Louisiana Voice

By John Sachs

Hypothetically speaking, what would you think if you read the following newspaper article?

Ruston, LA – The Mineral Ridge Development Commission announced that an agreement had been inked with HydroFrac, Inc., a Delaware corporation.

HydroFrac intends to drill a Sparta Aquifer water well in Lincoln Parish. The company will then pump 20 million gallons of water daily to supply the Haynesville Shale fracturing programs in Desoto, Caddo, and Bossier parishes utilizing retrofitted existing gas transmission pipelines.

Seven construction jobs and one permanent part-time maintenance job will result from this operation. To entice HydroFrac to locate in the Mineral Ridge area, 4 acres of industrial park land were donated, and a ten-year property tax and parish and school sales tax exemption on revenue generated from sales of water was granted. Projected ten- year cost to Lincoln Parish approximates $325 million.

Questions posed to HydroFrac with their responses follow:

1. Q: 20 million gallons of water taken from the Sparta Aquifer daily are more than we are told the aquifer can sustain. Current overuse primarily by paper mills in West Monroe and Hodge are already endangering the level and purity of the aquifer. Won’t your operation just add to the problem?

A: 71% of the Earth’s surface is covered by water. That equates to trillions of gallons of water. To imply that 20 million gallons would somehow put in jeopardy the earth’s supply of water is, frankly, foolish.

2. Q: You didn’t address my question. Please be more specific.

A: We have discussed our operations with Governor Jindal. He assures us that he is committed to providing a business-friendly environment, especially in light of our creating jobs in Louisiana. Governor Jindal personally contacted the State Water Resources Commission on our behalf and received assurances that the quantities of Sparta Aquifer water that we propose to extract will receive expedited approval.

3. Q: Again, you haven’t addressed my question, but I will move on. If, as experts on the subject have stated, your 20 million gallon per day extraction leads to salt water intrusion and the ultimate death of the Sparta Aquifer as the fresh water supply for a region populated by almost 1 million people, and their homes, farms, businesses, schools, churches and everything else dependent upon fresh water, what happens then?

A: This has already been discussed. The earth has adequate surface water to meet the demands you have noted. We don’t share your alarm concerning the Sparta Aquifer. The aquifer can recharge itself. with a few unseasonably wet years. You have Lakes D’Arbonne, Claiborne, and Caney and the Ouachita River to draw from in the interim. That water is pure and clean and probably should have been your primary source of fresh water all along. That leaves the pure aquifer water available to the paper mills to make cardboard boxes and beer cases.

4. Q: Why can’t the shale gas formations be fractured using the abundance of available salt water? That leaves the purest water for human consumption. As everyone knows, without abundant fresh water a society cannot exist. It absolutely, indisputably dies. Without a society, there is no need for gas. Water clearly comes before anything. To forget this fact is to drive the last nail in society’s coffin. Can’t you see this?

A: It is this very attitude that puts America’s safety and freedom from threats of foreign terrorism at risk. Constraints placed on the free enterprise system are what led to the disruptions on Wall Street, to less-than- ideal petroleum company profitability, to escalating health care costs, to high unemployment, and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Fortunately we have business-friendly Congressional representatives for this area who see past these alarmist, anti-business statements of concern They understand the value of a strong Congressional/private enterprise partnership.

Does this seem farfetched to you? It shouldn’t. This is what is happening to us. We have representatives, most of whom are well-intended, making pacts with greedy, insensitive, out-of-state headquartered corporations as described above. A few corporate top executives, probably living in Connecticut, won’t authorize spending the money to efficiently utilize and protect clean water, the earth’s most precious resource. Why? Because it MIGHT temporarily reduce their annual bonuses.

In the long run, it would pay great dividends to them and certainly to us whose very existence depends on the sustainability of the Sparta Aquifer. Proof of this is in El Dorado where good corporate citizens Lion Oil and Great Lakes Chemical built a steam cogeneration system over 10 years ago that increased profitability and saved approximately 3 million gallons per day of Sparta Aquifer water. That act alone fixed El Dorado’s water shortage problems.

Let’s welcome good corporate citizens, but banish bad ones. You know the difference. Insist that our representatives and responsible officials act NOW in the best interests of the vast majority, not the selfish interests of a select few.