St. Martin crawfishermen settle Atchafalaya Basin pipeline suit

St. Martin Parish crawfishermen have settled their nearly decade-long lawsuit against some of the oil and gas companies they blame for destroying water quality in a formerly productive area of the Atchafalaya Basin. Lafayette attorney Joseph R. “Buzzy” Joy III, representing Louisiana Crawfish Producers Association - West and nearly 100 individual members, said he is not at liberty to discuss the settlement, granted by order of U.S. District Judge Rebecca F. Doherty on Sept. 24. According to the order of dismissal filed in federal court here, all plaintiffs agreed to settle their claims against the following defendants and their insurers: Anadarko Petroleum, Kerr-McGee, ConocoPhillips, Exxon Mobil, Hess Corporation (formerly Amerada Hess), The Louisiana Land and Exploration Company, Hilcorp Energy Company, Hunt Oil Company, El Paso CGP L.L.C., Denbury Energy Services Inc. and related entities, Enterprise Lou-Tex Propylene Pipeline L.P., Sorrento Pipeline Company, Union Oil Company of California, Texaco Pipeline L.L.C., Bridgeline Holdings L.P., Shell Pipeline Company, and Concha Chemical Pipeline. The crawfishermen had asked for damages for loss of jobs, profits, wages and earning capacity – also loss of enjoyment for recreational use, inconvenience and mental stress – resulting from pipeline and location canals being cut across and around the Buffalo Cove area in such a manner as to stem the seasonal floods that revitalized the fishery there. Specifically, the spoil banks, or berms created by spoil from the dredging, act as levees to impede the flow of the flood and result in pools of stagnant water that won’t sustain crawfish. The plaintiffs had also asked that the companies be ordered “to remove, relocate, or alter the structural work or obstructions caused thereby without expense to the public; repair the damages to the ecosystems of Buffalo Cove by removing the spoil banks; stopping the discharge and dumping of dredge material into the public waters.” The suit was filed in state court in 2004 and converted to an admiralty case in federal court in 2010 after losing a tort action in state district court and on appeal. Not all of the defendants in the suit have signed off on the settlement. Several construction, surveying and engineering firms and at least one dredging company and one pipeline company cited in the original suit are missing from the order of dismissal. Given the secrecy mandated by the settlement, it is not immediately clear if any action will be taken to curtail or undo the damage in Buffalo Cove or whether the case sets any legal precedence.