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Caddo commissioners joined their Bossier counterparts Thursday in amending parish law to regulate noise.

The 8-3 vote came months after local governments considered the idea, brought on by a pickup in Haynesville Shale natural gas production. Lag time included scientific measurements and working with industry leaders to find compromises.

As approved, businesses must submit plans on how they will meet an area’s maximum permissible level — 5 decibels above ambient sound. The ordinance applies to future development, not existing noisemakers.

“Compliance with this ordinance is still going to be very expensive,” said Jodee Bruyninckx, regional director of the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association, who also thanked commissioners for working with businesses. “But we understand that, and we accept that.”

Caddo’s version allows higher decibel levels than Bossier’s, which passed in January but doesn’t take effect till April. Bruyninckx said she hopes the Bossier Police Jury will bring its law in line with Caddo’s.

Commissioners Jim Smith, David Cox, Doug Dominick and Matthew Linn voted against the proposal. Carl Pierson was absent.

Smith said he hasn’t heard what his constituents want. He supposes that’s because of the issue’s complexity.

“The reason they don’t know about it is it’s so difficult for us to know about it,” Smith said. “It’s extremely difficult to put your finger on this situation.”

Local governments took direction from Fort Worth, Texas, home of the Barnett Shale. That city has seen drilling inside its limits, while most production here has stayed in rural areas. Arpeggio Acoustic Consulting, of Atlanta, contracted with Caddo and Bossier to measure sound.

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Its attempt to change a local law that bars chemical-waste facilities near homes was unsuccessful, but that has not stopped Vanguard Environmental from pursuing its project plans.

Vanguard still seeks a state permit required to dispose of oil-waste fluid — mostly highly concentrated saltwater that is a byproduct of oil production — by pumping it thousands of feet underground.

A public hearing, required ahead of a permit, was held Wednesday night at the Government Tower in downtown Houma, drawing dozens of Terrebonne Parish residents and officials who peppered state natural-resources officials with questions and concerns.

State officials also said Vanguard intends to challenge the local law, which prohibits such facilities within a mile of homes and businesses. State law requires a 500-foot buffer.

Vanguard, a Houma-based company, wants to build the injection well on two acres on La. 182 just south of its sister company, Vanguard Vacuum Trucks. That site is within one mile of two schools, two churches and numerous homes.

State officials will decide in about two months, based in part on public input, whether to issue the drilling permit. More than 100 people attended that hearing and about 30 made comments.

Vanguard representatives attended the meeting but didn’t speak publicly. One of its owners refused comment after the meeting when approached by The Courier and Daily Comet.

John Adams, an attorney for the state Department of Natural Resources, said Vanguard has notified his agency it plans to challenge the local law. As of Tuesday, Vanguard had not filed suit against parish government in local or federal court.

The Parish Council unanimously rejected a change to the local law which would have exempted injection wells. Terrebonne Parish President Michel Claudet said the parish government will “hold Vanguard to the letter of the law.”

The state won’t get involved in the legal dispute, Adams said, but it will require the company to meet all local permit rules.

“It’s ultimately the courts that can decide whether a parish ordinance is binding over a particular party or over a particular activity,” he said.

INJECTION-WELL PLAN

Water injected in the well would mostly come from oil production, pipeline testing and cleaning. It could also include rainwater collected from other sites or spills, state officials have said. It would not handle drilling fluids or muds, which are thicker.

Two above-ground tanks would separate incoming oily fluids. Recovered oil intended for resale would go in one tank. Ten other tanks would store saltwater intended for use in the well.

A state-required containment system would help prevent surface water contamination. At Vanguard, that would take the form of a concrete basin with 5-foot walls surrounding the tanks and truck-loading area. A 3-foot-tall ring levee would surround the entire facility.

The state requires 100 feet deep layer of shale underground between the deepest source of drinking water and the waste-injection formation. Dense shale prevents water from migrating to the surface.

The well’s steel casing, akin to a straw and used to funnel waste, could erode over time. Daily pressure recordings, which must be forwarded to the state monthly, are designed to keep tabs on the casing’s integrity.

