News that energy companies are leasing land and considering drilling oil or gas wells is often greeted with eager anticipation in many Louisiana parishes, as residents and officials envision windfalls from land leases, severance taxes and fees.
But in energy industry-friendly St. Tammany Parish, the news that Helis Energy is considering putting one well — the first in St. Tammany Parish — just north of Interstate 12 has caused ripples of consternation, if not outright opposition, among some parish officials.
Of primary concern to some officials is the potential impact of oil drilling on the parish’s drinking water supply in the Southern Hills aquifer, through which Helis would have to drill to get to the oil. Other officials worry about the impact on parish infrastructure, such as roads and bridges, or about the effect of oil drilling on residents’ quality of life and St. Tammany’s natural beauty.
Helis has applied to the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources for a hearing before the commissioner of conservation, normally the first step in getting a permit to drill, according to Phyllis Darensbourg, a spokeswoman for the department.
That hearing has been set for May 13.
Helis’ application outlines a 960-acre rectangular tract in which the well would be placed. The southwest corner of the rectangle intersects I-12 between La. 1088 and Log Cabin Road, and the tract extends east just past Log Cabin Road and north past 1088.
Helis is betting there is oil about 13,000 feet underground at the site, which lies at the eastern end of the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale, which stretches from southeast Louisiana through the middle of Louisiana and into Texas and includes parts of southwestern Mississippi.
First word of the potential well came in a blog post by Tuscaloosa Trend blog author Kirk Barrell, who called the well a “wildcat” play, meaning it is being dug in a place that has no history of production. The tract is far outside the hive of Tuscaloosa Marine Shale activity, which is in northern Tangipahoa and St. Helena parishes, as well as the Felicianas and southwestern Mississippi.
Don Briggs, president of the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association, said that if Helis is planning to drill that far outside the area where the rest of the activity is, it must have a reason.
“They obviously feel they have got enough information,” Briggs said. “They have some good geology.”
Helis President David Kerstein referred all questions to the company’s media consultant, who did not return a message left at her office.
The type of well Helis proposes would use hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, as a means of extracting the oil from the ground. In fracking, chemicals, water and sand are pumped into the ground to create fissures in the rock through which the oil or gas can be extracted. The process has been controversial as residents in some states have complained about effects on drinking water and other environmental impacts.
In this case, the well would puncture not just the top of the aquifer from which St. Tammany pulls its drinking water, but also the bottom, a fact that bothers Parish Councilman Jake Groby, in whose district the proposed drilling site lies.
“If any of the well casings were to leak, gas hydrocarbons which are lighter than air/water will migrate upwards through the strata,” he wrote in an email. “If something were to go wrong, we have no alternate source of water from which to draw for the area surrounding the wellhead.”
Groby is not just a politician talking; in his day job, he’s a superintendent with St. Bernard Parish’s water system.
St. Tammany Parish President Pat Brister’s first reaction was: “Oh, my gosh. … I knew it would be quite an uproar.”
Her administration is still in the “fact-finding phase,” she said. “I am trying to find out whether we have an opportunity for as much of a say in it as possible.”
But state law limits what Brister and other parish officials can do. In Louisiana, lower levels of government, such as parish governments, are prevented from creating regulations that compete or overlap with state regulations, something other parishes discovered in trying to regulate fracking in the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale. Going further, state law forbids any local agency or government from prohibiting or interfering with drilling authorized by the state.
One area in which the Parish Government could perhaps have an impact is in requiring drilling companies to help pay for any road or bridge improvements in the area where wells are drilled.
“We have to make sure those things are not impacted negatively,” Brister said.
For Abita Springs Mayor Greg Lemons, the prospect of oil drilling in St. Tammany is dire. “If we lose our aquifer, the town of Abita Springs would be gone,” Lemons said. It certainly could affect the town’s biggest draw, the Abita Brewery.
When contacted by a reporter, Abita Brewing Co. President David Blossman said he hadn’t heard about the proposed well and needed to look into it.
The cry has reached the state Legislature. On Tuesday, Rep. Tim Burns, R-Mandeville, sent a letter to Commissioner of Conservation James Welch, asking him to delay the May hearing by 60 days. Burns said he had only just learned of the hearing and needs more time to study the proposal. He added that St. Tammany Parish has “many aesthetic qualities, and citizens are understandably concerned about any activity that would detract from its beauty and appeal.”
LOGA’s Briggs said state regulations and technological advancements in the fracking process would ensure the integrity of the aquifer.
“The aquifer is very well protected,” he said. “They are all regulated by the Office of Conservation.”
When companies use hydraulic fracturing, they typically encase the well in a layer of cement that is designed to keep the aquifer sealed off from the well.
There’s no question the well could represent the beginning of a new wave of development. A typical well can require as much as a $15 million investment, Briggs said.
Residents who lease land to the companies could see immediate returns, while the parish’s coffers could be bolstered by severance taxes and a potential increase in property taxes, Brister said.
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