BUSINESS

Round two looms in fight over 163-mile oil pipeline through Atchafalaya Basin

Richard Burgess / The Advocate (Baton Rouge)
A second hearing is set Feb. 8 in Napoleonville for another permit the pipeline company needs from the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources.

BATON ROUGE -- Louisiana environmental groups are gearing up for round two in a battle against a proposed 163-mile oil pipeline that would stretch across south Louisiana from Lake Charles through the Atchafalaya Basin and east to St. James.

A public hearing last week in Baton Rouge for a required U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit drew more than 400 people, both for and against the project. Many of the opponents gathered for a protest rally before the hearing and decried a project they say they fear will foul the state's wetlands and water.

A second hearing is set Feb. 8 for another permit the pipeline company needs from the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources. That permit is for the roughly 16 miles of the project that will pass close enough to the coast to receive special attention under the state's Coastal Zone program.

"I expect we will have a bigger turnout, because people are fired up," said Anne Rolfes, director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade environmental group. "... This opposition is really unprecedented."

The proposed pipeline, known as Bayou Bridge, would cross 11 parishes. It would link Louisiana refineries to a major oil-and-gas hub in Texas that connects to larger pipelines throughout North America, including the controversial Dakota Access pipeline between North Dakota and Illinois that has been the subject of intense and ongoing protests.

The Bayou Bridge Pipeline project is being jointly pursued by subsidiaries of Phillips 66, Sunoco Logistics and Energy Transfer Partners, all three of which have a stake in the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Supporters of the project argue that the $750 million project would boost the Louisiana economy and offer a safer alternative to moving crude oil with trucks, trains and barges.

The subject of next month's hearing is the state Department of Natural Resources permit needed for portions of the pipeline that would pass through state-designated Coastal Zones in St. James and Assumption parishes, said DNR Communications Director Patrick Courreges.

He said DNR will assess the potential impact the project might have on coastal wetlands.

DNR permits for work in Coastal Zones generally come with requirements for mitigating impacts to wetlands, which is often done through the purchase of "credits" from third-party companies that do restoration projects. The credits can be used to balance a project's damage to wetlands.

"The whole goal of the program is no net loss," Courreges said.

DNR began reviewing the permit early last year and initially closed the public comment period in May, but Courreges said the agency decided to hold a public hearing based on the increasing amount of attention the project has received in recent months.

"When this project was originally being looked at, there wasn't that much interest," he said.

There is no firm timeline for a decision on either the Corps permit or the DNR permit.

Rolfes said the pipeline company can expect continued protests to block the project, even if it receives the required approvals from regulators who she accused of generally doing "big oil's bidding."

"They will not lay this pipeline," she vowed.

The DNR public hearing is set for 6 p.m. on Feb. 8 at the Assumption Parish Public Library in Napoleonville.