According to Vanguard’s permit application, the company hasn’t had any Department of Natural Resources compliance issues in the past five years.

RESIDENTS QUESTION COMPANY

Phyllis Schmidt, whose two children attend a school near the proposed well, questioned why the site is not considered wetlands, citing the soft soil and birds and alligators who make their home there. Federal law protects wetlands from development.

Residents also questioned the potential health risks if waste is leaked or not handled properly. A similar disposal site in Venice, owned by Texas Petroleum Investment Company, had a spill in 2009 and was ordered to pay a $525,000 fine for polluting a wildlife area, said John Rochelle, chairman of the local nonprofit Keep Our Peaceful Environment. The spill came from a storage tank that overflowed because a saltwater-injection well malfunctioned. Saltwater, also called brine, contains radiation, metals and cancer-causing compounds, such as benzene.

The company’s lack of transparency is also a concern, Rochelle said. Vanguard’s permit application says it has a policy to allow the public to visit and ask questions. At the same time, the company has not responded to media questions or publicly presented its plans to parish officials, he said.

“The walk doesn’t match up with the talk,” Rochelle said.

Vanguard Environmental has not filed an annual report with the Secretary of State’s office since 2009 and is “not in good standing,” the agency’s website says.

There’s no fine associated with that status, said Mandy Harlan, the office’s commercial assistant administrator. To be “in good standing,” a company must pay a $25 fee and file a report detailing the group’s address, officers and agent. If a company or nonprofit doesn’t file a report for three consecutive years, its charter to do business in the state is revoked, she said. To be reinstated, a company must file a report and pay a higher fee. Limited-liability companies pay $100. Corporations pay $85.

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WASHINGTON — Top Interior Department officials said Wednesday that they will comply with a New Orleans federal judge’s ruling that ordered it to decide on five deepwater drilling permit applications within 30 days.

“We will comply with the court order and make the decision, up or down, on the pending permits,” Deputy Interior Secretary David Hayes said.

Still, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said that the department is mulling an appeal and that there are still obstacles to the faster permit pace advocated by the oil industry and Gulf State lawmakers.

Referring to New Orleans Federal Judge’s Martin Feldman’s Feb. 17 ruling, Salazar said that, in his view, the judge “was wrong.”

“I don’t think the court has the jurisdiction to basically tell the Department of Interior (what) its responsibilities are,” Salazar said at Wednesday’s hearing by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Asked to elaborate during a break in the hearing, Salazar said the department is examining its legal options on a possible appeal but “we also will comply with the judge’s order if that is what we have to do.”

Salazar said the permit issued this week to Noble Energy, allowing it to resume deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, will serve as a “template” for others permits “in the days ahead.”

But Salazar continued to defend the slow pace of permitting since last April’s BP’s Macondo well blowout.

Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La, suggested the department give the industry a more positive feedback about permitting possibilities now that the industry has developed oil containment systems for future spills. Since many wells will rely on the same containment systems, it seems reasonable to assume that if the plans work for one it would for a comparable well, as well, Landrieu said.

Landrieu was alluding to plans advanced by Helix Energy Solutions Group Inc., and Marine Well Containment Co.

But Salazar said that while progress is being made, the containment plans still “are works in progress,” and need “significant amount of work.”

He expressed doubt that the department will return to the permitting pace before the BP disaster.

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Local oil and gas industry executives and politicians who’ve fought to restore drilling activity in the Gulf of Mexico since it was brought to a standstill in the wake of BP’s deadly blowout last spring, gave mixed reviews on the issuance of a deepwater permit Monday.

Even though the permit that the U.S. Bureau of Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement gave Houston-based Noble Energy Inc. was actually a reissuance for a well that was nearly completed when the federal government placed a moratorium on drilling, it’s significant, according to one executive.

“In an arena of major uncertainty, one is a lot better than zero, and the hope is that it opens the door for more,” said David Welch, president and CEO of Lafayette-based Stone Energy.

