From Louisiana Illuminator
Louisiana is receiving little to no cash for a natural resource scarce in many western states: water. For more than half a century, the state has given away much of its water to private industry and sold the rest without knowing its actual value.
The issue was the focal point of a Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s report presented Thursday at a meeting of the state’s Water Resources Commission. The public board proposes legislation to regulate and conserve the state’s freshwater resources, including underground aquifers and surface sources such as lakes, rivers and streams.
Auditor Gina Brown told commissioners that researchers have called on state authorities to develop a comprehensive water management plan since 1956. Other states want to purchase Louisiana’s water, yet numerous aquifers and water basins across the state are experiencing decreases in their supply, Brown said.
During the 2020-2021 fiscal year, industrial users – particularly oil and gas companies that use water for hydraulic fracturing – requested to withdraw 1.54 trillion gallons of surface water at a rate of 15 cents per 1,000 gallons, Brown said. That usage figure only covers companies that voluntarily pay for the water and report how much they use as part of an agreement with the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR).
Despite Louisiana’s Constitution prohibiting the state from donating things of value, the DNR program is voluntary. Only 87 entities have active agreements to pay for surface water withdrawals. The money, which totaled just over $300,000 last fiscal year, goes into DNR’s Aquatic Plant Control Fund. Among other findings, the audit report recommends the agreements become mandatory.
In more than a third of the agreements, companies pay nothing for the water. They instead provide an economic impact statement that says their business is a thing of value for the state. The rest pay no more than 15 cents per 1,000 gallons of water — a rate cap Louisiana lawmakers adopted in 2014 based on the price the Sabine River Authority charged at that time for water from the Toledo Bend reservoir, which straddles the Louisiana-Texas border.
In contrast, Texas charges $4.50 per 1,000 gallons of that same Toledo Bend water, Brown said, pointing out the 15-cent rate cap hamstrings Louisiana from adjusting the price to account for market demand or inflation. The audit recommends legislation to remove the cap.
Check Out:
No comments:
Post a Comment