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Bayou Bridge Trial Continues into Day Two

Key Witness Confirms the Company did not Consider Project Costs

(St. Martinville, LA)

Landowners head into day two of today’s trial with significant information gleaned from witnesses who testified yesterday, including David Dismukes of LSU’s Energy Center, Scott Eustis of the Gulf Restoration Network and appraiser David Dominy of Jones Lang Lasalle. See this Facebook live video for yesterday’s mid-day update from attorney Bill Quigley. The trial is taking place in the 16th Judicial District, a state court along the banks of Bayou Teche, one of the water bodies threatened by the Bayou Bridge Pipeline.

Landowners Theda Larson Wright and Peter and Katherine Aaslestad are represented by Pam Spees of the Center for Constitutional Rights, Misha Mitchell of Atchafalaya Basinkeeper and Bill Quigley of Loyola Law School. Among yesterday’s revelations:

  • Bayou Bridge’s witness David Dismukes testified under oath that his economic impact study of the pipeline failed to consider any costs to the project, including coastal erosion or oil spills. The study does not even mention the people of St. James who are at the terminus of the pipeline.
  • The landowners’ property is in an area called Buffalo Cove, currently the focus of a government restoration project. The installation of the Bayou Bridge pipeline has interfered with the restoration project since the company put the pipeline in a spoil bank (pile of dirt created by digging a pipeline), thereby creating a dam that will block water flow in the Atchafalaya Basin. Putting the pipeline in a spoil bank is a permit violation.
  • The appraisal process for the value of the property did not include the cost of felling trees without landowners’ permission or hazards created by the pipeline.
  • The appraiser confirmed on the witness stand that trees play a role in flood control and prevention.

The trial will resume today at approximately 11 am and is expected to finish today. Judge Keith Comeaux has said he will rule from the bench.

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CONTACT:

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