Company cleans up mercury in north La.

• By AMY WOLD
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Jul 3, 2009 - Page: 11A

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A Houston company sued by Louisiana environmental groups has responded by removing 400 gas line meters containing mercury and plans on cleaning up 800 potentially mercury-laced sites.

According to a stipulated judgment signed Thursday, EnerVest Operating LLC agrees to test and clean up a number of sites in Union, Ouachita and Morehouse parishes.

Barry Kohl, an adjunct professor with the Tulane University department of earth and environmental sciences, said EnerVest already completed removing the mercury-containing meters from company  property.

The cleanup of another 800 sites will occur during the next 10 years, he said.

Kohl said he served as a science expert for the environmental groups involved in the lawsuit.

Representatives from EnerVest were unavailable to comment Thursday.

The settlement is the result of a lawsuit filed during 2007 in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana by several Louisiana environmental groups.

However, before the lawsuit could be heard, the environmental groups and EnerVest agreed to the settlement.

The environmental groups included the Gulf Restoration Network, Louisiana Audubon Council, Louisiana Environmental Action Network and the Sierra Club.

The concern leading to the lawsuit was that mercury-containing meters have been used for decades in Louisiana to measure the flow of natural gas through pipelines.

However, over time, that mercury has been spilled or leaked into the soil, the environmental groups said.

The chemical element mercury can turn into methylmercury in the environment, a substance able to find its way into the food chain through fish and other marine life before eventually being ingested by people, who can suffer health problems as a result of eating mercury-contaminated food.

“The important thing is they’re (EnerVest) the first gas company in the Monroe gas field to agree to clean up their mess,” Kohl said. “They should get credit for being the first.”