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Police jury considers DEQ-backed ordinance
The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality recommended the Ouachita Parish Police Jury adopt a groundwater protection ordinance to protect public water wells from contamination.
DEQ officials spoke to the police jury Monday during its regular meeting.
DEQ's Howard Fielding said ground water contamination can occur easily due to a number of factors.
He said 15 percent of the state's population is served by community ground water systems that have a high chance of contamination.
"There's very few existing state regulations in terms of protecting public water supplies," Fielding said.
Once a source of drinking water has been contaminated, it is very difficult and expensive to clean up, Fielding said. Efforts to decontaminate a public drinking source could cost hundreds of thousands or millions.
"Because it is below the ground, it is very difficult to clean up," Fielding said. "You have to pump that well forever to get the contaminant out of it."
For example, the town of Gilbert in the early 1990s discovered its wells were contaminated from a gasoline station, which went out of business in 1985.
"Eventually, between 1985 and 1990, the wells sucked gasoline in and they lost all of their wells," Fielding said. "So, they had to go well out of town to build new wells and then pipe the water back."
Most of the contaminants in Louisiana are from the discharge of insolvents from industry or places such as automobile repair facilities, Fielding said.
"We're very concerned about these types of things," he said. "If drinking water is going to be protected in Ouachita Parish, it's going to be up to the police jury due to the number of wells in the parish under the jurisdiction of the police jury."
He said many people around the country do not realize how quickly their drinking water source is disappearing.
"Drinking water is becoming scarce, but people don't think of it being scarce in Louisiana, but it is becoming scarce here," Fielding explained. "We have tremendous draw downs in the Sparta Aquifer and other aquifers throughout the state.
"As time goes on, water will be more valuable than oil because it's a resource that's being overused, and we're not reclaiming enough of it. We're taking more water out than mother nature can replenish."
Police juror Mack Calhoun said he was concerned about the drinking water issue.
He serves on the Sparta Aquifer Groundwater Conservation District Commission.
"It's almost frightening to go to these meetings and hear the experts," Calhoun said. "They're telling us the intrusion of salt water is coming."
"The Sparta used to be pressurized and it would keep the salt water at bay because the salt water has always been there," Calhoun continued. "But, it's losing its pressure the lower it (Sparta) gets, and salt water is coming in faster. They are having to shut down some wells because salt water is coming in."
Calhoun is leading efforts to create a lake in western Ouachita Parish to provide another source of drinking water for residents. Currently, western Ouachita utilizes the Sparta Aquifer for drinking water.
Calhoun says the Sparta Aquifer is dropping about two feet per year and he fears western Ouachita will eventually run out of drinking water if something is not done to address this problem.
The police jury has requested state funding to help with the western Ouachita reservoir project.
"A million-dollar permit is the next thing we have to buy to build that lake," Calhoun said. "The money is hard to come by, but I understand the governor is very interested in it, and we're hoping he will help us build that lake."
The police jury did not take any action Monday regarding adopting a groundwater protection ordinance.
The ordinance would prohibit certain "uses, activities and structures within 1,000 feet of any water well serving an active public water system" that have been known to contaminate ground water.
Facilities already located near public water wells would have to be grandfathered in, Fielding said.
The ordinance would affect only permanent tanks and not temporary tanks, such as those used for drilling of oil and gas wells. The ordinance also would not affect private wells.
So far, 44 other parishes have adopted similar ordinances at the request of DEQ. |
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