Cleanup to start again at Marine Shale Processors

Posted: Jan 31, 2013 12:39 PM by Tonya LaCoste
Updated: Jan 31, 2013 12:41 PM

Cleanup at the old Marine Shale Processors site near Amelia in St. Mary Parish will start again in February. "DEQ, the Department of Justice, the Environmental Protection Agency and the primary responsible parties have entered into a cooperative agreement which will conclude with the cleanup of the waste and equipment. The process could last up to 100 days," Louisiana Department of Environment Quality spokesperson Jean Kelly
said. Portions of the facility will be dismantled and hazardous waste, which was stored on the site will be removed.

Marine Shale Processors took over the site in 1984 and converted it from a lime manufacturing facility to a waste process treatment facility. At first, the company used the lime kiln on site to incinerate non-hazardous oilfield wastes, but a year later started using the kiln to incinerate hazardous wastes. Marine Shale used the ash to build up and expand the site and stored some of it on the ground, in tanks and in barges. "MSP claimed that its facility was a boiler/industrial furnace facility used to recycle incinerated waste residues into construction aggregate. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency disagreed and MSP's BIF permit was denied," according to DEQ.

After the site is cleaned up, the soil and groundwater will be tested. "The testing will be analyzed and will be used to conduct a risk assessment and to determine a final remedy and what other actions need to be taken to bring the site up to return the site to commercial use," Kelly said.

For more information on the Cooperative Agreement between Marine Shale and DEQ, or for more information on the Marine Shale cleanup, go to http://www.deq.louisiana.gov/portal/Default.aspx?tabid=2755.