Chris John, president of the Louisiana Midcontinent Oil and Gas Association of Baton Rouge sees the agency’s announcement as a recipe for other drilling companies to follow.

“I’m very excited about this because you can’t get back to normal without issuing permits, and the fact that we’ve got the first issued is progress,” John said.

In his opinion, BOEMRE Director Michael Bromwich statement that Noble had met the new safety requirements and those for a subsea blowout containment if one occurred, “gives a clear path to others with pending permits that if they met those things they ought to get permits approved.”

“If we can take Bromwich’s words to heart, he laid a stake in the ground, saying ‘this is what you need to do,’” John said.

Welch expressed the fear, however, that once new permits come under consideration environmental impact assessments would be required on a well-by-well basis, unlike before when certain geographical areas

containing several wells came under one assessment.

In such an event, there would be redundancies inherent in the assessments, and it would take a significantly longer time for companies to obtain them.

Welch said he also worries that if caps on insurance liability for blowouts are set too high under new regulations, independent oil companies, which historically have held the majority of deepwater leases, would be priced out of the game.

“If you stop the independents, you’ve basically just made a deal between big oil and the government,” Welch said.

Don Briggs, president of the Baton Rouge-based Louisiana Oil and Gas Association, whose membership is comprised mostly of independents, said he’s “cautiously optimistic that more permits will be issued.”

At the same time, though, he said he’s skeptical that BOEMRE’s move might simply be a public relations attempt to quell criticism of Washington’s energy policy that downplayed the importance of drilling as foment in the Middle East triggered higher gasoline prices.

Counting 314 days since federal regulators last issued a deepwater drilling permit, Louisiana Department of Natural Resources Secretary Scott Angelle, said that Monday marked a change in policy.

“Yesterday they did something different than the last 314 days, Angelle said. “They set a new rule for containment and this company was able to demonstrate that it could comply with the new regulation.”

Angelle said it is no small coincidence that on Friday Interior Secretary Ken Salazar visited Noble and “witnessed the very equipment necessary to comply with the new rules and a permit was issued on Monday.”

“The government now recognizes that the industry can comply with the new high safety standard,” he said. “I don’t want to be hanging the ‘Mission Accomplished’ banner out. I want to make it abundantly clear that there’s a lot of work to do, but its undeniable that we have a breakthrough.”

Angelle has acted as the state’s liaison between the offshore oil and gas industry and the federal government, and he applauded BOEMRE for adding 41 wells to the 16 identified at the start of this year as possibly resuming previously approved drilling activity that was halted by the moratorium.

Officially the moratorium was lifted in the fall, but until Monday no deepwater drilling permits were let, and while there have recently been some shallow water permits granted, the rate is far less than before.

U.S. Senator David Vitter, meanwhile, is keeping his own scorecard. On Feb. 15, he placed a hold on Interior Department nominee Dan Ashe, and he’s not lifting it on the basis of one deepwater permit.

“There are concerns of $4 per gallon gasoline in the near future, and while one deepwater permit is a start, it is by no means reason to celebrate,” Vitter said. “I’m still demanding that the Obama administration allow at least 15 deepwater drilling permits before I release on an Interior Department nominee.”

Leonard Castille, vice president of corporate sales for Lafayette-based Frank’s Casing Crew and Rental Tools, which has operations in U.S. and international plays, said it provided both 36-inch and 22-inch casing pipe on the first go-around for Noble’s Santiago well, which is about 70 miles southeast of Venice, and the company would be happy to provide more.

“Noble has not asked us as yet, but I hope to hear something this week to say what their plan is,” Castille said. Speaking generally about BOEMRE’s move on Monday, Castille said, “It’s promising.”

“The federal government is finally easing up and letting people go back out there,” he said. “But if we have a problem out there, then guess what? We will all be in trouble.”

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By Kathrine Schmidt

HOUMA — Federal regulators have approved the first new deepwater-drilling permit since new safety and environmental rules were enforced after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Industry officials and business advocates expressed relief and enthusiasm, calling Monday’s action a significant step they hope will lead to a broader return to deepwater drilling that has been suspended since May.

