Louisiana DEQ oversees completion of remediation efforts for contaminated site in Lafayette

The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality’s (DEQ) Remediation Division recently determined that the West Pinhook site in Lafayette is in compliance and ready for reuse after DEQ actions to ensure the removal of five decades of contaminants.

Since the 1950s, the site was home to businesses, including an oilfield drilling tool rental service, that contributed to soil contamination through diesel and oil discharges. The site’s most recent owner, which acquired it in the mid-1990s, took over the ongoing remediation efforts until 2014, when it submitted samples to the DEQ for approval.

In reviewing samples, the DEQ uses remediation standards established by its Risk Evaluation/Corrective Action Program (RECAP) regulation, which provides the department with consistent requirements as it makes decisions about individual sites. When a site is found to have elevated levels of a hazardous soil or groundwater constituent, the DEQ mandates extraction of the soil or ground water until sampling shows the constituent levels are within the RECAP standards.

At the West Pinhook site, the DEQ supervised the corrective actions undertaken by a contractor, including removing two oil and water separators and a pump. The remediation efforts also required excavating soil from large swathes of the site to remove elements such as chromium, barium, arsenic, diesel and oil.