As Covid 19 is ravaging through our communities, the threats to the Atchafalaya Basin continues, with a renewed furry and trying to take advantage of situation.  ABK  continues fighting, undeterred to meet those threats, for our communities, our members, the birds and animals that depend on the Basin and our children, grandchildren and generations to come.

As we continue to socially isolate amidst the health crisis, it is critical we all stay informed.  This newsletter contains NEWS and information of the work we have been doing in 2020 along with UPCOMING information.

NEWS

EPA –The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) suspended enforcement of our environmental laws. Using the COVID-19 pandemic as an excuse, the decision is right in line with the agency’s nearly four years of giveaways to corporate polluters and weakening environmental regulations. Amid this horrible crisis, we are now at the mercy of large corporations on the amount of toxic pollutants that we and our children will be exposed through the air we breathe, the fish we eat and the water we drink. Pollution enforcement is now more than ever on the shoulders of groups like ABK. EPA SUSPENDS ENFORCEMENT

ABK signs on Letter to CEQ against Proposed NEPA Rollbacks - 

Atchafalaya Basinkeeper along with  330 conservation, health, and justice organizations and businesses signed on to the letter opposing the proposal to massively roll back critical protections provided by the National Environmental Policy Act. This letter urges the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) to withdraw its attack on NEPA and fulfill its mission to ensure that federal agencies protect the environment support public health and prevent wasteful spending.  Read More under News May 22, 2020

East Grand Lake Project- The biggest threat to the Atchafalaya Basin is sedimentation. The biggest contributor to this threat is by far, government funded river diversion projects designed to fill those wetlands with sand and silt to benefit a hand full of corporate landowners/waterbottom claimants under the disguise of “water quality projects”. The Buffalo Cove and Beau Bayou Projects have already devastated huge amount of wetlands, lakes and bayous. The EGL project will be another project that will destroy huge amounts of wetlands.

From Dr. Ivor Van Heerden report: So, this EGL project, in just a four-month flood based on 2011 data (Welch et al, 2014) covers 1188 acres with at least 4 inches of sediment, and this is a very conservative estimate. If you review Table 3 (Stations 10 and 11) you will see that the suspended sediment loads measured during the 2011 flood were well below the median of the historical data.”  See van Heerden Expert Report page 12.(link below)

ABK is making a priority to stop this project. So far, we have sent 1 comment letter to the Corps and two comment letters to the Atchafalaya Basin Program under Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority. 

We recently obtained 1979 EPA report that warns the state and the Corps against such projects and the threat they pose to swamps and the Basin flood capacity.  ABK has sent this report and additional comments to Corp and CPRA on 4/27/20.

 For all documents associated with the EGL Project including, Dr. Ivor Van Heerden’s report and response to SIGMA, please visit https://www.basinkeeper.org/east-grand-lake

Eminent domain case update -  because the three judge panel that heard our arguments on appeal has resulted in two-judges on our side and one against us our case is now scheduled to go before a five-judge panel in the court of appeal for the Third Circuit in Lake Charles.

"Check out this article to learn more about our efforts to hold Bayou Bridge Pipeline, a multi-billion dollar for-profit company, accountable under the law for months of flagrant trespass on the property of another, and to protect the rights of all Louisianans to property and a healthy environment. ABK continues to protect YOUR rights to a healthy environment, and to the constitutional freedoms fundamental to our nation and our state.  Article

Court filings – Grand Lake - Represented by the Tulane Environmental Law Clinic, Atchafalaya Basinkeeper, LCPA-West and Healthy Gulf yesterday filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, challenging their permit for the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources’ Grand Lake Restoration Project. The original permit, that we supported, was posted for public notice for the removal of a 17-acre island in Grand Lake. The island was created in 2011 when a plug on a pipeline owned by Enterprise failed, allowing river water full of sand from the Atchafalaya River to move into Grand Lake. LDNR proposed to suction-dredge the island and dump it into the river to be carried by the river to the coast. LDNR then changed the permit after the public comment period to instead use the dredged material to backfill the Enterprise pipeline canal, protecting for free their exposed pipeline and creating an ecological nightmare, since much of the liquid sand from the dredging filled Schwing Chute and adjacent wetlands or flowed back into Grand Lake. 

