Debate continues in St. Bernard Parish surrounding plans for the Louisiana International Terminal.
Port NOLA plans to build the shipping container terminal on 614 acres in the Violet community. Port NOLA was granted a permit by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers last month, which allows it to begin construction.
Some residents and local leaders have been fighting against the project for years, citing concerns over the environment and traffic.
The topic led to a heated discussion at the St. Bernard Parish Council meeting Tuesday.
“One of the residents came in and he was concerned that nothing was going on with the lawsuits. We were kind of sitting dormant, not pursuing and being aggressive and filing actions in court to make this thing go to court, and it got a little heated and everything that he was saying was absolutely true,” Council Chair Fred Everhardt said.
Local leaders are divided over the terminal. Everhardt and Council President Louis Pommes shared a heated exchange over the topic at the meeting.
There are three lawsuits challenging the project that are still making their way through the court system. One was brought by the St. Bernard Parish School Board, and the district attorney recently requested a trial date for the case.
In a recently released report, the Corps said its assessment determined that the pros outweighed the cons in this project, stating, “the terminal is not contrary to the public interest.”
The report says major, permanent economic and supply chain benefits outweigh the moderate impacts to traffic and the environment.
“We got public feedback to see what it was they wanted addressed in our NEPA document, or environmental assessment,” Brad LaBorde with the Corps said. “We also had to take into consideration, not just the direct local impacts but then zoom out on that for the state and the federal interest in the project.”
Everhardt questions how they can know what economic impact the project would have.
” trying to get everyone to believe that this port is going to bring in so much taxes that it outweighs the negative that it’s going to bring, which is really false information. How are you going to prove that? You can’t prove it,” he said.
Port NOLA hopes to start construction this year.
READ MORE:Plans for Louisiana International Terminal continue to stir debate in St. Bernard Parish
