NAPOLEONVILLE, La. (CN) – About 200 protesters converged on this small village 90 minutes outside of New Orleans to raise their voices in opposition to the proposed Bayou Bridge Pipeline, an extension of the recently revived and highly controversial Dakota Access Pipeline.
The rallying point for the protest Wednesday night was the Assumption Parish Community Center, where a public hearing was held on the pipeline plan.
The Obama administration had rendered the extension largely moot when it declined to approve a portion of the Dakota Access Pipeline slated to pass through land sacred to the Standing Rock Sioux tribe.
The tribe and its supporters also objected to the pipeline's planned route on the grounds that it could threaten local water supplies.
But President Donald Trump ordered a new expedited review of the project, and this week the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approved its construction.
Renewed concerns over the project and its possible impacts locally inspired a large contingent of protesters and worried townspeople to gather across the street from the community center for an impromptu rally, and by the time the hearing began, opponents of the Bayou Bridge Pipeline outnumbered supporters by nearly three-to-one.
The proposed Bayou Bridge Pipeline will cut through 700 bodies of water in southeast Louisiana, including the Atchafalaya Basin, the largest remaining wetland swamp in the United States.
The Atchafalaya is known for its vast cypress-tupelo swamps and also for being the largest remaining contiguous tract of coastal cypress trees in the country.
Much of the area is already crisscrossed by thousands of pipelines carrying oil and gas to a plethora of refineries along the Gulf Coast.
Environmentalists among the protesters say the new project will cut through about 600 acres of sensitive wetlands.
But the poor local economy in the largely rural Assumption Parish also weighed heavily on the minds of hearing attendees.
Most of those who support the pipeline said it will create much needed jobs in the area.
Some pointed out that Louisiana has long been dependent on the oil and gas industry for some measure of prosperity; others said they are concerned about the nation's reliance on foreign oil and see the pipeline as a tangible step toward energy independence.
“This pipeline is the vehicle that would drive the blood of our nation forward,” said Christian Gil, a real estate agent from nearby St. Mary Parish. “I don’t know why anyone would be against it.”
Gil said he drove 44 miles to attend the hearing as a favor to friends who feared protesters would overwhelm supporters at the hearing.
Nick James, a chemical engineer and Republican party chairman for St. John the Baptist Parish, said he drove 50 miles from his company’s plant in St. Gabriel, Louisiana to support construction of the pipeline on behalf of the party.
James said he didn’t believe construction of the pipeline is a controversial issue.