Louisiana Water Protectors continue to take action despite looming House Bill 727 that threatens to criminalize their peaceful monitoring along the Bayou Bridge Pipeline route. The bill will be voted on by Senate Judiciary C Committee on Tuesday, April 24th.

Water Protectors documented the ongoing use of out of state labor for construction earlier this month, this time in Iberville Parish. Water Protectors photographed ten workers’ vehicles with out of state license plates. Five plates were from Texas, three from Mississippi, one from North Carolina and another one from Alabama. The hiring of out of state workers for construction jobs breaks a promise of local jobs, a foundation of Governor John Bel Edwards’ argument in favor of the pipeline.

The Water Protectors’ work is publicly available on the Louisiana Water Protectors Facebook page.

Other Water Protectors reported the following in Calcasieu Parish: “Multiple sightings of discharge in waterway along work site, dark oily brown to black and rainbow. Wildlife such as frogs and snakes still living there. Called it in to the Southwest DEQ office, nobody answered, left a message.”

These reports come as Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the Bayou Bridge Pipeline, has come under intense criticism for its high accident rate. A report released last week by Greenpeace and The Waterkeeper Alliance exposed that over a period of 15 years, the company’s facilities averaged an accident every 11 days.

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