Haynesville Shale Activity Picks Up in Desoto Parish
Reported by: Erica Bennett
Thursday, Jun 4, 2009 @05:36pm CST


Please Select a Bandwidth High | Med | Low If you've been to Mansfield lately, you can't help but notice all the traffic. You can hear trucks barrelling down the street day and night because of the Haynesville Shale.
"99 percent of the traffic we have is oil and gas related," Director of the Desoto Parish Chamber of Commerce Jim May said.

The Desoto Parish Clerk of Courts office says it's seeing a huge increase in inquiries. Hundreds of surveyors are packing the record rooms daily to check on land titles.

"You can see the cars, you can see the traffic with the big trucks all throughout the parish. So its incovenient as far as parking downtown," Mansfield resident Richard Johnson said.

Flower shop owner Peggy Barringer says she knows the extra congestion all too well.

"Alot of traffic. Tons of traffic. I know as we go out on our deliveries, it takes us twice as long to get around town," she said.

Despite some minor inconveniences, many feel the shale is a good thing.

"If we get the money for the parish, we can work on getting the parking problem solved," Johnson said.

"This is everything for Desoto Parish. This is our future. This is what we're gonna have hopefully the next 20 or 30 years.This is gonna be our future, where we get our income, our tax base from," May continued.

Buck