The Vermilion Parish Sheriff’s Office responded to a site of the under-construction Bayou Bridge pipeline on Wednesday morning, where protesters gathered at the site in opposition to the project.
Chief Deputy Kirk Frith said seven or eight protesters were on the property to block construction access at the site. All but one had left by 9:30 a.m. "because they were notified they were trespassing."
Frith said no arrests were made.
KATC viewer Derik Turner submitted a photo from the scene.
Bayou Bridge has been under construction across south Louisiana in recent weeks and appears to be near completion.
Workers were burying the pipeline on Wednesday morning along a part of the route near Milton.
Protesters have dogged the project from the beginning, including through a lawsuit that led to the temporary stoppage of the pipeline’s construction in the Atchafalaya Basin. That injunction later was overturned, although a lawsuit is still pending over the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ permit for the pipeline’s Basin construction.
A report released this week found that Energy Transfer Partners, which is the primary company behind the project, has spilled more than 87,000 barrels of hazardous liquids in 527 events over the last 15 years, according to The Advocate. In response, ETP cited its 99.99 percent delivery rate. Read that story here.
