Bayou Bridge Pipeline


The Bayou Bridge Pipeline is a 162.5-mile crude oil pipeline planned from Lake Charles, Louisiana to St. James, Louisiana by Bayou Bridge, LLC, a subsidiary of Energy Transfer Partners. Communities directly impacted by the pipeline have asked the Army Corps of Engineers for an Environmental Impact Statement. The Corps refused to do so and approved the project on 15 December 2017.

Description

The Bayou Bridge Pipeline, is a crude oil pipeline project through Louisiana's Atchafalaya Basin and across 11 parishes. It is to connect an oil-and-gas hub in Texas with oil refineries in Louisiana. The planned 162 miles of pipeline have been estimated to cost $670 million.

Purpose

The Bayou Bridge pipeline is to deliver heavy and light crude oil from the Phillips 66 and Sunoco Logistics terminals in Nederland, Texas into Lake Charles, Louisiana other than by ship or rail. Greg Garland, chairman of Phillips 66 said it complemented other pipeline projects to deliver Bakken crude oil to the Gulf Coast.

Ownership

In August 2015, Energy Transfer Partners LP announced a joint venture with Phillips 66 and Sunoco Logistics Partners LP to construct the Bayou Bridge pipeline, in which they would have a 30% interest.

Financing

Route

The proposed 162-mile Bayou Bridge Pipeline project is located in Calcasieu, Jefferson Davis Parish, Louisiana, Acadia Parish, Louisiana, Vermilion Parish, Louisiana, Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, Iberia Parish, Louisiana, St. Martin Parish, Louisiana, Iberville Parish, Louisiana, Ascension Parish, Louisiana, Assumption Parish, Louisiana, and St. James Parish, Louisiana. Two pump stations have been proposed in Jefferson Davis and St. Martin parishes. There are eight watersheds within the project: Lower Calcasieu, Mermentau, Vermilion, Bayou Teche, Atchafalaya, Lower Grand, West Central Louisiana Coastal, and East Central Louisiana Coastal.
An important context of the route is the fact that marshes and wetlands have suffered long-term erosion from levees, which are keeping the Mississippi River from flooding but also from re-depositing sediments.

History

With the 2015 joint venture, Phase I of the project began, the construction of a 30-inch pipeline from Nederland, Texas to Lake Charles, Louisiana. In April 2016, this pipeline went into service.
Phase II of the pipeline entails a 24” pipe from Lake Charles to St. James, Louisiana, which is expected to be completed in the first few months of 2018.
Informational meetings were held in January 2017. By May 2017, pipes had already been manufactured.
In August 2017, St James residents opposed the pipeline. and the parish council delayed its vote, but 10 days later, it approved the land use for the pipeline by a margin of 4-3 so it could run through the Vacherie, Louisiana area. The vote was along racial lines, with the white majority prevailing.
In December 2017, as Bayou Bridge LLC was to expropriate property, environmental activists demanded to see project records, including internal company communications, per Louisiana's public records law.

Governmental permissions

Two government permits are needed for the pipeline: one from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and one from the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources. the latter had approved the project.

Concerns

Human health

St James residents have stated that the oil industry is hurting their health and their town in what is known as Cancer Alley.
A recent explosion of an oil platform on Lake Pontchartrain on 6 December 2017 illustrates the dangers involved.

Environmental pollution

Oil spills are a realistic concern. In May 2017, Energy transfer pipelines in Ohio had a series of leaks. On December 1 it was reported that a pipeline leaked oil into Louisiana marsh. At a meeting of the St. Martin Parish Council the Louisiana Crawfish Producers Association-West noted that many pipelines and their spill banks underneath the Atchafalaya Basin running east to west have changed the water flow to such a degree that it no longer flows throughout the Basin, creating "dead water" or low-oxygen swamp water. The Corps of Engineers has required pipeline companies to maintain water flow, but is not enforcing the requirement.

Impact on fishing industry

Crawfishermen have been impacted by the oil industry, particularly since the 2010 BP Oil Spill. This comes on the background of deteriorating health of the basin, an increase of the dead zones.

Lack of trust

Residents who have been impacted by the oil industry have heard companies´ promises of protecting and restoring the coast but not to come true.
As Energy Transfer's militaristic tactics of dealing with protest at its Dakota Access pipeline have become public, including the employment of security companies for aerial surveillance, radio eavesdropping and infiltration of camps as counterterrorism measures,
culminating in the attempt to build a conspiracy lawsuit, it has demonstrated how it can scare protestors from further activism.

Protests

In June 2017, the pastor of St. James led a lawsuit opposing the pipeline to protect the community. A prayer and resistance camp was set up. and indigenous leaders had joined the resistance by August.
Protesters have been demanding an environmental impact statement since at least September. On Halloween, people went to the Louisiana Capitol demanding that Governor John Bel Edwards should require an environmental impact statement for the pipeline. In November, resistance was increasing and opponents of the project filed petition to intervene in a hearing of the Louisiana State Board of Private Security Examiners regarding the application of private security firm TigerSwan, hired by Energy Transfer Partners.
In December an activist bought land in the path of the proposed pipeline.