Tagged: industry

The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries says the 2012 spring inshore shrimp season will close at 6 a.m. Saturday in most remaining state inside waters east of the Mississippi River. The closure is designed to protect developing white shrimp.

The open waters of Breton and Chandeleur Sounds will remain open, but all other inside waters will be closed to shrimping.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture says Louisiana farmers are planting more soybeans than they have in 14 years but may tie a record low for cotton.

Changing weather patterns appeared to be a factor as the wet early spring gave way to a drier pattern. So farmers are planting more soybeans and less rice than originally expected.

The USDA's July crop report says Louisiana farmers are planting 1.14 million acres of soybeans, the highest since 1.2 million acres in 1998 and 70,000 acres more than projected in March.

Houma residents who live and work near the site of a proposed oilfield waste disposal well say they're upset about a court ruling that allows the project to move forward.

A judge ruled Friday that a state permit allowing Vanguard Environmental to drill the well supersedes local laws preventing such drilling within a mile of residences or businesses. State law only requires the well to be 500 feet away.

Terrebonne Parish officials said they plan to appeal the decision.

GEISMAR — A Houston-based chemical company contends it should not be penalized for a March plant fire at its vinyl chloride complex here because an unexpected and unprecedented chemical chain reaction touched off the fire.

BATON ROUGE — The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries says the 2012 spring inshore shrimp season will close July 9 in some areas to protect developing shrimp. The announcement applies to portions of the Pontchartrain Basin and to all of the Mississippi River, Barataria and Mermentau River basins. 

HOUMA — The U.S. Attorney's Office in New Orleans says a Houma towboat company must pay $525,000 in fines and penalties after pleading guilty to violating federal environmental regulations.

The Courier reports that Cenac Towing violated the Clean Water Act between June 2008 and January 2010 by failing to collect samples of the raw sewage discharged by its former yard.