Bill would move soil, water research here

The federal Sugarcane Research Laboratory in Houma may absorb the Department of Agriculture’s Soil and Water Research Station located at Louisiana State University if a bill authorizing the transfer is approved by Congress, said Ed Richard, the laboratory’s research leader.

The bill has already passed the Senate, but still needs approval by the House and the president. The measure probably will not reach the White House until February after a new president is sworn in, Richard said.

He said the new unit in Houma would concentrate on researching the impact of energy cane – sugarcane grown specifically to produce biofuel – on soil and water quality. The station currently located at LSU does not specialize in the study of biofuels.

“We have the scientific personnel needed here in Houma,” Richard said.

The facility at LSU, established on the campus more than 20 years ago, is out-of-date, he said.

However, Doug Daigle, coordinator of the Louisiana Hypoxia Working Group, said that the unit on the LSU campus still conducts productive research on farm runoff entering the Mississippi River, the main cause of the Dead Zone in the Gulf. Daigle was quoted in the university’s student newspaper, the Daily Reveille.

Daniel Thomas, head of the university’s biological and agricultural engineering department, also opposes the move, according to the newspaper.

Energy cane can be an alternative to corn in the production of biofuel. The plant contains more fiber than regular sugarcane.

Richard said the new unit in Houma would research cultivating the cane outside of traditional sugarcane growing areas.

The laboratory is trying to secure federal funding to move the entire facility to a site on Bull Run Road. The new buildings would contain the same amount of square footage as the current site on Little Bayou Black.

Construction on the first phase, a cross-breeding facility, will begin in the fall, Richard said. If it is transferred to Houma, the Soil and Water Research Station would move to the Bull Run Road location along with the rest of the laboratory.

U.S. Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) appropriated $3.2 million in funding during the most recent session of Congress to build greenhouses and plant-preparation areas at the current lab site on Little Bayou Black. The funding requires approval by the House and the president, though it is unrelated to the transfer of the Soil and Water Research Station to Houma.

The laboratory is part of the Agricultural Research Service, the main research agency of the federal Department of Agriculture.

Elta Duet, a researcher at the Sugarcane Research Laboratory station in Houma, works with product samples. * Photo by KYLE CARRIER