Some Plaquemines Parish residents and environmental groups are suing to stop a coal terminal proposed for Myrtle Grove. The state says the project should continue.
The RAM Terminal company wants to build a 600-acre facility near two other coal plants.
The state Department of Natural Resources approved the plans, saying economic benefits outweigh environmental impacts.
Sierra Club spokesman Al Armendariz says his group and two others want more review of what’s proposed.
“The last thing that community needs is a third coal terminal being built in their area,” he said.
The terminal will receive coal by train and barges on the Mississippi River to be sent overseas.
The facility is also near a wetlands restoration project that requires sediment diversions.
“The diversion project would end up being impacted," Armendariz said. "And there could be as much as a 17 percent drop in the amount of sediment that would be carried from that diversion project into the wetlands that need that sediment so badly.”
Armendariz expects the legal battle to continue for at least a year.
