Unchecked gas pipeline permit scheme challenged in federal court

WASHINGTON – Today the Southern Environmental Law Center, on behalf of Alabama Rivers Alliance, Black Warrior Riverkeeper, Healthy Gulf, Ogeechee Riverkeeper, and Savannah Riverkeeper, filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a permit scheme that allows companies constructing oil and gas pipelines to sidestep federal laws that protect waterways, rare species, and other aquatic resources.

The Corps’ Nationwide Permit (NWP) 12 authorizes oil and gas pipeline construction through waterways before projects are even proposed. NWP 12 violates the Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, National Environmental Policy Act, and Administrative Procedure Act. The lawsuit challenges the permit’s use nationally but highlights the impact of two proposed methane gas pipeline projects: South System Expansion 4 and Mississippi Crossing. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.  

“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.”

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. 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. These activities also release sediment into waterways that choke aquatic wildlife and degrade water quality. NWP 12 allows pipeline companies – not federal regulators as required by law – to determine whether to engage in a formal review of endangered and threatened species impacts. The Corps admits recovery of biodiversity post-construction under NWP 12 is rare.

“Streams such as French Creek are essential to freshwater flows, wetland habitat, fishing, and hunting in the lower Black Warrior River watershed,” said Nelson Brooke, Black Warrior Riverkeeper. “Destructively trenching a methane pipeline through creeks and wetlands is shortsighted and unnecessary.”

The lawsuit specifically points to two proposed pipeline projects that would lay nearly 500 miles of new pipe across Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia: South System Expansion 4 and Mississippi Crossing. Project developers — Southern Natural Gas (Kinder Morgan and Southern Company), Elba Express (Kinder Morgan), and Tennessee Gas Pipeline (Kinder Morgan) —  plan to use NWP 12 to construct pipelines through 2,200 waterbodies and mow down trees and vegetation across 11,000 acres – about 8,300 football fields. These projects would harm federally protected species’ habitat across three states without any public input or site-specific environmental review for the Nationwide Permit. Pipeline construction could begin as early as this summer.

Additional quotes from plaintiffs:

“The highly disruptive construction techniques proposed for this project could affect several sensitive wildlife species and important ecosystems in our basin, not only at the numerous locations where it will cross streams, wetlands, and the Ogeechee River, but also downstream for miles,” said Damon Mullis, Ogeechee Riverkeeper. “It is important that we understand the impacts and do all we can to mitigate them. Using a nationwide permit is not sufficient. The impacts on our particular system should be evaluated.”

“The use of Nationwide Permit 12 in Mississippi threatens drinking water for Jackson, the capital city. The MSX pipeline crossings on the Pearl River and its tributaries are upstream of the Ross Barnett Reservoir north of Jackson which has an EPA source water protection program in place because of the river’s use as a public water supply,” said Andrew Whitehurst, water program director for Healthy Gulf. “People who depend on this water are unaware that NWP 12 lacks the strongest protections for this important source of drinking water during pipeline construction.”

“Rivers, swamps, and wetlands are among the world’s most fragile landscapes. They can be altered in a matter of days, yet recovering from that damage can take generations. Even the most carefully planned development leaves a mark,” said Tonya Bonitatibus, Savannah Riverkeeper. “These places are more than scenic backdrops. They filter our water, blunt the force of floods, sustain wildlife, and anchor the health of entire communities. They are ecological crossroads where countless forms of life depend on one another – and where we, whether we realize it or not, depend on them as well. Protecting these waters is about more than conservation. It is about preserving the living systems that sustain us today and ensuring they remain intact for those who come after us.”

“The hundreds of Alabamians that live in the communities across the 10 county route of this pipeline 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,” said Cindy Lowry, executive director of the Alabama Rivers Alliance.