To read more and see the documents/photos associated with the case click here.

To see our monitoring trip to inspect the reported dike breech click here.

UPCOMING

Website –  We will be updating our website, to provide more information and documentation to empower our members with knowledge.  Please check back frequently for the latest news and updates. basinkeeper.org

ABK Member Meetings- One of the goals this year was to establish member meetings in areas surrounding the Atchafalaya Basin.  With the shutdown, we are looking to find new ways to have membership meetings.  If you or someone you know would be interested in being a part of the Meeting Committee in your area, Please give me a call and let’s get started.  Monica Fisher 225-685--9439

Volunteer Opportunities – We love our Volunteers!! 

July, October and December we do our Mail Outs.  This is fun and filling, as Dean cooks fried fish and shrimp while we get to catch up with one another. 

January is our Save the Basin Event, there are many great ways to get involved, staffing, pre event organization, music, photography.

Though out the year there are volunteer opportunities for website help, Facebook and Instagram postings, Basin monitoring photography and film making, and soon for the ABK member meetings.

“Navigable Waters Protection Rule.”

A coalition of 17 states has sued EPA over recently published “Navigable Waters Protection Rule.”  This reckless rollback ignores science, taking too many wetlands and other important waterways out of Clean Water Act jurisdiction, putting public health at risk. At a time when we need being healthy more than ever before, protecting the public from toxic pollutants should be a priority instead of weakening our environmental protections. Among many other things, these roll backs would make it impossible for groups like Atchafalaya Basinkeeper to protect isolated wetlands from being developed or from becoming toxic waste sites.

COMPLAINT FOR DECLARATORY AND INJUNCTIVE RELIEF

SUPREME COURT LEAVES THE CLEAN WATER ACT INTACT

What a victory for our planet! The Clean Water Act was recently gutted, under the new guidelines, groundwater, ditches, intermittent streams and isolated wetlands lost all Clean Water Act protections. Also under the new guidelines isolated wetlands could be filled and developed without a permit. Thanks to our friends at Earthjustice, a ruling by the Supreme Court left the Clean Water Act intact and we are back on business protecting wetlands and stopping pollution.

Like our friend and volunteer Kim put it "Happy Earth Day indeed!

APRIL 23, 2020

Victory: Court decision leaves in place vital protections for the nation’s oceans, rivers, lakes

Washington, D.C. — 

Today the Supreme Court issued its opinion in County of Maui v. Hawaiʻi Wildlife Fund siding with clean water advocates that point source discharges to navigable waters through groundwater are regulated under the Clean Water Act. 

The following is a statement from David Henkin, Earthjustice attorney who argued the case defending clean water:

“This decision is a huge victory for clean water. The Supreme Court has rejected the Trump administration’s effort to blow a big hole in the Clean Water Act’s protections for rivers, lakes, and oceans.

Full Article

ABK signs on Letter to CEQ against Proposed NEPA Rollbacks

Atchafalaya Basinkeeper along with  330 conservation, health, and justice organizations and businesses signed on to the letter opposing the proposal to massively roll back critical protections provided by the National Environmental Policy Act. This letter urges the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) to withdraw its attack on NEPA and fulfill its mission to ensure that federal agencies protect the environment, support public health and prevent wasteful spending.

The National Environmental Policy Act ensures that major federal projects incorporate public input and adequately consider environmental impacts. Changes proposed in the NPRM would unravel the protections of NEPA.

Based on previews of what will be in the proposed rule, it would:

• Limit review to those effects that have a tight causal connection to the action, again limiting consideration of often important other effects that degrade natural resources and habitat.
• Place arbitrary time and length limits on the scope of review.
• Further increase the number of projects that will be categorically excluded, meaning that will have no review or no opportunity for public input.
• Eliminate the assessment of “cumulative impacts,” which includes important considerations like climate change and other incremental but harmful changes over time.

Attached you will find the letter sent to CEQ and the list of signers.

