On Wednesday, Bienville Parish became the first North Louisiana Parish, joining 10 others in La., to formally oppose Carbon Capture Sequestration (CCS). Responding to citizen concerns about the potential for Underground Injection to affect the Sparta Aquifer, the Bienville Parish Police Jury unanimously resolved to oppose CCS within its boundaries.
Caldwell Parish is another North La. Parish ‘on the map’: A CCS project there was listed among the 6 Priority projects in Governor Landry’s 45-day Moratorium (issued Oct. 15) halting Dept. of Conservation consideration of new CCS applications. That is allowing the Dept. to focus on 6 Priority projects for permitting, among the over 100 now planned.
Most of the Parishes now on record as opposing CCS are near projects in South and West La. The Parishes that have to date formally opposed Carbon Capture Sequestration are: Cameron, Vernon, Allen, Beauregard, Jeff Davis, Sabine, St. Helena, Livingston, St. John, Orleans, and Bienville.
Given the growing controversy over CCS, the U.S. Dept. of Energy has paused some projects and is reportedly now reviewing whether to continue the 45Q tax credits that spurred the CCS industry. This debate reached the home district of Congressman Mike Johnson, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, on Oct. 28 when Mike Nichols, a District 4 candidate, spoke in Ringgold to local opponents of Brickyard Trucking, LLC’s Class 2 (Produced Water) Injection facility in Jamestown. Nichols is from Vernon Parish where a Priority CCS project is pending.
Brickyard Trucking, LLC’s permit was granted by the La. Dept. of Conservation on November 6. Local citizens are seeking support for an appeal of that decision. They are calling for an Environmental Impact Statement conducted to Federal standards, to assess Brickyard’s plan to inject oil and gas wastewater at Jamestown, in the recharge zone for the Sparta Aquifer.
Mike Kirkham of Jamestown spoke at yesterday’s Police Jury meeting: “As a cancer survivor, I feel a need to help ensure that this project doesn’t permanently poison the land and water that we cannot live without — even though many of us depend on the industry for our livelihoods.” Bienville Parish citizens have initiated a yard sign campaign to “Save Louisiana’s Aquifers” – promoting the re-direction of the Federal 45Q tax credit funding toward facilitation of alternatives to the underground injection of Produced Water. They see the large-scale Produced Water treatment industry already in place in Texas, where the Permian Basin has experienced massive blowouts as a result of large quantities of wastewater having injected over time.
Continue your article here…