Lake Maurepas is a national treasure and economic foundation for an entire community that is now threatened by private industry and the Air Products carbon capture sequestration scheme.

Kim Landry Coates, newly elected Republican state Representative for the Baton Rouge, Livingston, and Tangipaho parishes, has a message for her constituents that can be summed up in two words: “Healthy prosperity.” 

What sounds at first like just a campaign talking point is in fact a mission for Landry Coates as she goes up against the powerful outside financial interests backing the nearly five billion dollar carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) project proposed for Lake Maurepas, one of the largest forested wetlands in the nation. 

In CCS, carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas, is captured before it can be emitted to the sky. The gas is transported via pipeline to an underground storage site. 

However, critics point out similar pipeline accidents have occurred elsewhere in the US with resulting declines in quality of life and home and property values. 

This one would transport CO2 captured from a jet fuel plant to be built nearby Donaldsonville in Ascension Parish and will also impact Cameron, St. John the Baptist, and St. James parishes to reach Lake Maurepas. 

Landry Coates, who won election to the 73rd House District in the state’s October 14, 2023 statewide election, is a Ponchatoula native. She served on the Tangipahoa Parish Council District on the west side for the past three years. 

Lake Maurepas is one of the nation’s largest forested wetlands besides being the state’s last untouched wilderness waterway and sustains the livelihood of hundreds of fisher men and women, seafood retailers, restaurants, hotels, and even the Tickfaw 200, the state’s largest power boat charity run. The region was once cypress forest and part of the larger Manchac Wilderness.

“We need to educate the people,” Landry Coates says. “What’s going on now has nothing to do with the community. It’s all about a very few making a lot and leaving the rest of us with damage that can never be undone. This entire proposal is a huge risk to our way of life, families, home values, and prosperity—and to a national treasure. The community has a very unique way of life here that draws from the lake. They have made it clear that this isn’t the right thing for the future—not for Lake Maurepas or the larger state interests.

“The lobbying organizations behind the Air Products Lake Maurepas CCS projects have been attacking my campaign,” Landry Coates told Rise the day after winning her office in October. “But I’m fighting for our own local seafood producers, jobs, and water.”

Much damage has already occurred to the lake, Landry Coates says, due to thousands of small explosive “shots” being released into the lake. The damage continues, though, Landry Coates adds and say she’s plainly worried. The shots that Air Products ignited perhaps disturbed the sediments of Lake Maurepas or, worse, lead to small leakages of bound carbon dioxide. 

This has caused pathogens that were quiet and buried away to re-emerge that are plaguing the crabs the local seafood industry depends upon. “Wholesalers who sell seafood say that the crabs from Lake Ponchatrain and the Gulf live much longer than ones from Lake Maurepas,” Landry Coates says.

Leakages of heavy metals occur with seismic movements leading to leaks and releases of carbonic acid. The small shifts are sometimes noticed as with an earthquake or the many shots from the Air Products scheme. But they often go unnoticed until it is too late.

The risk for underground gas leaks is especially high for the river parishes, which experience periodic mild to moderate earthquakes. In fact, Donaldsonville, the location of the proposed Air Products plant, was the site of the state’s largest earthquake, which occurred October 19, 1930. Other historically significant earthquakes include the New Orleans tremor of November 6, 1958; Baton Rouge, November 19, 1958; and the Lake Charles temblor of October 16, 1983

Even “small” leaks of CO2 stored deeply underground could cause metals, uranium, and other radiation to be released into shallow groundwater aquifers at concentrations that would pose a health risk. A study from Environmental Science & Technology looked at sand and rock samples taken from four freshwater aquifers located around the country that overlie potential CCS sites. The scientists found tiny amounts of CO2 that seep into groundwater formed carbonic acid and drove up levels of manganese, cobalt, nickel, and iron in the water by tenfold or more. Some moved into the water within two weeks. Uranium and barium steadily moved into the water over the entire year. Heavy metals such as manganese cause severe ecological damage in our wildlife and birth defects and behavioral challenges in our children. Uranium, barium, and radium are carcinogens. 

“CO2 storage is not necessarily permanent,” the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change states.  “Physical leakage from storage reservoirs is possible via (1) gradual and long-term release or (2) sudden release of CO2 caused by disruption of the reservoir.”

If there is a leak, even the state’s own public employees doubt its ability to respond adequately. As one public water-district employee tells Rise, “You can count on a lack of response from our state environmental and health departments. You can also count on the fact that if they do respond, the penalties and cleanup will be minimal. When the Marathon plant blew, we had wells leaking methane; their required alarms never even went off. Louisiana hasn’t the civil servants, infrastructure, or commitment to protect the public from toxic chemical leaks. It never has and probably never will.”

