Dredge operation near Venture Global’s CP2 spills into fish habitat

A mishap at a dredging operation in southwest Louisiana, aimed at deepening a ship channel to accommodate LNG ship traffic, may have contaminated fish, oyster, and shrimp habitat. It is the latest blow to commercial fishing in this corner of the state, already pushed to the brink by the LNG industry.

The Port of Cameron has been dredging a section of a river channel near Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass LNG terminal in Cameron, Louisiana. The site is also where Venture Global is building CP2, an expansion of its existing export facility. In late July, Venture Global announced a final investment decision on the first phase of CP2 after securing $15.1 billion in financing for construction. The project requires the river to be deepened to handle large tankers and equipment.

In early August, the Port of Cameron was pumping dredged up mud from the river bottom through a slurry pipeline into marshland a little north of the export terminal near Calcasieu Lake. The plan was to put the spoils to “beneficial use” — rebuilding marsh habitat that had eroded over time due to repeated hurricanes.

The spoils, as the sludge is called, were supposed to stay in one tract of marsh, but in early August, the volume of material was so significant that it escaped containment and flowed into bayous that are rich in fish, shrimp, and oysters. The sludge even flowed into Calcasieu Lake. The incident was first reported by local news outlet KPLC.

Fishermen have reported fish, crabs, and oysters caked in mud. “The shrimpers are catching it all in their nets right now,” Jeremy Waltrip, a guide fisherman, told Gas Outlook.

“It killed off a ton of crabs and shrimp because right now your shrimp should be leaving your marsh to go into the lake to spawn,” Waltrip said. The dredge material has not only smothered oyster reefs, but it has blocked off a migration pathway for aquatic life. “They got trapped. So, it basically killed every shrimp in there, and every crab, and every fish.”

Solomon Williams Jr. has been shrimping and oystering in and around Cameron for decades. He said one of his fellow fishermen harvested oysters shortly after the dredge spill and those oysters were covered in sludge.

Fishermen are worried because they have no idea if the dredge material is toxic. “He can’t sell them if they’re contaminated,” Williams said.

Williams’ oysters are in the same area, but they are a seasonal variety and won’t be ready for a few months. He doesn’t know yet if his oysters were impacted. “I won’t know until October,” Williams said. “But I’m pretty sure it is. They’re in the same area.”

Everyone in a position of power – the port, the local and state government, and Venture Global – has been tight-lipped about the impacts on fish.

“I got customers who are like ‘What was in there? Was it just mud? Is it safe to eat the fish?’” Waltrip said. “I said, ‘You know, I can’t answer that question. You got to talk to the people that did it.’”

“And you can’t get shit from Global,” he added, referring to Venture Global.

In response to several questions from Gas Outlook, Venture Global sent a statement, saying that they are “working together” with the Port to dredge the river loop near its Calcasieu Pass LNG terminal.

“Recently, a discharge that contained a higher volume of sediment than anticipated traveled from the placement area into an offsite channel. As soon as Venture Global became aware of the situation, dredging activities were temporarily suspended in that isolated area and we are taking steps to prevent further offsite migration,” a Venture Global spokeswoman said.

“We have notified the appropriate regulatory agencies and are communicating directly with affected parties, including crabbers in the channel, to develop mitigation and remediation plans, and minimize the potential for an event like this again,” she added.

The Louisiana Department of Energy and Natural Resources (LDENR) told Gas Outlook that the spill amounted to roughly 9,000 to 18,000 cubic yards of sediment. A spokesperson said the agency issued an emergency permit authorising the port to install a berm to ensure a spill doesn’t happen again.

Michael Tritico, a retired biologist, took issue with the entire premise of dredging the river for “beneficial use,” because he argues the river loop near Venture Global is likely laden with toxic chemicals from decades-old pollution that migrated downstream from Lake Charles, a major petrochemical hub.

“I have tried to get ANY government agency to do chemical analyses of the muds that are being excavated to make the LNG ship berths. I have failed,” he wrote to Gas Outlook in an email. “Now we have mud that likely got dosed with seafood advisory chemicals the agencies thought were sequestered miles upstream moving around in the LNG dredge area water columns and in the several BUDM sites,” he said, using an acronym for beneficial use of dredged material.

