Proposed drilling regulations
Meantime, a proposed natural gas law is back on the map for the Police Jury.

The parish was set to become the first local government in Louisiana to regulate everything from the noise to appearance of natural gas and oil drilling sites, among other things. But opposition from heavy industry combined with the state passing several related rules spurred police jurors to delay their effort the past several months.

The state's new "field rules" still do not address several drilling-related issues, parish attorney Patrick Jackson told police jurors Wednesday. "There are still quite a few holes in what the state has done."


Police jurors agreed to hear a presentation by Jackson at their next meeting and discuss what the parish might want to enact to better protect area residents, with the intention of potentially passing the remaining bits of the long-pending local proposal sometime this summer.

"This is something we've been putting off for a while," said Police Jury President Glenn Benton, a Haughton resident who represents District 2. "We need to address it."