To: The Louisiana State House, The Louisiana State Senate, and Governor John Bel Edwards
Keep the Southern Hills Aquifer Frack-Free
The Southern Hills Aquifer is the common and sole source of drinking water for ten parishes in southeastern Louisiana, extending from Vicksburg, MS to Baton Rouge, LA and including areas surrounding the cities of Hammond, Ponchatoula, St. Francisville, Covington, Abita Springs, and Mandeville. Current and future hydraulic fracking operations threaten this single source of clean drinking water. An accident or seepage in one part of the aquifer threatens the entire water system and dependent communities.
Why is this important?
Current and future drilling operations along the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale Ridge plan to extract oil and natural gas through the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”. The toxic chemicals that fracking releases into the ground water, water reservoirs, and the air surrounding the fracking site contaminate the environment and increase the risks of illness, infertility, birth defects, and cancer. In a state so dependent on the natural landscape and the water for food, transportation, commerce, recreation, and tourism, it proves nonsensical to support practices that endanger those activities and the people who depend upon them. This state has a beautiful ecosystem and a proud heritage of people who live with the land. Fracking is bad for the people, the ecosystem, and the economy. In short, fracking is destructive to the traditions and lifeways that make us proud to call Louisiana home.