In short, he fears that the slurry being pumped into aquatic habitats is toxic. “That possible contamination is the concern, along with the agencies’ contrived blindness to the issue, with no chemical analyses for the advisory chemicals being done before any of the BUDM projects.”

A spokesperson from LDENR said one of the conditions for the dredge permit was that the dredge material used for beneficial use had to be free of contaminants. But when Gas Outlook followed up and asked if any chemical analysis had been done beforehand, LDENR did not respond.

Many in the community feel left in the dark.

“It’s absolutely ridiculous not to get some kind of public input” on the emergency permit, said James Hiatt, the director of For a Better Bayou, a local advocacy organisation.

He added that the Cameron Parish Police Jury (equivalent to a county government) has met informally behind closed doors this month in response to the situation, but has not held a public hearing.

James Hiatt, a former oil refinery worker and founder of For a Better Bayou, a local NGO (Photo: Nick Cunningham/Gas Outlook)

Gas Outlook reached out to all members of the police jury with multiple questions. A spokesperson said “the Jury is not ready to comment” because it is an ongoing investigation. They added that “some information will be made available” at a public meeting on September 2^nd.

LNG threatens Louisiana fishermen

Cameron, Louisiana used to be the largest producer of seafood in the entire country. Competition from cheap imports has taken a toll, and repeated hurricanes have depopulated the coastal area.

But many commercial fishermen say that the influx of new LNG terminals in just the last few years has made life unbearable. They single out Venture Global’s Calcasieu Pass LNG as a particular menace to their livelihood.

“Them ships are the worst part. I mean them damn ships, dude it’s freaking unbelievable,” Waltrip said. “The water displacement. If I see an LNG ship, when that LNG ship gets within two miles, I mean it’s over with. You ain’t going to be able to fish there for another three hours.”

The water sloshes in and out from gigantic tankers, whipping up mud in the water, which makes fishing impossible. The wake sends huge waves. “It’s almost like a baby tsunami,” Waltrip said.

The waves slam into the embankments, dragging down silt into the river, which can smother shrimp larvae and fish eggs. It also erodes the river channel and the wetlands, causing more and more of the marshy habitat to degrade and resemble open water, which is detrimental to the aquatic life that thrives in the bayous.

Gas Outlook reported on the impacts of Calcasieu Pass on the fishing community of Cameron in early 2024.

Commercial fishermen in Cameron are dwindling. Waltrip himself used to live in Cameron but moved north after a particularly devastating hurricane in 2020.

“Look, we can’t shut them down. I’m not trying to shut them down. But dude, they need to put some money up and fix our lake,” he said. He wants Venture Global to pay to rebuild strips of land around the river channel so that it shields the wetlands from the tankers.

Hiatt said the concentration of LNG terminals in southwest Louisiana is pushing commercial fishing to the breaking point. Calcasieu Pass LNG is operating. Construction on CP2 is about to get underway. Immediately across the river is Commonwealth LNG, which has targeted a final investment decision later this year. A little north is Cameron LNG, which is operating, and Louisiana LNG, a heavily-delayed project that announced a final investment decision in April and is now under construction.

“CP2 has two docks. CP1 has one dock. Commonwealth will have two docks,” Hiatt said. “Fifteen miles up the river is Cameron LNG and there’s two berths there. So, on this one river there could be eight tankers loading or ready to load at any given time. And that’s on top of the regular petrochem traffic of crude oil ships and product vessels in and out.”

“They have plans for CP3,” he added. “Maybe that’s their pipe dream.”

Fishermen are trying to get answers about the dredging but for now, nobody in a position of power is saying much.

“It’s going to kill up a lot of stuff. Just like the BP oil spill that was down here. It killed up a lot of stuff,” Williams said, referring to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster.

“This has been our living for generations. I’m 59 years old and I’ve been doing it since I was a 16-year-old kid,” Williams said. “It’s been going from generation to generation, you know?”

“Anybody that’s got anything to do with seafood, [LNG] is making it difficult for them.”

(Writing by Nick Cunningham; editing by Sophie Davies)