News Brief: E.P.A. Continues to Sample the Murphy Oil Location in New Orleans

(Washington, D.C. -- Thursday, July 13, 2006) On July 13, E.P.A. updated its website to include the results from additional samples collected at the Murphy Oil Site. Pursuant to a FEMA mission assignment, US E.P.A. is overseeing Murphy Oil's ongoing sampling activities of residential and other properties. Today E.P.A. posted samples taken as part of 2 ongoing efforts.

The 1st set of samples relates to ongoing activities to assess the level of contamination at residential and other sites. 10 percent of the samples Murphy collects are split between Murphy and EPA. E.P.A. sends the split samples for independent analysis. Thus far, Murphy has collected 8097 sediment samples from 4859 properties. Of the 8097 sediment samples collected, US E.P.A. has sent 844 split samples for separate analyses. US E.P.A. has received, evaluated and is posting the results of the 1st 835 samples.

Additional soil samples are taken after cleanup at each property to confirm that LDEQ's Risk Evaluation/Corrective Action Plan (RECAP) Requirements have been met. 10 percent of the confirmatory samples Murphy collects are split between Murphy and EPA. E.P.A. sends the split samples for independent analysis. Thus far, US E.P.A. has sent 46 split samples for separate analyses. US E.P.A. has received, evaluated and is posting the results of 40 of these samples. The levels of compounds detected in the samples were below their respective RECAP standards.

More information on these results: http://www.epa.gov/katrina/testresults/murphy/index.html

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