โIt is a crime against nature,โ Jody Meche, president of the Louisiana Crawfish Producers Association-West,ย said while scanning theย Bayou Bridge pipeline right-of-wayย on the west side ofย theย Atchafalayaย Basin, the countryโs largest river swamp in a designated National Heritageย Area.ย
His voiceย trembled with rage as he told me that he wasย speaking for all the animals living in the basin that canโt speak forย themselves.
โThe Bayou Bridge pipeline has left a dam across theย Atchafalaya Basinย affecting theย fisheries, the birds, the otters, minks, raccoons, and nutria,โ Mecheย said.
On September 27,ย I joinedย Meche and Dean Wilson,ย executive director ofย the conservation group Atchafalaya Basinkeeper, on a monitoring trip to the west side of the pipeline. It was their first trip along theย pipelineโs construction path, which only recently became visible afterย unusually high water levels in the basinย receded.
Jody Meche, president of the Louisiana Crawfish Producers Association-West showing me a healthy site in theย Atchafalaya Basin away from the Bayou Bridge Pipeline to stress whyย the basin is worthย preserving.ย
Bald Eagle in the Atchafalayaย Basin.
The controversial 163-mile-long pipeline spans southern Louisiana from Lake Charles, near the Texas border, to St. James, on the banks of the Mississippi River. The Bayouย Bridge pipeline is the tail end of a pipeline network built to transport Bakken oil from North Dakota to the Gulf Coast, likely for export.ย
An announcement on September 16 by Energy Transfer Partners, the Bayou Bridge Pipelineโs controlling owner, toย acquire SemGroup, another pipeline company, sheds light onย its push to export both oil and gas from Americaโs shaleย regions.ย The merger will โenhance export opportunities via two premier U.S. Gulfย Coast Terminals,โ the Energy Transfer Partners press release states. One of these export terminals is in St. James, where the Bayou Bridge Pipeline terminates.ย
Construction of the Bayou Bridge pipeline was completed at the end of March, despite high-water conditions, and has been operationalย forย months.
Dean Wilson, the executive director of the Atchafalaya Basinkeeperย withย Ivor van Heerden andย Naomi Yoder, with Healthy Gulf,ย next to the Bayou Bridge pipelineย right-of-way.ย
Debris and soil left along the Bayou Bridge pipeline right-of-way interfering with a waterway in the Atchafalayaย Basin.
โThe destruction is even worse than I anticipated,โย Wilson said, scanning piles of dirt left along the construction site that, in places, were blocking small natural waterwaysย through theย swamp.
โI knew it was going to be bad because construction should have stopped when the water got high, but I never imagined it would be this bad,โ Wilson told me.ย
After a monitoring tripย in October 2018 of the east side of the basin, when the water in the basin was about three and a half feet higher than normal, he found manyย navigable waterways blocked, and unbroken stretches of trenched dirt piles,ย known as spoil banks,ย restrictingย water flow in the basin.ย Wilson reported theseย issues to theย U.S.ย Army Corps of Engineers, which has the authority to enforce regulations. Two weeks ago, onย September 26, heย was distressed to find the same waterways remain blockedย off.
With documentation from several monitoring trips conductedย in September, theย Atchafalaya Basinkeeper,ย the Louisiana Crawfish Producers Association-West, and Healthy Gulf, another environmental advocacy group, filedย a federal administrative complaint that accuses Bayou Bridge Pipeline LLC of a series ofย U.S. Clean Water Act violations in theย basin.
The complaint states that they โidentified numerous, significant unpermitted violations of the Clean Water Act/illegal fills,ย 33 U.S.C. ยง 1251ย etย seq., along theย Bayou Bridge Pipeline right-of-way in the Atchafalaya Basin.โย And thatย โthe receding waters have exposed severe impacts necessitating immediate action toย remediate and repair impactedย areas.โย
On the west side of the basin, we spotted a construction crew working on the pipelineย right-of-way. Wilson explained that even if the company does fix all of the issuesย in the complaint he was still working on, the Clean Water Act forbids them from blocking any navigable waterway evenย temporarily.ย
โTheย more water restricted, the more the water quality willย be affected,โ Wilson said. โThis is one more nail in the coffin of the basinโthe biggest of all theย nails.โ
Scientist Ivor van Heerden stands next to the Bayou Bridge pipeline on the west side of theย Atchafalaya Basin.ย
Dean Wilson andย Ivor van Heerden stand along the Bayou Bridge pipeline route that the complaint describes as an example of โillegal fill/Clean Water Act violation along theย pipelineย right-of-way.โย
Ivor van Heerden, a scientist whoย consults for the basinkeeper and formerly served as deputy director of the Louisiana State University (LSU) Hurricane Center, was on the September 26 and 27ย monitoring trips. van Heerden isย best known for having predicted the failure of the levees in New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina hit, and for beingย firedย by LSU when his prediction proved to beย accurate.ย
He wasย alarmedย by what he saw on the recent monitoring trips, but didnโt want to comment until the pipeline company completed its restoration work.
He explained that destroying the water flow in the basin would starve the waterways of oxygen,ย leading toย hypoxia, which killsย aquatic organisms and could lead to worse flooding in theย region.
Alexis Daniel, spokeswomanย for Energy Transfer Partners, told DeSmog that its restoration efforts are still ongoing.ย โOur commitment has been andย continues to be the full restoration of the areas through which we pass, in compliance with ourย permits.โ
She would not say when the restoration work would be completed or if blocking any waterways, even temporarily, wasย forbidden.ย
Instead Daniel stated that, โrestoration will continue until it isย complete.โ
Greg Langley, with theย Louisiana Dept of Environmental Quality (LDEQ),ย told the Baton Rouge Advocate that issues raised in the complaint should be directed to the U.S. Army Corps, not LDEQ and had no comment. However both the Corps and the LDEQ are named in the complaint. The LDEQ was responsible for granting Water Quality Certifications for the pipelineย project.
Citing pending litigation regarding the Bayou Bridge Pipeline, Ricky Boyett, a spokesperson for the U.S.ย Army Corps of Engineers, told DeSmog via email that theย Corps had noย comment.ย
The west side of the Atchafalayaย Basin.
Main photo:ย Jody Meche, president of the Louisiana Crawfish Producers Association-West, monitoring the Bayou Bridge Pipeline on Sept. 27,ย 2019.ย
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