“Things are turning,” Landry Coates says. “More and more people are questioning the impact of CCS on their own family health and prosperity, and they’re seeing that it’s a money grab with very few who benefit but great risk to our way of life. I have noticed from conversations there are more people than before questioning the project. Some regret it now. Things are turning. More people are questioning it. The big seven billion dollars from the Biden administration isn’t coming to Louisiana. I feel like this whole project is a money grab. It isn’t to protect the climate or environment. You’re going to have the federal government pay off the construction of a plant if you do this process, and then the company can walk away after ten years. It is all about using state property. The same landowner who writes the permits is going to lease the property and make money. It feels unethical. But it isn’t just that. Lake Maurepas is a national treasure. Do you know what it is going to look like with well heads spread over the surface and pipes running above and below ground through the lake and the wetlands?”

Landry Coates says that a carve out can be fashioned in the legislature but accomplishing this Herculean task will require growing grass roots pressure. She says that Lake Maurepas is unique and different than all other CSS sites in that it supports an enormous local population and economy. It needs special designation. In addition to environmental destruction of wetlands and damages to the lake, the serene waterscape will then host an eyesore of well heads. 

“To add insult to injury, as a result of this project, the company destroying our environment will then be able to claim an environmental federal tax credit, which is paid for by the very taxpayers who will be negatively affected,” she says. “That’s why I’m asking people to become involved. To get educated and then to communicate your support to carve out Lake Maurepas from all of the other projects because of its not only state but national importance. It is truly a national treasure.”

Make your voice heard!

Protect Louisiana’s Last Wilderness Waterway

What To Say, Whom To Say It To

Lake Maurepas needs your help.

The following letter below should be sent to Governor Jeff Landry as well as your local state and federal representatives and senators, parish council members, and other important decision makers. 

Feel free to cut and mail or copy and paste to send electronically (if you’re reading our online edition). Just fill in your personal information. 

Make your voice heard!

To: [Governor Jeff Landry, Louisiana Department of Natural Resources, Louisiana Legislature, state and federal senators and representatives

From: [Your Name and address] 

Dear Governor Landry [representative, senator, council member], 

I am a resident of [state your address]. I am writing to you to protest placement of the Air Products carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) project beneath our state’s last untouched wilderness waterway, Lake Maurepas, a state and national treasure. As you know, CCS purports to trap and remove carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas, before it reaches the environment. Whether it really helps the environment, however, is subject to intense debate.

On the other hand, what is not debatable is that Lake Maurepas provides a livelihood to hundreds of local commercial fishermen and women, supplying a variety of seafood including the renowned blue crab and catfish. It is an important national and international recreational hub for boaters, fishermen, birders, naturalists, and campers, as well as tourism with restaurants and bars along the scenic rivers feeding into it. Visitors travel to the area from around the world to enjoy the regional cuisine and rural setting. Home to the Tickfaw 200, one of the largest charity poker runs in the US, the lake brings economic dollars to Louisiana attracting competitors from across the country.

The wetlands surrounding Lake Maurepas were once an ancient cypress forest. In the 1900s, cypress logging devastated the landscape turning the forest into marsh. The bottom of the lake is now scarred by prior shell dredging, a practice now banned because of the damage it has caused. It is illegal to run shrimp trawling nets in Lake Maurepas due to its fragile conditions. The lake, however, has largely been spared from industrial harm—until now.

The Air Products project proposed to go under Lake Maurepas has been promoted as an environmental solution to climate change. However, many scientists question the validity and geologic safety of this practice since both the lake and nearby parishes are subject to earthquakes.

Even “small” leaks caused by seemingly mild tremors could cause release of CO2 that will precipitate the entry of metals, uranium and other radiation into shallow groundwater aquifers at concentrations that would pose a health risk and harm the ecological vitality that supplies the community with its livlihood. 

This project involves drilling multiple well heads, running pipelines through wetlands and underneath the lake bottom. Seismic testing for this project, which has involved exploding over 17,000 dynamite charges 60 feet under the surface of the lake, has already begun. While this seismic activity is taking place, access to areas of the lake has been and will continue to be restricted. The initial seismic demonstration included armed security to intimidate local citizens. 

All of this is being done in a sensitive ecosystem without an Environmental Impact Study. In addition to environmental destruction of wetlands and damage to the lake, the serene waterscape will then host an eyesore of well heads. 

Lake Maurepas is unique and different than all other proposed CCS sites. As our last wilderness waterway and acting for the future of our state and commitment to conservation, Lake Maurepas requires special designation and a legislative or other administrative carve out. 

As a voter and concerned citizen, I request that you oppose this project and support a carve-out bill for the Lake Maurepas wilderness as a vital Louisiana natural resource of such high regional and national importance that it merits exemption from all other projects that would harm it, thus saving it in perpetuity for the people of our state and our way of life.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

[your name]