ENROLLED
2016 Regular Session
HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOL UTION NO. 115
BY REPRESENTATIVE ROBBY CARTER
A CONCURRENT RESOL UTION
To urge and request the commissioner of conservation to study the effects of ground water
withdrawals on the sustainability of the Southern Hills Aquifer System and on the
water supplies of parishes currently relying on that ground water and to report those
findings to the House Committee on Natural Resources and Environment and the
Senate Committee on Environmental Quality.
WHEREAS, the Southern Hills Aquifer System is a system of several aquifers
underlying the parishes of East and West Baton Rouge, Pointe Coupee, East and West
Feliciana, and St. Helena with ten of those north of a fault line that bisects East Baton Rouge
Parish; and
WHEREAS, the Southern Hills Aquifer System is the major source of drinking water
for ten parishes in and surrounding the Capital Area Region and there are numerous
industrial facilities that withdraw potable water from the aquifer system for their industrial
processes; and
WHEREAS, there has long been concern about the viability, sustainability, and
health of the Southern Hills Aquifer System; even as long ago as the early 1960s, there were
concerns about saltwater being drawn from the southern portions of the system below the
fault line into the freshwater portions of the aquifer north of the fault line; and
WHEREAS, the concern about the sustainability of the aquifer system has been
growing and has resulted in many activities, discussions, studies, and public hearings
culminating in the July 2013 release by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) of their
"Simulation of Groundwater Flow in the '1,500-foot' Sand and the '2,000-foot' Sand and
Movement of Saltwater in the '2,000-foot' Sand of the Baton Rouge Area, Louisiana" report;
and
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WHEREAS, according to the abstract of that report, "Groundwater withdrawals have
caused saltwater to encroach into freshwater-bearing aquifers beneath Baton Rouge,
Louisiana. Groundwater investigations in the 1960s identified a freshwater-saltwater
interface located at the Baton Rouge Fault, across which abrupt changes in water levels
occur."
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby
urge and request the commissioner of conservation to study the effects of the ground water
withdrawals on the sustainability of the Southern Hills Aquifer System and on the water
supplies and water levels, including the lowering of the water table, of parishes currently
relying on that ground water and to report those findings to the House Committee on Natural
Resources and Environment and the Senate Committee on Environmental Quality on or
before March 1, 2017.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a suitable copy of this Resolution be transmitted
to the commissioner of conservation.
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE
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