By LEONARD GRAY-Staff Reporter

LAPLACE – Security at the Ruddock Water Plant to stop the plague of thefts of anhydrous ammonia has had results and arrests. However, thieves will soon have to look elsewhere to find their ingredient for methamphthetamine.

St. John the Baptist Parish Sheriff Wayne L. Jones called upon the parish to boost their own security at the water plant, and commented: “They ain’t done nothing, and my patience is wearing thin. We’ve got better things to do than baby-sit a water tank.”

Parish administrator Chris Guidry responded that security measures have gone up since Sept. 11, 2001, and those security measures have helped generate arrests. These include a private security system which checks the site.

“It’s such a huge problem (the theft of anhydrous ammonia) that the U.S. Attorney’s Office is involved,” Guidry said, as he recalled a recent television report on the meth lab phenomenon, especially in Livingston Parish, the origin point of many of the Ruddock thieves.

However, he continued, the parish is converting to ammonimum sulphate, a new chemical treatment system, which will discontinue the use of anhydrous ammonia, and thence the thefts.

“It can’t be used to make any drug,” parish civil defense director Paul Oncale said. “It’s not a hazardous material.”

Guidry said the meth lab problem has reached crisis proportions in the Midwestern states, the “Corn Belt,” where fertilizer thefts are epidemic. Even in St. James Parish, according to Sheriff Willy Martin Jr., some farmers still have not converted to another fertilizer system which does not use anhydrous ammonia. Similarly, arrests there for chemical thefts continue.

Meanwhile at Ruddock, where the parish pumps water from the Ruddock wells, processes it and supplies most of LaPlace with its potable water, security patrol checks are matched by sheriff’s patrols, often resulting in arrests.

“We’re protecting the water supply and safeguarding our plant,” Guidry said.