in the 1960s and 70s.
A superfund site is any land that has been contaminated by hazardous waste and identified by the EPA as a candidate for cleanup because it poses a risk to human health and/or the environment.
It’s been 32 years since the court issued a consent decree to cleanup the north Baton Rouge site, which includes two areas—one on Brooklawn Drive in the northwestern part of the parish and the other one-and-half miles away along Scenic Highway—used for dumping.
Petrochemical companies gave waste to Petro-Processors of Louisiana, which the U.S. Justice Department sued in 1980 along with other industry defendants for disposing of hazardous waste on the site. An order approving the consent decree was issued in 1984.
According to the report, the Brooklawn area includes lagoons and the adjacent Bayou Baton Rouge area, which crosses U.S. 61 and eventually enters the Mississippi River. The Scenic site was a borrow pit for the construction of the overpass at the U.S. 61 and La. 964, according to the EPA.
According to the EPA’s website, the site is located over “400-foot sands,” a major drinking water aquifer. Fires spontaneously ignited in the upper lagoon in the past, the report notes, and a spill from the lagoons contaminated a nearby ranch in 1969, killing 30 cattle.
—Alexandria Burris
