U.S. Water News Online
BATON ROUGE, La. -- Legislation to change the way Louisiana landowners can sue for damages to groundwater beneath their property stems from a lawsuit brought 10 years ago against Shell Oil.
When Shell Oil's 30-year lease on Calcasieu Parish land belonging to J. Michael Veron's family ran out in 1991, it left land so damaged that grass would no longer grow, said Veron, a Lake Charles attorney.
Instead of restoring the property to its original condition as required by the contract, he said, Shell left its equipment and extensive contamination from leaky salt water injection wells.
He said his family sued after a year of fruitless negotiation, and the suit was tried in May 2000. The jury awarded the Verons about $50 million, more than half of which is supposed to be used to clean up any damage to water in the Chicot Aquifer beneath the property.
Shell appealed, saying the judgment should have been limited to the value of the property, far below the millions awarded, and that Veron's expert never tested for damage to the aquifer. Shell also argued private landowners could not be compensated for aquifer contamination, noting groundwater is a public resource.
Eventually the matter reached the state Supreme Court.
While some issues are still being considered, the court ruled in February that Veron and his family, not the state, have control of the money to rehabili tate the aquifer. And nobody can make them use it to clean up the groundwater.
Veron said that is moot: ``We will definitely spend the money on cleanup -- there is no question on that. It would be stupid not to; all you are doing is leaving the problem to your children.''
Veron's family has not yet received any money from Shell.
But the high court ruling alarmed some lawmakers and Gov. Mike Foster's office, prompting legislation to change the way landowners can sue for damages to groundwater beneath their property.
``That surprised everybody, that all this money could be given to a private party to clean up a public asset,'' said Rep. William Daniel, D-Baton Rouge, sponsor of a bill being pushed by the Foster administration and the oil and gas industry.
The bill narrowly won approval from the Senate Environmental Quality Committee, in a 4-3 vote.
Originally drafted to be applied to Veron's lawsuit, the bill has since been significantly reworked and now would only be retroactive to lawsuits filed after 1993.
Under the proposal, the state's Departments of Environmental Quality and Natural Resources would automatically intervene in any lawsuit in which the plaintiffs claim groundwater is in danger or has been damaged.
If a jury or judge finds that the groundwater is in jeopardy, the judge would oversee the remediation, perhaps appointing an expert to come up with a plan, as well as considering agency, defendant and plaintiff proposals. The groundwater immediately beneath the surface would be exempt from this legislation, Daniel said.
While proponents of the bill say the changes are necessary to make sure any money awarded to remediate groundwater gets spent on fixing damage to the public water resources, landowners and trial attorneys said Daniel's bill wasn't the proper solution.
The procedure would bog down the already lengthy legal process, they said, as well as draw a distinction between the surface property rights of landowners and groundwater that is not easy to define.
``Damage to groundwater is both a private and public injury,'' said Bill Goodell, an attorney for the Roy O. Martin Lumber Co., which owns 600,000 acres in the state.
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