It would seem that when something suspected of being dangerous is reported to one state agency, that agency would notify another that might investigate, especially when the danger involves part of the natural resource that hundreds of thousands of people rely on for drinking water.

Apparently state agencies do not communicate, as evidenced by recent reports that there is arsenic contamination in the Chicot Aquifer.

Some time ago, LAWCO discovered that levels of arsenic in its well water were getting higher. It studied the problem and suspected it was coming from the long closed Iberia Sugar Co-op. LAWCO Regional Manager Jim Brugh has said as much in public meetings his company has objected to a natural gas storage facility using aquifer water to bore out two more caverns. The first was Oct. 1 in New Iberia.

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The state Department of Health and Hospitals regulates drinking water in the state. When arsenic levels began to climb in its untreated water, it was reported to DHH. Also reported to DHH was that LAWCO was moving its wells to get away from the contamination. At a hearing held by the state Department of Natural Resources, Brugh stated the problem.

LAWCO’s study showed that the farther the wells got away from the old mill site, the lower the arsenic levels.

Why, then, are state Department of Environmental Quality officials surprised when a Daily Iberian reporter calls to ask about contamination there? A DEQ spokesman says the agency knows of three spots in the aquifer with higher than acceptable arsenic levels, but not the area under the old mill.

Are folks within state government too busy to give another agency a heads-up on something that potentially could cause harm to a community? State agencies should, at the very least, have a procedure to follow whenever there is a potential hazard to the public. They failed in this case; they should not allow that again.

JEFF ZERINGUE

MANAGING EDITOR