Bossier City approves natural gas ordinance
By Drew Pierson • dpierson@gannett.com • June 3, 2009


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Bossier City has become the first local governing body to pass a comprehensive ordinance regulating quality-of-life issues related to oil and gas production.



"We feel as though appropriate regulations will benefit both our citizens and the industry," Bossier City Mayor Lorenz "Lo" Walker says in a letter to the state.

Since announcement of the discovery of the Haynesville Shale early last year, Bossier City and Shreveport have become concerned with the litany of quality-of-life issues associated with natural gas drilling, such as noise near drilling sites, damage to local roads by supply trucks and so on.

The Bossier Police Jury had been expected to become the first local government to pass a comprehensive ordinance regulating those concerns sometime within the past couple of months, but that process has been stalled for two main reasons: industry opposition and a similar ordinance being considered by the state Office of Conservation, which regulates oil and natural gas production in Louisiana.

Walker's letter, sent jointly with Bossier Parish Administrator Bill Altimus, expresses concern that the ordinance the state was considering was "watered down" and did not provide adequate protection for local citizens.

Bossier City's ordinance, passed by the City Council on Tuesday, would be the most comprehensive local legislation to date. It includes not only controls on dust, appearance and other aspects of drilling rig operations, but also considers less-visible issues like how much companies must pay to lay their pipes in public easements.

Besides passing the oil and gas ordinance, Bossier City also agreed to:


Continue discussion about tornado sirens in Bossier City, with the city agreeing to host a free study of the cost and effectiveness of implementing such a system, possibly in conjunction with distributing free weather radios to local citizens. Initial examinations have indicated it would take about $500,000 to install 15 tornado sirens within the city limits.


Take $650,000 from a 2007 bond issue for transportation to build two northbound left-hand turn "pockets" onto Louisiana Highway 511.


Take $160,000 from the same bond issue for new traffic signals at Barksdale Boulevard at Golden Meadows Drive.


Take $12.5 million to repair the "head works" at the Red River Treatment Plant. As the Times previously reported, the 30-year-old head works, where all of the waste enters the sewage plant, unexpectedly collapsed several weeks ago. Bossier City is not only rebuilding that and enlarging it for future use, the new design also should significantly reduce odors from the plant, city staffers told the City Council.


Bossier City Marshall Johnny Wyatt spoke to the council to inform them a former Barksdale Air Force Base air sergeant, who Wyatt's office had helped capture trying to make child pornography, recently was sentenced to 25 years in prison, as the Times previously reported.

"We want to say 'thank you' for all the support you've given us," Wyatt told the council.


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