Misconceptions Fuel Jefferson Island Opposition
By Tim Goodson

Daily Iberian, New Iberian, La.

Oct. 24, 2006 -- Lake Peigneur. Anyone lucky enough to own a lakefront home in this part of Louisiana has a right to feel protective about owning their slice of the American dream.

But as life goes on day after day, residents living around Lake Peigneur rarely notice a natural gas storage facility known as the Jefferson Island Storage and Hub operating underneath this lake. Since 1994, two salt dome storage caverns have operated deep below the earth without incident.

In recent months, we at AGL Resources have sought permits to drill two additional caverns below the state-owned lake to store natural gas.

Unfortunately, some misinformation has been spread about the project and we want to set the record straight:

• Myth: The natural gas accident that happened in Hutchinson, Kansas could happen at Lake Peigneur.
• Reality: In Kansas, gas was stored in old salt dome caverns drilled in a manner that geologists and engineers know today is not as safe as the tubular caverns now used for gas storage throughout Louisiana. Those caverns were also shallow – about 650 feet. Today’s natural gas caverns are now about a mile deep and well-insulated, making them much safer.
  
  The Kansas caverns were also originally designed to hold propane, which is a liquid. No such incident has occurred in caverns that have been designed specifically to store natural gas. Storage operations are more actively regulated in Louisiana.
  
  
• Myth: JISH would be a terrorist target.
• Reality: Experts agree that terrorists want to strike where they can create the most havoc and fear, and that means targets in densely populated areas like New York, Los Angeles and Washington. Southwest Louisiana doesn’t fit the bill.
  
  
• Myth: Drilling the salt dome caverns could create another Texaco incident such as the one 26 years ago when the lake drained into the earth.
• Reality: Geologically, that is highly unlikely to ever happen again. Texaco was drilling exploration wells for oil and gas and struck horizontal shafts of old salt mines. Today those shafts and tunnels are filled below Lake Peigneur with water and sediment. There is no place for the water to drain again.
  
  
• Myth: Creating the salt dome caverns will use too much water from the Chicot Aquifer.
• Reality: AGL will only use water for four years as it carves out the caverns. The water will be the equivalent to what is used by 2-3 large agricultural or industrial wells in the area annually.
  
  
• Myth: The storage caverns can easily be built elsewhere.
• Reality: The company bought the Jefferson Island site because of its location near the Henry Hub where much of the offshore natural gas is piped in from the Gulf of Mexico.
  
  
• Myth: AGL doesn’t care about the Lake Peigneur environment.
• Reality: AGL Resources not only has met all state requirements when it comes to environmental concerns, but we have gone above and beyond state environmental requirements. For example, we put hospital-grade mufflers on compressors at the current facility near the lake to reduce noise.
  
  What opponents of JISH don’t recognize is that AGL Resources has an excellent safety record at Jefferson Island and that we will continue to be good neighbors. We will take all the steps necessary as we undergo the expansion to make sure this remains a quiet community and a beautiful lake for years to come.

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