The hopes of the members of Save Lake Peigneur were dashed Tuesday when the group’s efforts to bring back a reworded bill for discussion failed.

Nara Crowley, of Save Lake Peigneur, said this morning that the effort to bring back reworded House Bill 617 for discussion failed after time ran out Tuesday.

The new wording of the bill would not have prohibited drilling in the area, but would stipulate “no new storage caverns and no conversion of existing caverns for alternate use at Lake Peigneur and Jefferson Island Salt Dome.”

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The group met with Rep. Wilfred Pierre, D-Lafayette, Natural Resources Committee chairman, to discuss the possibility of bringing the reworded bill back up for discussion. Crowley said Pierre told the group it would be difficult but possible if two-thirds of the committee agreed.

Crowley said the group was told by Pierre that if it succeeded in securing enough votes, the 16-member committee would meet Tuesday.

“We immediately left the office feeling uplifted. We contacted our representatives and senators. He said if it were to happen, it would bring it back for discussion,” Crowley said. “We were very encouraged. We had six yes votes and three maybes.”

Crowley said when she called Pierre to update him on the progress of the push for votes, she was met with the unexpected. She said Pierre mistakenly thought the meeting was this week but it will be next week. That would not allow enough time to resurrect the bill before the session ends.

“When he informed us that he was wrong, I asked him for an emergency meeting. I know the law and know it was at his discretion. He didn’t answer and just walked away,” Crowley said, adding the group was “flabbergasted.”

The push for the bill comes from bubbling that has occurred in the lake since 2005. The cause for the bubbling has been undetermined, but residents believe underground natural gas caverns operated by AGL Resources are to blame.

Officials with AGL maintain that the facility is not the cause of the bubbling, citing that tests conducted by the company and the Department of Natural Resources have not led to the discovery of pollutants in the lake.

Rep. Sydnie Mae Durand, D-Parks, has been working closely with the group and said it should not give up.

“We tried just about everything, and I’m disappointed. Maybe there is something else that will come up and we can get some relief in that area,” Durand said.

“We’re just going to have to keep plugging away. We have to tug along and the committee is an excellent group of people to work with. They have a lot of real experts working with them, and that’s good. You can never have too much of that,” she said.

Durand added that finding the source of the bubbling is of paramount importance.

“Until they find out what’s causing the bubbling, I would like to see no activity there. The bubbles are caused by something, and I think we need to find out what it is. Everybody has different opinions,” she said.

Durand said another issue is that the salt dome sits over the Chicot Aquifer, which provides water to 19 parishes. Durand said not much has been said about the aquifer in this issue, but it should be addressed.

Crowley said the group plans to keep fighting.