Oilfield Restoration Commission

OILFIELD WASTE DISPOSAL SITE CLEANED UP

--One of DNR’s top accomplishments of 2003--

The site of an abandoned commercial oilfield-waste disposal facility near the community of Cankton in St. Landry Parish was transformed in 2003 to a vast stretch of freshly turned earth. This large-scale cleanup, implemented over a four-year period, came about because of the efforts of committed citizens, two major oil and gas exploration and production companies, and the Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

For over ten years, the 80-acre site was used as a commercial exploration and production waste disposal site by more than 300 companies for disposal of sludge and other oilfield waste products. Before the cleanup, the area was marked by huge, rusting oil-storage tanks containing produced salt water and sludge, as well as stagnant pits of exploration and production waste and rainwater.

Working with the DNR Office of Conservation, the corporations ExxonMobil and Unocal created a company called Margone LLC specifically to clean up the waste site, formerly operated by MAR Service, Inc. While the Office of Conservation utilizes monies from the Oilfield Site Restoration Fund (collected as fees from the oil and gas industry) to close and clean up some oilfield-waste sites, Margone is an example of a major cleanup effort being paid for by companies that used the former site.

Under the regulatory oversight of the Office of Conservation and with the office’s assistance, Margone tracked down those many companies, offering each one an opportunity to cash out its share of the $4.2 million needed for the cleanup. With its cash-out, each company would be relieved from any future liability from the site.

Margone will continue to monitor the site for five years to ensure that the cleanup is effective and the site continues to meet all state requirements. If compliant, the site will then be declared closed, and Margone LLC will be relieved from any future liability from the site.

“State Representative Clara Baudoin and Cankton Mayor Don Menard put into action their leadership and drive on this project and kept it going,” said Commissioner of Conservation Jim Welsh. “Add to that a whole bunch of good people from the Town of Cankton, who showed that persistence works. And I am personally very proud of the work done by our engineers and staff.”