DONALDSONVILLE — A carbon storage company may take its first steps toward building the first carbon capture test injection well in Ascension Parish pending a Thursday public hearing regarding their permits despite local pushback for the project.

Houston-based Blue Sky Infrastructure's River Parish Sequestration Project would see a test well be drilled near Donaldsonville off La. 943 and McCall Bayou. The project will see the company drill more than 10,000 feet underground collecting geological data to potentially be used to store carbon dioxide underground.

The project is funded by Blackstone, the company noted, as well as a $32.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.

The Department of Energy and Natural Resources said these carbon capture wells combat climate change, but they also come with their own set of risks.

To get approval, Blue Sky must assure the public their project won't harm water supplies in the parish.

Donaldsonville resident and president of the advocacy group Rural Roots Louisiana Ashley Gaignard says she is concerned for her community and its safety if Blue Sky's plan for the project proceeds.

"What they're not saying is concentrated CO2 that's going to be pumped at a really fast rate that's going to put our community at risk for pipe explosion, water contamination. It's not a matter... of when," Gaignard said. "If we know that it will contaminate our land, water and air. It's just when we face an explosion in a small community like this our emergency system can handle (it)."

She says her community has already been impacted by nearby chemical plants. Donaldsonville is in the area along the Mississippi River with a high concentration of plants known as Cancer Alley.

She said that her community has rarely received economic assistance, despite the presence of a profitable industry.

"We are constantly getting minimized in poor communities. There will be two classes if we don't start fighting: the rich and the poor. We're already considered as the poor. So how do you change that? It's to educate the people," Gaignard said.

Still, she said she would not go anywhere without a fight.

"I'm tied to the land. I didn't steal the land I built. So I'm not going to pack up and move, I'm going to stay here and fight for what's mine because this is mine," Gaignard said.

A public hearing about the well is happening at the Ascension Parish Clerk of Court at 6 p.m. on Thursday.