City Told To Drink Polluted Miss. River Water

Residents of the Gateway to Cancer Alley, Baton Rouge, and state capitol visitors face having to drink polluted Mississippi River water if chemical corporations lining the chemical corridor gateway have there way, according to experts Friday.

“Whose water is it, anyway? This water is not there just for the benefit of the citizens of Baton Rouge.” - Henry Graham Jr., Louisiana Chemical Association VP. “

Chemical Companies Draining Clean Water Leave Insufficient Amount For People

Baton Rouge municipal water is ground water from the Southern Hills Aquifer, once prized as the best water in the United States, remains some of the best water in the country. It will soon be unfit for drinking, however, unless something is done.

The Southern Hills Aquifer extends from the Mississippi state border down toward the Gulf Of Mexico. The Gulf end of the aquifer is salt water. As fresh water is pumped out of the aquifer in Baton Rouge it causes the salt water to flow up toward Baton Rouge. That saltwater is already well under Baton Rouge up to around the I 10 – I 12 corridor. 

“If we keep using the amount of water we do the City of Baton Rouge will have no more of our clean fresh ground water and will be forced to use Mississippi River water,” said Paul Orr, head of the Mississippi River Keeper Alliance.

One major step can be taken to dramatically¹ slow the encroaching salt water. 

The Baton Rouge public used 79.95 million gallons per day of clean ground water in 2008. 

Large industrial facilities in Baton Rouge used about the same amount, 80.14 million agllons per day of clean ground water per day.

Those industrial sites are located right on the Mississippi River, but their use of the clean water doubles the amount used in Baton Rouge. 

“So Exxonmobil is using clean groundwater to make gasoline and Georgia Pacific is using clean groundwater to make toilet paper while sitting on the Mississippi River and saltwater is flowing up the aquifer towards our drinking water wells,” says Paul Orr, head of Lower Mississippi Keeper. “If industry stops using groundwater and switches to Mississippi River water for it’s industrial processes it will cut the usage of the ground water by half.”

Industry, however, doesn’t want to change to river water.

“Whose water is it, anyway?” asks Henry Graham Jr., vice president for environmental affairs and general counsel for the Louisiana Chemical Association. “This water is not there just for the benefit of the citizens of Baton Rouge.”²

Baton Rouge citizens, however, are overwhelmingly supporting the idea of industry switching to Mississippi River water. 

A Baton Rouge Business Report Website poll for Friday February 21, 2014 as of 5:00 PM 75% of respondents agreed that industry should switch to river water. Only 10% think industry has the right to keep using groundwater. 

Want to vote? Go to http://www.businessreport.com and add your vote to the poll.

Learn More:

1 - NEW TOOL ARRIVES TO FIGHT SALTWATER INTRUSION by Amy Wold, Advocate staff writer, July 17, 2013: 
http://theadvocate.com/home/6496152-125/new-tool-arrives-to-fight 

2 - WATER RIGHTS: INDUSTRY, ENVIRONMENTALISTS, REGULATORS CLASH ON HOW TO SLICE THE PIE, Bton Rouge Business Report, Feb 20, 2014:
http://www.businessreport.com/article/20140220/businessreport0112/140229961

3 - CONSERVATION OFFICE WANTS BR AQUIFER DECLARED ‘UNSUSTAINABLE’ by Amy Wold, Advocate staff writer – Jan. 29. 2013:
http://theadvocate.com/home/5011103-125/conservation-office-wants-br-aquifer

4 - A CASE HISTORY OF USE AND MANAGEMENT OF THE BATON ROUGE FRESH WATER AQUIFER SYSTEM by A. Hays Town, Jr.:
http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-04102013-180926/unrestricted/town_thesis.pdf