St. Landry people protest plans for injection well

OPELOUSAS — Over 200 citizens from St. Landry Parish along with local elected officials spoke out against a proposal by Lafayette company Eagle Oil LLC to drill an injection well near the Beggs community.
The near-three-hour public hearing, hosted by the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources’ Office of Conservation at The Delta Grand Theater, included concerns from residents regarding the Chicot Aquifer, heavy traffic along the area’s main highways and health risks to nearby residents.
The proposed well site is near the Thistlethwaite Wildlife Management Area. The Office of Conservation has received over 500 letters of opposition, and a petition with over 500 signatures was presented during the meeting.
No one from Eagle Oil attended the meeting. Attempts to reach the company Friday morning were unsuccessful.
“It’s a beautiful community that will never be the same if this gets approved. ... It will destroy our community,” said St. Landry Parish President Bill Fontenot. “I’m respectfully representing this community and I’m pretty sure there’s no one here that’s inviting this project. The industry may need something like this, but we don’t want that here and we hope the state office would respect that and the governor would respect that.”
St. Landry Parish council members Harold Taylor and Ken Marks, Sheriff Bobby Guidroz, State Rep. Dustin Miller and environmental group representatives also spoke out against it. Many said an approval would make the area the “dumping ground of St. Landry Parish.”
William Landreneau, who was secretary of the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries under Gov. Kathleen Blanco and owns property nearby, said the company’s application appears to meet necessary criteria for an injection well. He also accused Eagle Oil of misrepresenting the facts.
The Office of Conservation, he noted, should visit the site, which includes a nearby pipeline. The entrance to the site, he noted, is along a significant curve along La. 182, which will cause a “tremendous safety hazard for people who travel that highway,” and detail that was not allowed when he worked for the state.
Other concerns from residents included making it harder for farmers to grow crops and get them to market, safety for children who live along the highways and worries of contamination of the nearby St. Landry Solid Waste landfill.
“The letter Eagle Oil sent us said the impact to the community and environment would be negligible ...,” said Norman Guillory, who lives in Washington. “We are not ignorant country bumpkins. One accident resulting in a rupture or leakage from either the trucks or at the site can destroy lives, homes, our health, businesses, our water source, even the very land we love.
“Eagle Oil does not have the funds to repair or replace the irreplaceable. You’re playing a cruel version of Russian roulette with the barrel aimed at our lives, our homes, our land and our future.”