Letter from 331 Organizations and Businesses against Proposed NEPA Rollbacks

List of 331 Organizations and Businesses against Proposed NEPA Rollbacks

It is not over until is over!

Following a very difficult trial wherein ABK worked with Bill Quigley from Loyola University New Orleans and Pamela Spees of the Center for Constitutional Rights in representing three courageous landowners who took a stand against a company who had trespassed and constructed a pipeline on their property and sought after-the-fact permission from a Louisiana court for their conduct, there has been an outpouring of frustration, anger and disbelief from the public. From your team at ABK, we recognize these legitimate and voiced opinions. However, from our perspective, this case is not a loss and is far from over. The very fact that you all have shared your opinions and followed the stories is in one sense a victory. Public awareness around these issues has been seemingly nonexistent before this case. Any of our victories are nothing without public engagement, and it is all of us (the public) that holds the power to make real change. To that end, we encourage you to continue to stay informed, educated, and active. Please don’t forget that this is a marathon, not a race, and that each step in the direction of truth, educating our public, advocacy and engagement, is positive and worth acknowledging.

In Louisiana, we have witnessed a serious disconnect between compliance with and enforcement of the law that has been ongoing for many years. So much is already lost because of it! We are paying the consequences and our kids will pay a bigger price. It is a topic that is at the top of our list of concerns as we see daily the effects that relaxed or failed enforcement and compliance has on our Basin, our commercial fishing and ecotourism jobs, our ecosystems, our ability to contain flood waters and protect surrounding communities, and our Coast.

This case presents no exception. If you find yourself in disbelief with the outcome of this matter, or others, you are not alone. However, there are active steps you can take to help change the state of affairs Louisiana.

First, stay educated and informed, change will never happen if people don’t know the truth. Please help to educate others with respect. Share our postings.

Second, act. Follow ABK as we continue this fight and learn how you can engage. Become a member, donate and consider volunteering. Our work would not be possible without your support.

Finally, we want to reiterate that we empathize and feel just as you all do the sense of great injustice in many of our battles, this matter being no exception. However, it is how we conduct ourselves in the face of these perceived setbacks that matters. We will continue to fight for justice, for the protection of our communities and our natural resources, our Basin and our Coast.

This case is far from over. We hope you will continue to fight alongside us. Sharing ideas with respect will go a long way in our goal to educate others, helping to create a united front, that we so desperately need, for change in Louisiana.

Thank You for all of your support and encouragement – The ABK Team

Trial Concluded: Judge Rules Pipeline Company Trespassed But Allows Taking of Private Property

December 6, 2018, St. Martinville, LA – Today, a Louisiana judge found that the Bayou Bridge Pipeline Company (BBP) trespassed on privately owned land when it constructed its oil pipeline in the sensitive Atchafalaya Basin, but allowed the company to exercise eminent domain over the property for its use. Landowners with property interests that span 38 acres in the basin, represented by the Center for Constitutional Rights and Atchafalaya Basinkeeper, challenged the land grab and damage to the property resulting from the construction of the pipeline without their permission. Following three days of trial that concluded last Thursday, Judge Keith Comeaux awarded each of the landowners $150 in total for the expropriation and trespass. The landowners’ attorneys say they will appeal court’s ruling.

“This case was always about holding a billion-dollar corporation legally accountable for its violations of the Louisiana and U.S. Constitutions and the damage it is doing to the Atachafalaya Basin,” said Center for Constitutional Rights Senior Staff Attorney Pamela Spees. “They made a calculated business decision that it was cheaper to violate the law than to follow it. While the court did find the company trespassed on our clients’ land, the damages award validates their business decision.”

“This case was never about the money, but clearly the judge chose not to send BBP a message by adhering to their ridiculously low appraisal of the land,” said Peter Aaslestad. “The value of the land goes far beyond what you could get if you ground it up for mulch. The court missed the very real value of the property as it is and the protection it provides to the public good. Their experts only spoke about their private gain, but the basin as a whole plays a larger and much more important role for the people and the state of Louisiana. I’m glad the judge ruled in our favor on the trespass, but we are not done fighting.”

