A Houston company wants to store carbon dioxide deep under Iberville and Assumption parishes. At a state hearing in Plaquemine on Oct. 8, residents, two Iberville Parish council members and environmental groups lined up to question the plan.

The Louisiana Department of Conservation and Energy held the hearing at the Iberville Parish Courthouse. The applicant is River Parish Sequestration LLC. It wants to drill four Class VI injection wells, the type used to store carbon dioxide permanently underground. Two would be in Iberville Parish and two in Assumption Parish. A fifth well in Ascension was approved earlier and was not part of the hearing.

The wells would go down 10,800 to 12,800 feet, according to the department's summary read into the record. The area's deepest underground drinking water is about 590 to 1,073 feet down.

Officials took comments for the record but did not answer questions. The written comment period closed Oct. 9 at 4:30 p.m. The department will respond to the comments before the secretary decides whether to issue the permits.

What the company said

River Parish Sequestration is owned by Blue Sky Infrastructure, a Houston company. Blue Sky's website lists it as a portfolio company of the investment firm Blackstone.

Michael Manteris, Blue Sky's co-president, said the carbon dioxide would be injected "between two miles and one mile deep," under several layers of cap rock. The company would track it with monitoring wells and seismic surveys and run its equipment from a control center staffed around the clock, he said. Before operating, it must set aside money to cover emergencies, plugging the wells and long-term monitoring.

"We are committed to operating safely, transparently, and in full compliance with Louisiana law and permit requirements," Manteris said.

Citing a Louisiana Economic Development study, Manteris put the project at $565 million at full build-out. That includes $181 million in Iberville Parish, which he said would bring the parish $9 million in sales and property taxes over the first five years.

Tim Johnson of St. Gabriel said he works with and represents Blue Sky. He said the two Iberville wells would sit on 6,000 acres of private land at the Ascension-Iberville parish line. "The closest neighbor to this site is about two miles away," Johnson said.

Johnson said other industry depends on carbon storage. "Without safe and well-regulated CCS, Hyundai doesn't come here, CF Industries doesn't build its new facility," he said.

Council members speak

Iberville Parish Councilwoman Shalanda Allen, who represents District 1, had not signed up to speak. She came to the microphone near the end of the hearing.

"This is my first time hearing where y'all putting this at, and I'm thinking it's going to be in my area," Allen said. "I never got a map showing nothing."

Allen said her district covers White Castle and runs to the Ascension Parish line. "I didn't know none of this information," she said. "I was wondering why I was getting so many calls today."

In a phone interview after the hearing, Allen said she learned about the hearing a few days earlier, when the parish president sent the notice to council members. She said no one told her where the wells would go.

One of the exhibits the department entered into the record was a "confirmation of notice to parish governing authority."

Councilman Thomas E. Dominique Sr. of District 3 turned to Johnson. "Why are we making this place the dump of the world?" Dominique said. "We have a lot of chemical plants."

Council Chairman Steve "Pine" Smith of District 5 and Councilman Justin Mendoza of District 10 also attended. Neither spoke.

Where the carbon would come from

Two attorneys from the Tulane Environmental Law Clinic spoke for a St. Rose resident and the group Refined Community Empowerment. They said the application does not say where the carbon dioxide will come from or how it will get to the wells.

Student attorney Nadia Alzoqari said River Parish Sequestration "signed a term sheet with St. Charles Clean Fuels." That company has proposed a blue ammonia plant in St. Rose, in St. Charles Parish. Alzoqari asked the department to make the company name every source the wells would serve and study the routes the carbon dioxide would travel.

Johnson said a letter of intent with the St. Charles plant "was signed over two years ago." "There is no intention of working with that plant in St. Charles Parish as we go forward," he said.

Kimbrelle Eugene Kyereh, founder and executive director of Refined Community Empowerment, asked the department to deny the permits.

What residents said

Lydia Caillouet of Plaquemine said she looked through the application for information on old wells and possible leak paths. She said the attachment she found was "entirely redacted."

"All of the information that I as a citizen wanted to know was redacted," she said.

Garry Harrell said much of the planning for projects like this happens under nondisclosure agreements. "That is not transparency," he said.

Jordin Hebert of Plaquemine asked the department to deny the two Iberville wells. He cited state cancer data ranking Iberville first among Louisiana parishes for cancer incidence from 2018 to 2022, and he talked about his son, who was diagnosed with cancer as a baby. "Iberville Parish should not have to prove that harm will occur before its health is taken seriously," Hebert said.

Jack Green, Louisiana campaigner for RISE St. James, said the application ties some of the wells to "potential future projects" instead of specific sources.

Michael Smith spoke in support. He said he has spent 33 years as an independent consultant in energy transportation and does not work for the applicant. He called the application "outstanding" and "technically sound."

What happens next

The department's Office of Permitting and Compliance will review the comments and respond before a final decision. The applications and the draft order, UIC 2026-10 GS, are posted on the department's Class VI page at dce.louisiana.gov.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified the parish where River Parish Sequestration's previously approved well is located. It is in Ascension Parish.

Source link (RPN-1 fact sheet): https://carbonstorage.io/media/permitted_files/River_Parish_Sequestration_-_RPN_1_-_Fact_Sheet.pdf Application map PDF (106 pages): https://carbonstorage.io/media/permitted_files/River_Parish_Sequestration_-_Map.pdf

Disclosure: A member of the editor’s family works for Iberville Parish government. He was not a source for this story and had no role in its reporting.