KEITHVILLE – Notices of potential penalty have been issued to Chesapeake Energy Corp. and its contractor, Schlumberger Technology Corp., in connection with the ongoing investigation into the deaths last year of 17 cows that ingested liquid spilled from a natural gas well site in south Caddo Parish.
The state Department of Environmental Quality issued the notices on Jan. 15, but did not mail them until Jan. 19. Each company has 10 days to either request a meeting with DEQ or submit comments prior to enforcement action.
But the timeline starts once the certified letters are received, spokesman Tim Beckstron said today. “We’ve not gotten a return receipt yet.”
The cows died April 28 in a pasture owned by Cecil and Tyler Williams in Spring Ridge. Schlumberger was performing routine fracturing operations for well-owner Chesapeake when some of the fluid leaked from the well pad then into the pasture after a rain.
Elevated chlorides, a salt, as well as oil and grease and some organic compounds were detected in the liquid.
A preliminary necropsy report by the Louisiana Animal Disease Medical Laboratory at LSU in Baton Rouge is among documents in the DEQ public records database. The report does not determine the cause of death and notes that a toxicology report was pending.
However, the report states the one cow tested suffered from severe pulmonary hemorrhage and edema. Witnesses to the cows’ deaths described them as bellowing and bleeding before falling over death.
Read more about the specific violations in tomorrow's newspaper or at www.shreveporttimes.com
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