Group differs on site

BY KENNETH HICKSON
THE DAILY IBERIAN
Published/Last Modified on Friday, December 14, 2007 2:13 PM CST

A new Web site that claims to shed “facts” about Lake Peigneur only gives “opinions,” according to the group “Save Lake Peigneur.”

The group met Thursday night to discuss the site www.lakepeigneurfacts.com. The site was created by Jefferson Island Storage and Hub, a subsidiary of Atlanta-based AGL Resources. It is supposed to educate people about AGL Resources’ plans to expand its natural gas storage facility in the salt dome beneath Lake Peigneur.

“It’s a spin site. They (AGL Resources) are very clever,” said Nara Crowley, president of Save Lake Peigneur.

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 AGL Resources already operates two storage caverns in the salt dome beneath Lake Peigneur, which lies between Iberia and Vermillion parishes. The expansion project would create two more caverns.

The Save Lake Peigneur group, which consists of people living around the lake, has been fighting that expansion for years. The group raises concerns because of the accident in 1980 when Texaco punctured a hole in the top of the dome, causing the lake to drain, taking barges and trucks in the area with it.

And, more recently, unusual bubbling has been seen and photographed in the lake. The group believes the bubbling could have something to do with the storage of natural gas.

“We are convinced that there is no connection with the bubbling and our operations,” said AGL Resources spokesman Jack Holt. “(The Department of Natural Resources) did some tests and they determined there was no cause for concern. U.S. Geological Survey is doing some testing, as well, and we should expect something soon.”

But, members of Save Lake Peigneur disagree and say some of the reasons given for the bubbles have been ridiculous. Member Dinah Boudreaux recalled one such reason.

“(One official) said shrimp parts, like the peelings and legs, flow down the canals from Delcambre into the same spot of the lake and catfish eat them and that’s causing the bubbles,” Boudreaux said.

Group members now plan to take some of the so-called “facts” from AGL Resources’ new Web site and contradict it with their own information on their Web site, www.savelakepeigneur.org.

“They (AGL) haven’t backed up their information,” Crowley said. “Everything we brought to (the Department of Natural Resources), we had documentation of where we got it.”

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