The permit is for Noble Energy to drill a bypass well in Mississippi Canyon Block 519, in the Gulf of Mexico about 70 miles southeast of Venice. The well started drilling April 16 in 6,500 feet of water, but work halted after the Obama administration imposed a temporary ban on new deepwater drilling in response to the oil spill.

Industry executives and many local business officials and politicians have complained that the administration dragged its feet on permits since the ban was lifted in October, resulting in what critics call a “de facto moratorium.”

Federal officials have denied that claim, saying they were doing the work necessary to ensure drillers comply with regulations aimed at preventing deadly and environmentally devastating oil spills like the Deepwater Horizon disaster.

In a conference call with reporters, Michael Bromwich, director of the U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, called the announcement a “milestone.” He said the driller has planning, capacity and equipment, not present a year ago,to cope with a potential spill.

“This permit was issued for one simple reason: The operator successfully demonstrated that it can drill its deepwater well safely and that it is capable of containing a subsea blowout if it were to occur,” Bromwich said.

More permits are on the way in the coming weeks and months, he said.

Still, the lack of deepwater permits and a slow pace for permitting in shallow water had caused deep frustration and anger in the Houma-Thibodaux area, where the oil-and-gas industry is a major driver in the area’s economy.

Chett Chiasson, director of Port Fourchon, which serves the majority of the Gulf’s deepwater activity, said he hopes Monday’s decision leads to actions that will help return drilling to pre-spill levels.

He is among locals who traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with regulators to press Louisiana’s case for speeding permit approvals.

“It is a large achievement,” Chiasson said. “It has a lot to do with all the hard work everyone’s been putting in.”

But a spokesman for the Gulf Restoration Network, an environmental group in Louisiana, said protections are “inadequate” to address health and safety.

“Truly, the lessons of the Deepwater Horizon have not made it into the new regulations,” said Aaron Viles. “We know the cleanup and containment capabilities aren’t what they need to be.”

There still has been little study of the long-term effects of dispersants, and little transparency for the public about exactly what Noble plans to do differently, Viles said. He also has concerns about how long it will take to get newly built oil-spill-containment systems running.

Bromwich said the project was approved based on a careful accounting of the specific well plan and design and was not in response to political pressure or legal rulings demanding drilling resume.

But he offered few details as to when the department expects to issue more permits or the status of exploration plans that must be approved before well permits can be issued.

Two well-containment systems have been built in recent weeks, one by the Exxon-led Marine Well Containment Company and another by Houston-based Helix Energy.

But Bromwich cautioned that Monday’s action is not a blanket endorsement of those systems.

“It’s not a group blessing of one containment system or another,” Bromwich said. “It’s based on a well-by-well determination.”

In a related development, Louisiana officials had a “very productive” meeting Monday morning with Bromwich, said Lori LeBlanc, executive director of the Gulf Economic Survival Team, a Thibodaux-based nonprofit aimed at restarting drilling. The state’s natural-resources chief and industry officials also attended.

LeBlanc said she expects to see a few dozen more wells exempted from a detailed environmental review, which could allow them to resume drilling more quickly. Sixteen wells that had been drilling when the ban was imposed were relieved of that requirement, she said. Louisiana officials also asked Bromwich to exempt other wells that already had an exploration plan approved at the time of the BP blowout.

She said officials verbally agreed to issue a guidance document within seven to 10 days clarifying portions of a rule concerning blowout-preventer and cementing safety.

“We really moved the ball down the field,” she said. “We’ve crossed a goal line, but we’re not completely there.”

Gov. Bobby Jindal called Monday’s permit approval “a good first step.”

“We must quickly get to a level of issuing permits that represents a critical mass so thousands of oil-and-gas industry workers can get back to work fueling America again,” he said in a news release.

U.S Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., had a similar reaction.

“Finally, the administration has acknowledged the public outcry from the Gulf Coast that this moratorium on deepwater drilling has been crippling our economy for far too long,” she said in a news release.

