KSLA News 12 Shreveport, Louisiana |Chemicals suspected in cattle deaths

Chemicals suspected in cattle deaths

SPRING RIDGE, La. (AP) - Sixteen cattle have died in in northwest Louisiana and investigators collected water samples Wednesday to determine if pollutants from a nearby natural gas well might have tainted their pastureland, a state environmental official said.

"It looks like some type of production fluid has run offsite and the cows got into it, ingested it," said Otis Randle, regional manager for the state Department of Environmental Quality.

The owner had about 40 beef cows with calves in the pasture, said Sam Irwin, spokesman for the state Department of Agriculture and Forestry. He said 16 cows died but all of the calves - he did not know how many or whether they were old enough to sell for beef - were fine. Tissue samples from the dead cattle and one survivor were sent to Texas A&M for analysis, Irwin said.

Randle cautioned that no determination has been made so far whether a chemical spill occurred and inspectors were collecting the water samples for testing.

Randle said he will request results as soon as possible and hopes to get them within a week. He said investigators found white, milky puddles here and there both on the well site and in a 400 square-yard area just inside the pasture.

Investigators couldn't tell where it came from, he said. "As soon as we get results back, we'll be able to identify the product. When we do that, we'll know whose they were and where it came from," Randle said.

He said the well's owner, Chesapeake Energy, vacuumed up the puddles Wednesday and planned to take soil samples and excavate the affected area Thursday.

The livestock died Tuesday near rain puddles in their pasture, said a Caddo Parish sheriff's spokeswoman, Cindy Chadwick. Local residents reported the cattle were foaming at the mouth, bellowing and had bleeding tongues.

The pasture fence is about 150 feet from the well, said Kevin McCotter, director of corporate development in Louisiana for Chesapeake Energy, which owns the well.

Randle said he asked representatives from Chesapeake and oil service company Schlumberger Ltd. to identify any fluid that might have run into the pasture, but they said they had no indication of a spill.

McCotter said the well's crew was injecting fluids at high pressure to break down the shale and release natural gas.

Chadwick said air quality tests Tuesday night did not indicate any danger.

Caroline "C.C." Canady, president of United Neighbors for Oil and Gas Rights, said she saw at least four cows collapse and die.  "The cows' tongues hanging, bleeding off front and back, foaming at the mouth and bellowing" she said.

William Dubose said he captured video of yellowish-green fumes that smelled like a combination of antifreeze and petrochemical.

The cattle were on a pasture south of Spring Ridge, a community about 20 miles south of Shreveport.

The parish landfill refused to take the carcasses, so they were taken to the owners' land for burial, Irwin said.

      (Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)