“As landowners and people with deep roots in Louisiana, we feel violated that the court didn’t take into account this wasn’t just a trespass—BBP went ahead and damaged the land and laid the pipeline knowing they didn’t have permission and not taking into consideration how that pipeline is going to affect the Atchafalaya Basin in the future,” said Theda Wright.

Attorneys say BBP trespassed onto the land and began constructing the pipeline—including clearing trees and trenching—long before beginning a legal process to obtain the land, and that the company continued construction while permits were under challenge. In addition to defending against BBP’s eminent domain lawsuit, the landowners countersued BBP for trespass and illegal construction. They argued that far from serving a public and necessary purpose that would allow BBP to exercise eminent domain, the pipeline is contrary to the public interest. Attorneys say the judge’s award to compensate the landowners $150 vastly undervalues the land.

Said Atchafalaya Basinkeeper Attorney Misha Mitchell, “Although we are disappointed the court did not find that the crisis facing Louisiana's coast and the Atchafalaya Basin warranted additional consideration in its determination of the public and necessary purpose of the project, the fact that the court found BBP unlawfully trespassed on the property at issue is substantial. For any individual to attempt to hold a huge company like BBP accountable under the law is no small feat—these landowners should be commended for their courage in confronting the illegal acts of a substantial opponent and standing for what is just.”

The Atchafalaya Basin is the country’s largest river swamp and contains old growth trees and many species listed as endangered.

“Pipelines contribute to increased flooding, coastal erosion, and climate change, and BBP’s extensive spill and leak record threatens a true environmental disaster. It is downright dangerous to allow corporations to take private land for environmentally destructive purposes,” said Bill Quigley of Loyola University Law School. “We want the courts to overturn the expropriation and take the pipeline out of the ground.”

For more information, visit the Center for Constitutional Rights’ case page.

The Center for Constitutional Rights works with communities under threat to fight for justice and liberation through litigation, advocacy, and strategic communications. Since 1966, The Center for Constitutional Rights has taken on oppressive systems of power, including structural racism, gender oppression, economic inequity, and governmental overreach. Learn more at ccrjustice.org.

Contact:

Jen Nessel, Center for Constitutional Rights, 212-614-6449, jnessel@ccrjustice.org

Anne Rolfes, Louisiana Bucket Brigade, 504-452-4909, anne@labucketbrigade.org

Judge Tells Why She Stopped Pipeline Through Atchafalaya Swamp

BATON ROUGE (CN) — The federal judge who granted environmentalists’ injunction to stop a pipeline from crossing the Atchafalaya Basin concluded that public interest in wetlands outweighs a company’s potential financial setbacks.

In a 60-page ruling Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick states why she suspended construction of the Bayou Bridge Pipeline through the Atchafalaya Basin on Feb. 23, until the case can be tried on its merits.

Dick said the pipeline threatens the health and longevity of the Atchafalaya Basin, the largest river swamp in North America. She agreed with environmentalists who filed the lawsuit that the centuries-old cypress and tupelo trees in the path of the pipeline are irreplaceable...

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Court Order Pausing Bayou Bridge Pipeline Only Applies To Path Through Cypress Swamp

A federal judge’s recent order stopping construction of the Bayou Bridge pipeline — though only in Louisiana’s Atchafalaya Basin — has successfully prevented further sections of the National Heritage Area from being destroyed, for now.

On February 27, the same day U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick explained her previous week’s ruling to halt work on the pipeline, Dean Wilson, executive director of the Atchafalaya Basinkeeper, surveyed the oil pipeline's route in the basin. He was relieved to find cypress trees recently identified as “legacy trees” —  those which were alive before 1803 — still standing.

I spoke to Wilson after he toured the pipeline route. He told me he was relieved to discover much of the route through the basin’s east side still intact. The damage done on the west side was heartbreaking, but at least the pipeline has yet to be put in the ground, he said.

Drone video shot by Phin Percy, an independent camera operator, shows the pipeline route on the west side of the basin, where a swath of trees up to 75 feet deep has already been pulverized...

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