The Bayou Bridge Pipeline

THE BAYOU BRIDGE PIPELINE

The Bayou Bridge Pipeline (BBP) would impact numerous communities across Southern Louisiana. The pipeline would lead to more fracking for oil in the shale fields of North Dakota and further the global dependence on climate change-causing fossil fuels.

The oil moving through the Bayou Bridge Pipeline will come from North Dakota via the Dakota Access pipeline before connecting with another pipeline that heads south. Ultimately the oil that will be shipped through BPP will be exported overseas.

There are a host of concerns about BBP and reasons why it must not be built. Some of these concerns are detailed below:

Threats to Wetlands and the Environment

Threat to Bayou Lafourche Drinking Water

Public Interest and Safety Concerns

Environmental Justice issues in St. James

Threats to Wetlands and the Environment

The Bayou Bridge Pipeline presents a significant threat to Louisiana’s invaluable and treasured wetlands. This 162-mile long crude-oil pipeline will cross the largest contiguous wetland area in the country, permanently destroying some 150 acres of forested wetlands in its path and “temporarily” impacting more than 450 acres of wetlands. Moreover, the proposed pipeline’s 75-foot buffer along the right-of-way will permanently destroy 940 acres of wetlands.

The Atchafalaya Basin contains the largest contiguous bottomland hardwood forest in North America. The largest river swamp in North America, and one of the most productive wetlands in the world, the Basin’s 885,000 acres of forested wetlands provide habitat for an expansive array of mammals, fishes and amphibians. Situated at the mouth of North America’s most important flyway, the Basin supports half of America’s migratory waterfowl (more than 300 bird species), and provides the most important habitat for neotropical migratory land birds in the Western Hemisphere. The proposed pipeline will contribute to the existing harm left behind by oil and gas activities in the Basin. In addition to concerns regarding spills and malfunctions of the pipeline, the installation of the pipeline as proposed presents significant harm to the invaluable wetland ecosystem of the Atchafalaya Basin.

Prior backfilling activities in the Atchafalaya Basin along the very same right-of-way that Bayou Bridge Pipeline proposes to use have drastically reduced the environmental integrity of the Basin. Previous pipeline projects through the Basin have left spoil banks of dredged material adjacent to the pipelines, dramatically altering water flow and sedimentation patterns along the pipeline routes, impairing water quality, negatively impacting wildlife habitat and disrupting local crawfishing communities. The spoil bank runs along the pipelines on an east-west trajectory and diverts and impedes the natural north-to-south water flow, altering the direction to an east-west flow pattern. Because the water is laden with sediment, the change in the natural flow creates sedimentation along the spoil banks, which further impairs the north-to-south flow of the water. If BBP is authorized to install its pipeline into existing spoil banks it will be authorized to permanently impair water flow, making it impossible to restore the Basin to its natural hydrology. Prior to authorizing installation of any additional pipelines in the Basin, regulators must require pipeline companies, including BBP’s majority owner Energy Transfer Partners, to restore the rights-of-way for existing, out-of-compliance pipelines for which these companies are responsible.

Finally, as the state will likely continue to experience frequent flood events, the value of the wetlands for flood attenuation should not be underestimated. Reducing flood storage throughout Acadiana by filling wetlands and constraining north-south flow with a pipeline right-of-way aggravates flooding issues. The Atchafalaya Basin is critically important for flood control, yet the ability of the Basin to move flood waters is severely diminished due to the increase in accretion of sediment in the Basin floodway. Pipeline canals, illegal spoil banks and the lack of enforcement of the terms of pipeline construction permits greatly contribute to the accretion process in the Basin. It is critically important for the sustainability of the Basin floodway that pipeline canals are brought back into compliance before any new permits are granted to use the rights-of-way.

Threat to Bayou Lafourche Drinking Water

Bayou Lafourche is the sourceof drinking water for 300,000 people, including the United Houma Nation and residents in Ascension, Assumption, Terrebonne, and Lafourche Parishes. Consolidated Water District No. 1 which provides water to residents in Terrebonne and Lafourche Parish is becoming increasingly dependent on Bayou Lafourche to provide 80% of its water supply (approximately 4 billion gallons per year).

Bayou Lafourche has also historically counteracted subsidence in the area by introducing fresh water, sediments, and nutrients from the Mississippi River. To counteract coastal land loss, Louisiana’s Coastal Wetlands Conservation and Restoration Task Force has been working since 2015 on a project of year-round pumping and siphoning to divert more water into Bayou Lafourche near Donaldsonville, in addition to bank stabilization and dredging.

The Bayou Bridge Pipeline will carry fracked crude oil of various viscosity through a 160 mile stretch of Louisiana, including 54 miles of the Louisiana Coastal Zone. The pipeline could transport up to 13,000 gallons of crude oil per minute when operating at full capacity. In 2016, Bayou Bridge Pipeline, LLC. (a company of Energy Transfer Partners), applied to the Bayou Lafourche Fresh Water District (BLFWD) for a permit to run a 24-in crude oil pipeline 40ft underneath Bayou Lafourche for a distance of 129ft. In October 2016, the BLFWD unanimously approved the permit without discussion.