HENDERSON, La. (KLFY)   Energy Transfer Partners, the company responsible for the controversial pipeline in South Dakota, plans to build the 162-mile pipeline from St. James Parish, across south Louisiana to Calcasieu Parish, passing through the Atchafalaya Basin.

Henderson Mayor Sherbin Collette says their intentions to pass the pipeline through an existing spoil bank is detrimental to the basin.

Spoil banks are the mounds of dirt you see on each side of the line. They were created when the pipeline company dredged the basin for the pipeline to be laid. These banks block the flow of the water, which disrupts the current and causes the oxygen count in the water to deteriorate

Mayor Collette estimates only about 50 percent of the basin is being fished, due to a lack of oxygen in nearly half of the swamp.

He says he isn’t against pipeline construction, but it must be constructed in a way that doesn’t damage the basin.

St. Martin Parish officials will meet Wednesday afternoon with representatives of the pipeline company.