In Louisiana, many private estates and businesses sit atop sites where historic oil and gas operations left behind heavy metals, petroleum hydrocarbons, and other hidden threats.When these toxins leak into the soil and groundwater on your land, you face risks to your health, your family, and your property’s value. Legacy litigation gives landowners a clear path to hold past polluters accountable.
What Is Legacy Litigation?
Legacy litigation is a legal process that lets property owners hold past polluters responsible for contamination on their land. It focuses on harm caused by historic oil and gas operations, even if they stopped or sold the land decades ago. By filing a Legacy litigation claim, landowners are able to seek compensation for cleanup costs, property damage, and other harms caused by this contamination. This approach gives landowners a clear path to recover costs and protect their property’s value.
Because contamination may span many years, these cases can sometimes involve multiple parties and other complexities. Legacy litigation attorneys will often dig into old records, have soil and groundwater tested, and work to trace chemical contaminants back to their source.
Understanding Pollution on Private Land
Pollution happens when harmful substances enter the environment and threaten human health or natural systems. These substances include chemicals, heavy metals, and other toxins. Pollution can come from a wide variety of sources, including factories, farms, oil and gas operations, or even household waste. On private land, contamination can reduce crop yields, harm drinking water, or make property unsafe.
How Does Pollution Affect Property?
Landowners face several types of pollution, from soil contamination to groundwater pollution, and even air toxins that settle on the ground. Groundwater pollution may spread chemicals underground and affect aquifers and wells, while airborne toxins can deposit dust or fumes that damage crops and wildlife.
Soil contamination and land pollution often pose the most direct risks to landowners and those who use land for farming, timber management, or construction. Toxins enter the soil from spills or leaks, which can impact land quality, reduce property value and cause health problems.
Pollution from Historic Oil & Gas Operations
Historic oil and gas operations often used open pits for drilling waste and leak-prone storage tanks. Companies discarded drilling mud, produced water, and other byproducts directly onto the ground. Pipelines, pumps, and well casings routinely corroded without modern safeguards.
These practices allowed hydrocarbons, benzene, lead, and other heavy metals to seep into soil and water. These pollutants remain in soil and aquifers, sometimes far from the original well site.
Over years, contaminants spread through soil and into groundwater. Crops grown on polluted land may absorb toxins, affecting food safety. Contaminated wells put private water supplies at risk. Without cleanup, these impacts can last for decades, lowering land value and threatening health.
The Role of a Legacy Litigation Attorney
A Legacy litigation attorney guides landowners through the complex steps of a Legacy lawsuit. They review property history, identify responsible parties, and explain your rights.
In building your case, your attorney gathers records on historic oil and gas operations or other polluters. They’ll also hire experts to test soil and water and document contamination levels. Strong evidence may require on-site assessments and lab results to map the spread of contaminants and calculate cleanup costs. With that documentation collected, they will file a complaint naming the responsible entities and outlining your claims.
Types of Pollution Covered by Legacy Claims
Soil contamination claims focus on chemical spills, leaking tanks, or waste pits that taint the earth. Landowners seek funds to remove or treat polluted soil. Successful cases often involve showing how toxins migrated and harmed property use.
Groundwater cases deal with chemicals that seep into aquifers and wells. Contaminated water can make private wells unsafe for drinking or irrigation. Claims seek cleanup of aquifers and replacement water supplies until the pollution is removed.
Next Steps for Protecting Your Property
For landowners who suspect their property has been polluted by historic oil and gas operations, it’s important to consult a Legacy litigation attorney early to discuss your rights and deadlines. A Legacy litigation attorney will fight to make polluters pay for environmental harm, lost land value, and, potentially, health risks. Acting now may prevent further damage and loss of cleanup options.
Contact Talbot, Carmouche & Marcello for a free consultation today.