BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A federal judge who halted construction of a crude oil pipeline through a Louisiana swamp concluded that the project’s irreversible environmental damage outweighs the economic harm that a delay brings to the company building it.
U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick issued a 61-page ruling Tuesday to explain her decision last week to stop construction of the Bayou Bridge pipeline in environmentally fragile Atchafalaya Basin.
The judge said the project potentially threatens the hydrology of the basin and “poses the threat of destruction of already diminishing wetlands.” She also agreed with environmental groups that centuries-old “legacy” trees can’t be replaced once they’re cut down.
