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.
“While an injunction could delay the schedule for this project, it is well established that temporary economic harm does not outweigh permanent environmental degradation such as loss of forests – especially ancient trees – or damage to wetlands,” Judge Dick wrote.
Bayou Bridge Pipeline LLC filed an appeal Monday, asking Dick to suspend her order until the matter has been decided. Dick declined.
She said that since the preliminary injunction she issued last Friday pertains only to the Atchafalaya portion of the 162.5-mile-long crude oil pipeline, being built from Lake Charles to St. James Parish by Bayou Bridge LLC, the company will have plenty of work to do while she continues to weigh the issue.
Atchafalaya Basinkeeper, Louisiana Crawfish Producers Association–West, Gulf Restoration Civil Action Network, Waterkeeper Alliance and the Sierra Club, represented by attorneys from EarthJustice, sued the Army Corps of Engineers in January, saying it issued Bayou Bridge a construction permit without a full environmental assessment, in violation of the Clean Water Act and other laws.
Dick’s Friday order halted all work in the Atchafalaya Basin until the case has been tried.
Bayou Bridge Pipeline LLC is a joint venture between Energy Transfer Partners and Phillips 66. Energy Transfer Partners built and owns the controversial Dakota Access pipeline. The Bayou Bridge pipeline will connect the Bakken oil fields in North Dakota with Louisiana refineries and export terminals.
The Corps of Engineers completed two environmental assessments for the project before issuing the permit. Company attorneys said the Corps of Engineers’ permit requires Bayou Bridge Pipeline to restore the Basin’s “pre-existing wetland contours and conditions” when the project is done.
However, Judge Dick said the Corps of Engineers did not show it took into consideration past and present cumulative environmental impacts.
“The Corps’ and BBP’s [Bayou Bridge Pipeline’s] myopic view that they are only required to consider the impacts of this singular project is not consistent with the regulations or applicable jurisprudence,” Dick wrote.
The environmentalists also said the Corps of Engineers did not adequately consider the risk of oil spills, but the judge disagreed, finding the Corps gave “extensive and appropriate consideration” to the risk of oil spills along the entire route of the pipeline, including in the Basin.
Pipeline construction through the Basin began in January. The plaintiffs challenged the permit on Jan. 11. Two weeks later they sought an injunction to stop construction through the Basin altogether.