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C&E hosts meeting for Capital Area Groundwater District Stakeholders

Contact: Patrick Courreges, 225-342-0510

C&E hosts meeting for Capital Area Groundwater District Stakeholders

Leadership and staff explain transition process and next steps

BATON ROUGE — Louisiana Department of Conservation and Energy (C&E) Secretary Dustin Davidson and C&E Director of Water Administration Monique Edwards led a discussion on Tuesday with Capital Area Groundwater District stakeholders about the purpose and process of the transition of regulatory responsibility to C&E.

As part of the larger re-organization of the former Department of Energy and Natural Resources in C&E, the state Legislature passed Act 458 of the 2025 Regular Session that transferred the responsibilities and authority of the Capital Area Groundwater Conservation Commission (CAGWCC) to C&E, effective Oct. 1, 2025.

“Transparency with the public is a core value in this agency as it has been re-made under Gov. Jeff Landry’s administration and this meeting is an expression of our commitment to transparent communication,” Davidson said.

The C&E Capital Area District covers the same area as the previous Commission, comprising the parishes of Ascension, East Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, Pointe Coupee, West Baton Rouge, and West Feliciana – all a part of the wider Southern Hills Aquifer.

Edwards said that, moving forward, C&E’s approach to managing the District’s water resources will not only deal with its traditional boundaries set for the former Commission, but will leverage the state agency’s resources to manage the District in coordination with management of the wider Southern Hill Aquifer System.

“In the meantime, we are working with experts to develop an audited pumpage program for district users that would enable them to use equipment complimentary to their business operations,” Edwards said. “We are also seeking to engage with the Water Institute of the Gulf as part of the toolkit C&E’s Water Administration section will use to make science-based policy.”

The agency has long had a notification/registration function for water wells statewide, which is now housed in C&E Office of Permitting and Compliance’s Geology Division. Previously, C&E and CAGWCC had separate notification (C&E) and permit (CAGWCC) review processes, though the required well construction and water production (pumping rate) data was similar.

C&E is working to integrate the two processes into a single, streamlined format. Well owners in the Capital Area District will no longer be required to submit two forms and undergo separate evaluations. Instead, they will submit one consolidated form for a single evaluation overseen by C&E.

Currently, C&E’s Geology groundwater staff are working with Edwards, as the Director of Water Administration, to update necessary rulemaking through C&E’s Office of State Resources. The goal is to give C&E the option to require that applicants provide secondary and cumulative impact data and information, using such methods as monitoring, testing, and modeling of local and regional impacts to aquifers.

 “The Southern Hills Aquifer System provides some of the highest-quality groundwater in the state, if not the entire country” Davidson said. “It is a resource that must be regulated in a manner that balances the interests and needs of the people who live here; the businesses that provide them with jobs and economic opportunity; and the environment we all share.”

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