The Southern Environmental Law Center has sued the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for allowing companies to sidestep environmental laws when constructing oil and gas pipelines, including one scheduled to cross the Black Belt.
The lawsuit claims that the Corps of Engineers issued a type of permit that “authorizes the construction of oil and natural gas pipelines hundreds of miles long with thousands of individual waterbody crossings” without following federal laws that protect waterways, rare species and other aquatic resources.
The lawsuit specifically points to South System Expansion 4, a $3 billion project that calls for burying about 290 miles of natural gas pipeline from Clarke County, Mississippi east to Augusta, Georgia. That route takes the pipeline right through the middle of Alabama, much of it through the Black Belt.
The pipeline, which will mostly be buried alongside existing natural gas pipelines, will pass through Elmore, Autauga, Dallas, Perry, Marengo and Sumter counties, according to the application from Southern Natural Gas Co.
The lawsuit claims NWP 12 “authorizes oil and gas pipeline construction through waterways before projects are even proposed,” according to a news release from the Southern Environmental Law Center. “NWP 12 violates the Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, National Environmental Policy Act and Administrative Procedure Act.”
“This permit is a ‘hall pass’ for companies to dodge compliance with environmental laws that protect communities, clean water and wildlife in a pipeline’s path,” SELC staff attorney Spencer Scheidt said. “For years, the Army Corps has cut the public out of the decision-making process for destructive pipelines that degrade local streams and waterways. Instead, the agency effectively assumes pipeline companies will ‘do the right thing’ — even though history shows that’s not happening.”
The lawsuit argues that the Corps of Engineers should use individual permits that require them to “select the least environmentally damaging practicable alternative for waterbody crossings, which would reduce harm to environmental resources.”
“Nationwide Permits may only be used to authorize activities with minimal environmental impacts, but the Army Corps uses NWP 12 to permit projects that span hundreds of miles and impact thousands of waterways,” a news release announcing the lawsuit said.
The release said pipeline construction “devastates ecosystems.”
“Developers use explosives or heavy machinery to dig and backfill trenches in waterways, crushing and killing fish, amphibians, and other species in their path,” the release said. “These activities also release sediment into waterways that choke aquatic wildlife and degrade water quality.”
NWP 12 also allows the pipeline company, not federal regulators as required by law, to determine when their project will impact the environment, the lawsuit claimed.
Cindy Lowry, executive director of the Alabama Rivers Alliance, said, “The hundreds of Alabamians that live in the communities across the 10-county route of (South System Expansion 4) deserve an opportunity to comment on the permitting of a project that stands to impact their health, their waterways and sensitive ecosystems. Allowing this pipeline to fall under NWP 12 robs them of that opportunity.”
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Alabama Rivers Alliance, Black Warrior Riverkeeper, Healthy Gulf, Ogeechee Riverkeeper and Savannah Riverkeeper.
The South System Expansion 4 project is being constructed by Southern Natural Gas, which is equally owned by subsidiaries of Houston-based energy company Kinder Morgan, and Southern Company, which owns Alabama Power Co., and Elba Express Company, a Kinder Morgan subsidiary.
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