State audit shows lax compliance of abandoned wells

BATON ROUGE, LA (WAFB) -

Thousands of oil and gas wells have been drilled around the state, some left abandoned and  others orphaned. A report by the Legislative Auditor says that could mean a risk to public safety. The audit found the people in charge of overseeing the problem, the Office of Conservation under the Department of Natural Resources, is not doing its job.

Daryl Purpera, the state legislative auditor, says orphaned wells were drilled at one point in time, but are no longer productive. He adds in many cases they were left abandoned and unplugged.

There are about 60,000 oil and gas wells in Louisiana.

Purpera says when wells are drilled, companies are required to set aside money in case anything goes wrong or to help with clean-up issues. Of those nearly 60,000 wells, 2,850 are orphaned, according to Purpera.

He says the Office of Conservation is not paying the necessary attention to those orphaned wells.

“Fifty-three percent of those that were orphaned oil wells were not monitored within the last three years as required by their regulations,” Purpera said. “Sometimes as many as six years would go by without an actual inspection.”

Those, he says, have the potential for environmental hazards like polluting the water supplies.

The audit also found the OC is not requiring companies to pay penalties for violations and that lax enforcement is creating an atmosphere of non-compliance. It finds that Louisiana is not holding companies to the same standards that many other states are.

“Presents the image of we allow this. We’re not going to penalize you.”

At a news conference Monday afternoon, Governor Bobby Jindal said his experts have the next six months to correct what the auditor found.

“My understanding is the office does have a plan involving new technology and new protocols to hold companies accountable to meet the audit findings. We’re going to give them six months to implement those new technologies and new protocols and we’re going to then ask the auditor to come back within six months to make sure the findings have been addressed. Every  one of those.”

Copyright 2014 WAFB. All rights reserved.

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‘Music Core’ Showreel: Fly To The Sky Wins On The May 31, 2014 Episode + …

Another week of ‘Music Core’ is here that features some of your favorite K-Pop idols. Your hosts for the night were Kim So Hyun, and INFINITE’s L and Sunggyu who filled in for Noh Hong Chul, and SHINee’s Minho.

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The stars who made their comeback were Baek Ji Young who made her return with “Still in Love”, Kim Yeon Woo returned with “Move”, new female group Berry Good debuted with “Love Letter”, and VIXX returned with “Eternity.”

Your nominees for the night were INFINITE, IU, and Fly To The Sky. The winner for the May 31, 2014 was Fly To The Sky for their song, “You You You.” Congratulations!

All this being said, here are the performance recaps from last night.

Performance Recaps

VIXX

VIXX came on stage as they first did a short introduction to get the females screaming. Then, they performed their new single, “Eternity.” The guys wore a dark blue suit which looked great on them. The showed their awesome vocal talent as they sung about a woman in their dreams. The memories from the woman are always kept in their minds for an “Eternity.”

Baek Ji Young

The queen of ballads Baek Ji Young performed her beautiful new single, “Still in Love.” The stage was nicely decorated. There were violet flowers and a chandelier. Baek wore a beautiful blue spring dress. Her voice was beautiful as you can hear the emotion of this new single.

Kim Yeon Woo

Kim Yeon Woo made his comeback last night as he performed his new single, “MOVE.” His new single is composed by Jung Seok Won and the lyrics were written by Kim Yi Na. Avek was featured with Kim Yeon Woo last night. What do you think of Kim’s performance last night?

Berry Good

New female group Berry Good made their hot debut last night. They performed their single, “Love Letter;” which is a remake of the nineties single from Click B. The member of Berry Good are a reminiscent of S.E.S and Fin.K.L. They performance was short and their outfit was cute. What do you think about this new female group?

INFINITE

INFINITE once again made the ladies scream as they performed their new hit single, “Last Romeo.” The guys wore black last night; which were leather jacket, pants, and under shirt. The guys had lots of energy and charisma as they looked for their Juliet.

Fly To The Sky

Brian and Hwanhee who are known as Fly To The Sky performed their hit single, “You You You.” Once again, the guys wowed the audience with their awesome voices. The audience cannot get enough of this guys as they cheered and screamed in the end. Congratulations to the guys once again on winning last night.

Secret’s Hyosung

Secret’s Hyosung came on stage to perform her new single, “Good-Night Kiss.” Her single ranks number eight this week. Hyosung wore a fabric style outfit which looked good on her. Also, her song was cut short a little. Looks like Hyosung had some microphone difficulty last night. Other than this, Hyosung once again wowed the audience.

G.NA

The beautiful miss G.NA wore a gorgeous spring dress as she performed her single, “Pretty Lingerie.” G.NA’s single ranks number fifteen this week. Like always, she showed both sexy and cute on stage. Her back up dancers are also gorgeous like her.

JungGiGo

JungGiGo and his beautiful six back up dancers performed “Want U.” His song ranks number five this week. JungGiGo has a great new single as he is looking to be the Justin Timberlake of South Korea. JungGiGo deserves to win a trophy; though, he has only being nominated on the music shows.

Phantom

Phantom featuring A Pink’s Kim Nam Joo performed, “Seoul Lonely.” The single ranks number sixteen this week. Both Kim Nam Joo and the guys has a great voice. The audience enjoyed their performance and screamed in the end. While the rest of the A Pink members rest, Kim Nam Joo is working overtime as she is promoting with Phantom.

T-ara’s Jiyeon

T-ara’s Jiyeon wowed the audience again last night as she performed her solo single, “1Min 1Sec.” White was the favorite color for her as Jiyeon wore a white female suit, under shirt, skirt, and shoes. Even with the choreography modification, Jiyeon did a great job as she still showed a sexy performance. Jiyeon’s new single ranks number nine this week.

MR.MR

MR.MR performed their new single titled, “Big Man.” The guys wore a gold outfit which were the pants and long sleeved shirt. They were looking flashy. What do you think of their new single?

Other performances for the night were TINT, BTL, NC.A, NS Yoon-G, M.Pire, and Eric Nam; which all kept the audience entertained.

Photo Credit: OSEN

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