[StBernard] (no subject)

[Westley Annis]

Bid to drill for oil and gas is revived
Tuesday, August 01, 2006
By Karen Turni Bazile
Developers are trying to resurrect a 1992 request to drill for oil and gas
in an open field in a busy area of hurricane-ravaged Chalmette. 

The field sits across West Judge Perez Drive from the St. Bernard Parish
government complex, and is between two residential neighborhoods and a FEMA
trailer park. 

Although the permit request by Martin-Marks Operating Co. is a bit different
from the one shot down by the council in 1992 because it includes a smaller
footprint farther from homes, St. Bernard Parish Councilman Mark Madary said
he wants to make sure more residents know about the proposal before any vote
is taken. 

The parish's Coastal Zone Management Advisory Committee recommended last
week that the Parish Council grant a coastal use permit for the project. The
item is on the agenda for today's council meeting, but Madary, who
represents the Arabi-Chalmette area, said he is going to ask for a delay. 

"I am going to try to pull the thing," Madary said, noting that many area
residents still have not returned to their flooded homes. "I want to make
sure it is as transparent as it can be, and I want to make sure that they
aren't doing it because the residents are not there to defend themselves." 

Acting Chief Administrative Officer Dave Peralta said the group can't
proceed without getting a zoning change or variance because the land is
zoned C-1, or general commercial, and must be rezoned to I-2, or heavy
industrial, or have a variance. Such action would require a vote of the
Planning Commission and a subsequent vote before the council, Peralta said. 

Donna Runge, an environmental regulatory specialist with C.H. Fenstermaker &
Associates, which is handling permitting issues for the project, said the
group will file for a zoning change or variance if required. 

Fenstermaker is helping Clovelly Oil Co. and Martin Marks Operating Co. get
all the needed approvals to drill for oil and gas on one to two acres of
land on West Judge Perez Drive between Buccaneer Villa South in Chalmette
and Carolyn Park subdivision in Arabi. 

Richard Leonhard, a senior environmental consultant with Fenstermaker, said
the project purposely will have a small footprint because that will keep it
simple and only require the group to lease from the J. & A. Meraux Corp.,
which owns the undeveloped land between the two subdivisions. 

Harald T. Werner, vice president of Clovelly, said if the first well is
successful, subsequent wells could be drilled seeking oil beneath homes in
Buccaneer Villa South. That would require mineral rights agreements with
residents. 

Madary also worries that some owners might hang on to their property --
instead of selling it or repairing it -- simply because they think it could
be tied to potential oil revenue. 

Leonhard said residents who are selling to private parties or to the
Louisiana Recovery Authority can retain their mineral rights when they sell
the land if they put the clause in their sale documents. 

. . . . . . . 

Karen Turni Bazile can be reached at kturni at timespicayune.com or (504)
826-3335.