La. Collapsed Salt Dome Bubbling Lake Victims Sue State's DNR

Citizens filed a lawsuit Monday against Louisiana’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) alleging it violated the state constitution and its own guidelines by issuing a Coastal Use Permit (CUP) to Jefferson Island Storage & Hub, LLC (JISH), to create two new natural gas storage caverns in Jefferson Island salt dome beneath Lake Peigneur that is bubbling.

Plaintiffs of the new lawsuit against Louisiana’s DNR Office of Coastal Management include Louisiana Environmental Action Network (LEAN) and local members of Save Lake Peigneur, Inc.

The lawsuit is against the same agency charged with managing Louisiana’s more recent salt dome collapse disaster involving a monster “sinkhole” and related human rightsin Assumption Parish’s Grand Bayou and Bayou Corne communities.

There, it is possible that a catastrophe similar to Lake Paeigneur’s salt dome collapse is occurring. The entire Napoleonville Salt Dome could collapse under the great sinkhole of 2012, now encompassing over 14 acres and still expanding.

Corporate media battle against citizens explained

“I became interested in the expansion in 2011 after learning the amount of water from the Chicot aquifer that this company will use. I started emailing everyone I knew about this,” said a nearby Lake Peigneur resident, Glo Conlin in an email on Tuesday. “A local TV station called me for an interview.

The reporter went to Conlin’s house, and then went to Lake Peigneur to interview another lady.

“My interview was on a Monday, the other lady on a Tuesday,” Conlin said. “The reporter, who no longer works for this station contacted us, and said that AGL Resources local PR man, went to the station and stopped any more info from getting out.”

Conlin added, “The local PR man had enough influence.”

Corporate government neglects citizen safety

Tulane Environmental Law Clinic, that is representing the citizens, filed the lawsuit in the 16th Judicial District Court of Louisiana.

Lake Peigneur is within Louisiana’s Coastal Zone that LDNR is charged with protecting under law.

In issuing its decision, the suit alleges LDNR failed to follow the Louisiana Constitution and Coastal Management Guidelines in that it did not conduct full-scale, all-encompassing environmental impact assessment through preparation of an environmental impact statement and neglected analysis of the issue of public safety.

“While the agency focused on project benefits, it failed to account for negative impacts, some catastrophic, including irreversible contamination of Lake Peigneur or the underlying Chicot Aquifer from either natural gas, arsenic, or saltwater and the potential for explosions and loss of life from increased mining activities in and around the Jefferson Island salt dome,” the groups said Monday in a written statement.

The suit further alleges that LDNR ignored ongoing, long-term bubbling of gas from beneath Lake Peigneur that could signal problems with the integrity of the salt dome and it ignored two expert reports warning of potential catastrophic consequences of the project.

Since 2006, Lake Peigneur has been periodically bubbling with gas, often creating foam at the lake’s surface.

Neither LDNR nor JISH has explained the bubbling.

[Watch the video below of community group Save Lake Peigneur, Inc. president Nara Crawley interviewed by human rights reporter Deborah Dupré at the lake explaining the cause for concern.]

The suit also alleges that there have been over 80 documented bubbling events since 2006, including five in 2013. Testing of the bubbles and foam was conducted in 2007, and found methylene chloride, which is derived from methane, a component of natural gas.

Over 4,000 people live within one mile of the bubbling Lake Peigneur.

“We hope that the many issues that occur at salt domes, the most recent example being at Bayou Corne, will be addressed by the judicial system and stop any expansion of salt domes within the Jefferson Island Storage Area.” said Nara Crowley of Save Lake Peigneur.

Last month, trying to defend people from Gov. Bobby Jindal’s oil and gas industry human rights abuses, a Chief Law Enforcement officer in South Louisiana asked the governor in writing to stop the project there. The governor, however, was unresponsive.

“If we have a collapse there, it would be a hell of a catastrophe and it worries me. It has worried me for many years. Seeing it first hand, I know what could happen,” said Iberia Parish Sheriff Louis Ackal who wrote the letter to Jindal.

“Whatever monies it is paying the State of Louisiana to use that dome is not worth a damn penny of it if it’s going to endanger the lives and property of the people that live out there,” Ackal had said.

[See: Sheriff: If La. salt dome collapses, 'It would be hell of a catastrophe']

LEAN is a non-profit organization that fosters cooperation and communication between individual citizens and corporate and government organizations to protect Louisiana’s quality of life and mend Louisiana’s environmental problems. LEAN’s goal is to create and maintain a better quality of life and a cleaner and healthier environment for all the inhabitants of Louisiana.

Tulane Environmental Law Clinic trains effective and ethical lawyers by guiding law students through actual client representation and represents clients who could not otherwise afford competent legal help on environmental issues. By giving a voice to clients who would not otherwise be heard, the Clinic broadens public participation in environmental decision-making.

“Since January of 2011 I have met people who live on Lake Peigneur, and continue to fight to protect their lives and property,” Conlin said. “These people are not asking to close the existing natural gas storage caverns, but not to expand.

“After what has happened in Bayou Corne to some friends of mine, I hope the people on Lake Peigneur continue to fight.”