Abstract |
The Bayou Sorrel site is located in Iberville Parish, Louisiana approximately 20 miles southwest of Baton Rouge, LA. Fifty acres of the 265-acre site have been used for waste disposal. The waste disposal areas consist of four landfills: a spent lime cell, a crushed drum cell, four covered liquid waste ponds, and a land farm. The remaining acres are covered by dense brush and trees. The entire site has a marshy, bayou-type environment and is prone to flooding and poor drainage. Early in 1977, the Environmental Purification Advancement Corporation (EPAC) began operating the Bayou Sorrel site. A sister firm, Clean Land Air Water, Inc. (CLAW) operated an injection well approximately six miles south of the site. EPAC operations included landfarming, open liquid impoundments, drum burial and landfilling of chemically fixated wastes. The fixation process is unknown but may have included lime, cement, and native soils. EPAC and CLAW were two separate operations, however, it was suggested that wastes from the injection well were diverted to EPAC when process problems at the well caused a bottleneck. In the summer of 1978, a truck driver died at the site. |