Lawsuit claims coal pollutes Mississippi River

3/19/2014
Lawsuit claims coal pollutes Mississippi River - SFGate
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Lawsuit claims coal pollutes Mississippi River
By JANET McC ONNAUGHEY, Associated Press
Updated 1:09 pm, Tuesday, March 18, 2014
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This Feb. 18, 2014, aerial photo from a flight provided by southwings.org shows the United Bulk
Terminals in Devant, La., Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2014. Three environmental groups claim in a federal
lawsuit that the coal terminal, south of New Orleans, is polluting the Mississippi River. Photo: Gerald
Herbert, AP
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NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A coal terminal south
of New Orleans has been polluting the
Mississippi River for years and continues to do
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so daily, three environmental groups claim in a
federal lawsuit.
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Coal and petroleum coke fall from conveyor
belts at United Bulk Terminals Davant LLC,
landing both in the river and on its bank, according to the lawsuit filed Tuesday.
Black plumes of pollution, heavy enough to be seen from thousands of feet in the air, flow
from the terminal into the river, and the products are visible on the bank below the river's
high-water line, Marylee Orr, executive director of Louisiana Environmental Action
Network, said in a teleconference about the lawsuit.
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United Bulk, owned by Oiltanking GmbH of Hamburg, Germany, said it had spent $40
million and allocated another $40 million before November on improvements including
pollution control. It did not say how much of that spending is specifically to protect
the environment.
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"We are disappointed that the plaintiffs have chosen to file suit despite our ongoing and
constructive dialogue with them since they first came to us last November," the company
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3/19/2014
Lawsuit claims coal pollutes Mississippi River - SFGate
said in an emailed statement. "We invest substantial time and money to ensure compliance
with our air and water permits and have demonstrated our commitment to minimizing the
impact of our operations on the environment and on the communities where we operate."
The Gulf Restoration Network and Sierra Club joined the action network in the lawsuit.
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Scott Eustis, coastal wetlands specialist for Gulf Restoration Network, said state law
requires immediate cleanup of spills. But he said UBT leaves spilled coal and pet coke on
the batture between the river and levee as well as in the river, which is under
federal jurisdiction.
"We have reported it to state authorities for years now. Their response has been
inadequate at best," he said.
The state Department of Environmental Quality ordered United Bulk on Jan. 23 to clean
the batture. On Feb. 21, it called for UBT to report within 30 days on what it had done
toward a cleanup, according to an emailed copy of the order.
That order said a United Bulk representative told officials that an inspection on June 26,
2013, was during high water, when "piles of coal and coke are submerged in water and
cleanup does not occur," but spills are cleaned up when water is low.
The environmental groups seek fines against United Bulk under the federal Clean Water
Act and want the court to make the company clean the river and its bank.
Eustis said they also want covers around United Bulk's high-speed conveyor belts to
contain any spills and over the hills of coal and pet coke stored at its 1,134-acre site, which
includes nearly three miles of river frontage.
The United Bulk facility is one of the nation's two largest coal transport terminals, both at
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the Plaquemines Port, Harbor and Terminal District, according to the port's website.
The other, across the Mississippi River from Davant at Myrtle Grove, is owned by
International Marine Terminals, a subsidiary of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP.
"We have similar issues at IMT. It's just one at a time," Eustis said in a telephone
interview. "We're investigating and compiling. We're monitoring the facility. We have to do
our homework."
A request for comment was forwarded from International Marine Terminals' Port Sulphur
office to its headquarters in Houston.
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