Coushatta Tribe’s next generation warns against risk from carbon sequestration

Two young members of the Coushatta Tribe of Louisiana are speaking out after state lawmakers voted Tuesday against a bill they say was important to their land, culture and safety.

Allie Johnson, 20, and Marianna Sickey, 16, spoke in support of House Bill 4, by Rep. Chuck Owen, R-Rosepine. It would have given every parish the right to determine whether projects focused on carbon capture and sequestration could occur. ExxonMobil has proposed drilling wells to store carbon dioxide underground less than one mile from the Coushatta reservation, according to the state Department of Energy and Natural Resources.

The two were among the youngest to testify during a House Committee on Natural Resources and Environment hearing at the State Capitol, where a host of bills dealing with carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) were considered.

In phone interviews with the Illuminator after the hearing, Johnson and Sickey said official communication with the Coushatta community about CCS plans impacting their tribal land has been lacking.

Sickey, who attends high school in Lake Charles, said many of her peers were unaware of the proposed CCS projects. 

“More people my age should be aware of this,” she said. “This affects us, and we had no idea.”

“We haven’t been given opportunities to tell the youth because they want to keep it hush hush on the reservation,” Johnson said.

One proposed well site for the ExxonMobil CCS site would be approximately half a mile from Coushatta’s preschool and tribal housing. 

“This is land that has deep cultural ties to our people,” Johnson said. “It is land that we cannot just move away from or leave. Our land is sacred. It is our homes, our ancestors, our futures, and it connects me and others to all that it was before. 

“It is a place that I hope more generations get to enjoy and live on. But right now, it seems that it’s being threatened.”

Sickey attended the preschool and said many of the Coushatta words she knows today are remnants of what she was taught there.

“When you’re on the reservation at all, like there’s language in danger, all of their lives are in danger, their heritage. If anything were to happen, it would be detrimental to the tribe,” Sickey said. 

Johnson, who greeted committee members in the Coushatta tongue, worries about the lack of safety data for long-term carbon dioxide storage and the financial incentives that can cloud judgment. While Louisiana’s fossil fuel sector is well versed in the drilling needed for CCS, the storage element is new ground for a state where some 30 such projects are planned.    

“This is an experiment they’re putting on our soil,” Johnson said. “There’s no way to guarantee that it’s safe.”

CCS proponents have said the process is safe as long as carbon gases are stored and maintained properly. The biggest risks are from leakage, including with the pipelines that transport CO2 from the industrial facilities where it’s captured and send it to sequestration sites.

Five years ago, some 200 people were forced to evacuate their homes after a CO2 pipeline explosion in Sartaria, Mississippi. Exposure to the odorless, colorless gas put 45 people in the hospital. 

A year ago, Calcasieu Parish residents were unaware that a CO pipeline near their homes had ruptured. No injuries or illnesses were reported as police shut down access to the area, but neighbors said they only learned about the incident hours later from social media. There were no warning sirens or an alert system in place.

The company that owns both pipelines, Denbury Inc., is a subsidiary of ExxonMobil.    

Despite the failure of Owen’s bill, both Sickey and Johnson say they are committed to continuing the fight against CCS on their homeland.

“This is something we will not be quiet about,” Johnson said. “Even if these bills are denied, they try to sweep us under the rug, and they try anything in their power to silence us. … The good fight will keep going on, at the end of the day, until justice is served.”