U.S. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., said he will continue to block Senate confirmation of an Obama administration Interior Department nominee until at least 15 permits are issued.

“While one deepwater permit is a start, it is by no means reason to celebrate,” he said.

Don Briggs, president of the Louisiana Oil and Gas Association, said it is crucial to be sure the permits kept coming.

“The federal government must ensure that a streamlined process is established to issue additional permits to all companies that meet the new offshore safety standards and requirements,” he said.

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The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE) announced Monday that it has approved the first deep-water drilling permit in the Gulf of Mexico since last year’s oil disaster in the Gulf.

“It’s certainly a policy breakthrough,” said Scott Angelle, Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources.

Angelle was in Washington D.C. this week to meet with BOEMRE Director Michael Bromwich about the obstacles affecting deep-water drilling permits.

“The simple fact is that it all starts with the issuance of a permit,” said Angelle who was cautiously optimistic about Monday’s progress, noting there are still obstacles in the way.

Don Briggs, president of the Louisiana Oil & Gas Association said growing liability caps, which impact insurance rates, are among the obstacles still faced by companies in the oil and gas industry.

“Companies are working through it, but it’s been a long haul,” said Briggs.

Meantime the permit issued Monday was to Nobel Energy Inc., which will operate a well 70 miles southeast of Venice.

“This permit was issued for one simple reason: the operator successfully demonstrated that it can drill its deepwater well safely and that it is capable of containing a subsea blowout if it were to occur,” noted Bromwich in a news release. “We expect further deepwater permits to be approved in coming weeks and months based on the same process that led to the approval of this permit.”

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For the first time since the Deepwater Horizon explosion last April, the federal government has given the go-ahead for drilling in deep water. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management issued it to Noble Energy, to resume work on a well Noble was drilling when the deep water drilling moratorium last year halted all work.

Louisiana Oil and Gas Association president Don Briggs said the permit is a starting point, but more needs to happen.

“Hopefully this will be the beginning, but it’s still a ways off,” Briggs said.

One thing Briggs worries about is even as permits are issued, new regulations on the industry may squeeze out all be the biggest oil companies.

“I’m very concerned with a lot of the small independents,” said Briggs. “Will they be able to continue to work out there with the liability?”

Briggs also believe the administration when it says the level of drilling in the Gulf will never reach where it was prior to 2010.

“They’ve made it very clear that we won’t see again the activity we once saw out there in the Gulf of Mexico,” said Briggs. Briggs said five rigs have already left the Gulf to drill elsewhere, and he thinks they won’t ever be coming back.

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The federal government on Monday approved the first permit to drill the kind of deepwater oil well that was banned after last year’s BP disaster, but it’s yet to be seen whether the move will open the gates to the type of aggressive and lucrative exploration the industry has been clamoring for.

Eliot Kamenitz, The Times-Picayune archiveMichael Bromwich is director of the Interior Department’s new Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement.

Top offshore regulator Michael Bromwich, director of the Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, said the approval for Houston-based Noble Energy is a milestone, even though it’s to pick up work on a well southeast of Venice that Noble had already drilled to more than 13,000 feet.

The work at Noble’s Santiago well, less than 20 miles from where the Deepwater Horizon rig was drilling BP’s ill-fated Macondo project, stopped when President Barack Obama imposed a moratorium blocking most drilling in deepwater from May 30 through Oct. 12. Since then, the only permits approved have been for technical work, such as water-infusion wells that are not intended to tap into oil reservoirs.

Bromwich said he expects his agency to approve more deepwater wells in the coming weeks. He told Louisiana Energy and Natural Resources Secretary Scott Angelle on Monday that the agency has added 41 wells to a list of 16 that might soon be able to resume work that began before the Deepwater Horizon accident. Bromwich also said he expected more drilling applications to come in now that the ice has been broken.

Still, the permit is not as significant as the anticipated approval of the first new drilling plan since the Deepwater Horizon incident. That would be necessary before any new exploration can begin and would offer a true sign that the industry can make new investments in the Gulf of Mexico. The drilling plan that’s furthest along in the government review process is from Shell for two wells off the western Louisiana coast.

