St. Martin Parish filed an Amicus Brief on June 10 in support of a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Army Corps permit for the East Grand Lake Project.
St. Martin is the sec - ond parish to file an Amicus Brief in sup - port of this case, join - ing Iberville Parish who filed a similar Amicus Brief on March 5.
Atchafalaya Basin - keeper, Louisiana Crawfish Producers As - sociation-West, Healthy Gulf, Sierra Club and its Delta Chapter and Waterkeeper Alliance filed this lawsuit on May 15, 2024, to challenge the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' approval of the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Resto - ration Authority's East Grand Lake project in the Atchafalaya Basin. The lawsuit, pre - sented by the Tulane Environmental Law Clinic, contests the Corps' granting of a Clean Water Act section 404 permit allowing the dredging and filling of impacted wetlands. The permit was granted to CPRA for the implemen - tation of the EGL proj - ect.
CPRA has already been attempting to move forward with the EGL project in the face of intense opposition from parishes, fisher - men, and local commu - nities.
Illustrating the pub - lic opposition, Iberville Parish, Assumption Parish, and St. Mar - tin Parish each passed resolutions against the East Grand Lake proj - ect, highlighting the threat that filling wet - lands in the Basin pos - es to the future of their parish and the rest of Louisiana.
At public meetings, many people expressed strong opposition to the Project, and 2791 people signed a petition online and in-person against the EGL project. CPRA has ignored this public opposition to the Project and continues to push forward.
Brief
Though St. Martin Parish is not a party to the action, the parish council filed the amicus brief to emphasize the severity of the harm the EGL project could cause and to encourage the court to listen to the vocal public opposing the project.
Parish President Pete Delcambre and Council Chair Chris Tauzin voiced the Parish’s opposition to the project, expressing that St. Martin stands with Atchafalaya Basinkeeper in the fight to protect the Basin and stop harmful projects that will fill wetlands with sediment.
Hoyt Louviere, representing District 1 on the Parish Council, expressed concern with the EGL project’s similarity to past projects that have destroyed irreplaceable wetlands and caused them to fill in, saying that the state cannot keep doing the same thing and expect different results.
While the EGL project has been coined a “swamp enhancement project,” experience and sound science demonstrate that the project, like similar projects in the past, will destroy irreplaceable flood capacity by causing excessive sedimentation in the East Grand Lake area.
The project will ultimately convert productive and vital swamp habitat into bottomland hardwood forest by introducing sediment-laden river water and physically dispersing dredged sediment in the area.
The Basin is a vital tool in managing Mississippi River floodwaters, and destructive projects like East Grand Lake threaten the continued habitability of Louisiana.
As North America’s largest contiguous swamp, the Atchafalaya Basin is among the world’s most productive ecosystems.
The Basin’s wetlands are vital for migratory birds across the Western Hemisphere, and the ability to store and release floodwaters helps protect south-central Louisiana from flooding.
The groups and parishes against EGL alike hold that failing to revoke the permit and cease implementation could lead to severe environmental and economic consequences.
Local fisheries and crawfishers could lose access to the area, while the introduction of nutrient- rich river water from agricultural runoff may worsen hypoxia, further degrading water quality.
After decades of manipulation through illadvised projects and oil and gas exploration, the Lower Atchafalaya Basin Floodway System’s natural water flow has been severely altered.
A significant portion of these initiatives, even aside from those related to fuel production, receive backing from oil and gas firms and large land corporations.
These entities profit from alterations that disrupt commercial fishing and public access while facilitating the increased privatization of wetland forests for activities such as private logging.
This has led to stagnant water, sedimentation, and associated loss of floodwater carrying capacity. This mismanagement impairs the Basin’s ecosystem, navigation, and flood control abilities, according to Atchafalaya Basinkeeper.
Often framed as water quality projects, river diversions in the Basin that are permitted or conducted by the Corps — such as those occurring in Buffalo Cove, Coon Trap, and Beau Bayou — have already filled thousands of acres of swamp wetlands.
This has led to the loss or severe degradation of approximately 75 percent of the Basin’s cypress swamps, lakes, and bayous.
Without intervention, the groups in opposition contend that these projects will irreparably change the environment and the lives of impacted communities.
“The EGL project, like all the other projects, will forever destroy the wetlands that crawfishermen depend on to make a living,” said Avery Theriot, President of Louisiana Crawfish Producers Association-West. “These wetlands are the heart of our Cajun culture.”
For more information, visit www.basinkeeper. org/east-grand-lake.
