The President's Column
May, 2010
Carl Richter, President
One of my duties as LGS president is to attend the semi-annual board meeting of the GCAGS and be exposed to the inner workings of our umbrella society. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend, but Tim Duex, our President-Elect, went in my place and reports that he was very impressed with the amount of activity and planning that goes on behind the scenes. Planning for the Fall GCAGS 2010 in San Antonio is in the final stages. Tim was very impressed by the presentation of the Asociación Mexicana de Geólogos Petroleros [AMPG], our Mexican member society, which will be hosting next year’s convention. For planning purposes it is important to get an idea about attendance, and I urge all of our members to return the email survey I sent around early in May. This survey is not only about the convention, but also about other issues currently being discussed by GCAGS. If you did not get this survey, or other announcements from me during this season, it is because you need to update your email address in our membership spreadsheet. Just send an email to our Secretary (currently Dan Ruberg, druberg@fugro.com) with any updated contact information.
You should be aware that a Louisiana geologist registration bill, SB 788, the "Louisiana Professional Geoscience Practice Act", has been filed in the current session by State Senator Troy Hebert. It follows the Texas model. Details are available through links at our website and the GCAGS website.
The current big issue, making headlines worldwide and certainly on everybody’s mind in the region, is the oil-spill disaster in the Gulf. At this point it is not clear to me what exactly had happened and why, nor does it appear that there is an easy way to contain the oil or fix the leak. Let us hope the engineers come up with a viable solution soon. It remains to be seen what the implications for the debate about offshore drilling will be, especially in the light that the current administration just recently announced plans to lift a longtime ban on offshore drilling and oil and gas exploration.
Our next luncheon talk by Bill Schramm from the LDEQ is on a not completely unrelated topic: environmental and safety issues in the use of local salt domes as gas storage facilities. This should be a very interesting talk of local relevance.
In closing I would like to thank Chevron for sponsoring our UL geology students at the May luncheon. I would also like to take the opportunity to thank all companies and individuals who contributed throughout this, and the previous LGS seasons, to the many activities of our society. Many thanks to everybody, especially our to our board members, Karen and Francis Broussard, Jill and James Willis, and the various committee chairs and members for their service and help in making this a successful and exciting LGS season. It has been a great pleasure serving as your president this year. See you at the meeting!
I hope to see everybody at the meeting!
~ Carl ~
Carl Richter
Department of Geology, University of Louisiana at Lafayette
PO Box 44530, (delivery: 131 Rex Street), Lafayette, LA 70504, U.S.A.
Office: (337) 482-5353; Dept: (337) 482-6468; Fax (337) 482-5723
http://geology.louisiana.edu
email: richter@louisiana.edu
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