The Noble well is different because it doesn’t involve a new drilling plan.

But Bromwich said that it, too, “is a new well in the sense it is going into a reservoir and therefore was barred under the moratorium. So we treat an application for a bypass like this much as we do for new wells. I don’t think it’s right to say, ‘Oh, it’s just a bypass so it’s not as significant as a permit for a new well.’”

He said the approval is a sign that his agency is not stalling when it performs careful reviews of each proposed well, and that its process can be a constructive way to get the industry back in gear.

“Industry has been waiting for signals that deepwater drilling would be able to resume, and I think they’ll take this as that signal,” Bromwich said in a conference call with news media.

Hoping for more

Some industry leaders and their political advocates offered congratulations and hope for a real turning point in the permitting process.

Randall Luthi, the president of the National Ocean Industries Association and a loud critic of the government’s slow pace on permitting, praised Bromwich for working with industry.

“Taking the Department of Interior at its word that this is not a token permit and that many are lined up to be approved in the near future, today’s action sends a calming signal to operators, producers and service companies that the long drought is just about over,” Luthi said in a statement. “It is also a compliment to Director Bromwich and a testament to the efforts of many within industry, that the containment and safety issues can be resolved when industry and (the bureau) work together.”

Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., suggested the Interior Department was finally heeding pressure from the Gulf Coast.

“I hope that this permit is the first of many to come, and I will continue to use every lever at my disposal to ensure that it is,” she said in a statement. “While one permit is good, it’s long overdue.”

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal also claimed some credit for the breakthrough, saying his administration had been working closely with Bromwich.

‘One-hit wonder’

But others on the industry side offered skepticism. Jim Adams, head of the Offshore Marine Service Association, which represents the companies that supply and support deepwater rigs, said approving just one permit after months of no movement “only prolongs the suffering of thousands of workers and their families.”

Unrest in Libya and elsewhere in the Middle East is fostering uncertainty in the oil markets and driving up U.S. gas prices. Sen. David Vitter, R-La., made clear he was unsatisfied with the Noble permit, mentioning the specter of $4-per-gallon gas at the pumps and threatening to maintain his hold on Obama’s Fish and Wildlife Service nominee, Dan Ashe, until 15 deepwater drilling permits are approved. Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, called the permit a “one-hit wonder just because (Interior Secretary Ken Salazar) is coming to testify before Congress this week.”

Bromwich said that politics and a recent ruling by a federal judge demanding action on pending permits played no role in the agency’s decision to approve the Noble permit.

Meanwhile, environmental groups praised the government for looking at each well as a separate entity, with its own set of risks, and took the approval as a sign that safety is finally getting its due.

“It’s good news for the industry and good news for America that the safety technology is accelerating,” said Elgie Holstein, the oil spill response coordinator for the Environmental Defense Fund and former chief of staff in Bill Clinton’s Energy Department. “And in the face of $100 (a barrel of crude) oil prices and the accelerated drilling that’s sure to follow, it’s definitely needed.”

Blowout plan in place

Bromwich said Noble got the first approval because it was further along in the process and because its plan for containing any possible well blowouts has received agency approval. Noble’s application says it will use the Ensco 8501 rig to do the drilling work and a well-capping device offered by the Gulf consortium Helix Well Containment Group. Bromwich said federal authorities will personally observe tests on the rig’s blowout preventer device, which sits on the seafloor, before it’s deployed.

Helix is one of two industry cooperatives to recently finish developing blowout response systems that aim to make sure the long, frustrating trial-and-error containment effort last year by BP and the federal government isn’t repeated. Noble’s Santiago well sits in 6,500 feet of water, about 70 miles southeast of Venice. Helix is still working to make its oil-collection system work in depths greater than 5,600 feet, but Bromwich said the conditions at Santiago are such that the Helix capping stack will be sufficient to close off the hole in case of a blowout and it won’t be necessary to bring any discharged oil and gas to the surface.

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