St. Bernard Parish politicians, including Parish President Louis Pomes, center, and residents at a City Council gathering to protest the proposed Port of New Orleans' Louisiana International Terminal at Violet. They were joined by Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser (Jan 18, 2024).
The proposed $1.8 billion Louisiana International Terminal for St. Bernard Parish will look similar to the Port of New Orleans, photographed on Thursday, October 27, 2022, along Tchoupitoulas Street. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate) Mini Rccb Rcbo
The Port of New Orleans' proposed new layout for its Louisiana International Terminal, a $1.8 billion downriver container terminal that is to be built at Violet, in St. Bernard Parish. The changes from the original layout, which include keeping the St. Bernard Highway running along the Mississippi River, were to assuage concerns raised by parish residents.
St. Bernard Parish politicians, including Parish President Louis Pomes, center, and residents at a City Council gathering to protest the proposed Port of New Orleans' Louisiana International Terminal at Violet. They were joined by Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser (Jan 18, 2024).
Dozens of St. Bernard Parish residents opposed to the Port of New Orleans' proposal to build a $1.8 billion container terminal at Violet stepped up their protest on Thursday, even though their leaders admit they face an uphill fight in trying to block the massive project.
"We don’t deny this is a David and Goliath battle," said lawyer Sidney Torres III, who has been leading the opposition's efforts through the courts to block the container terminal. While widely opposed in the parish -- the campaign has the support of about 74% of St. Bernard residents, according to a poll taken in January 2022 -- the project enjoys broad state-level support from politicians, industry leaders and economic development officials.
The proposed $1.8 billion Louisiana International Terminal for St. Bernard Parish will look similar to the Port of New Orleans, photographed on Thursday, October 27, 2022, along Tchoupitoulas Street. (Photo by Chris Granger | The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate)
The plan calls for a container ship terminal that Port NOLA and its backers say is long overdue in order for Louisiana to compete with rival Gulf South ports. Container ships account for an ever-growing share of international trade and those ships have been getting larger, so that the latest vessels are too tall to make it past the Crescent City Connection to Port NOLA's existing container terminal at Napoleon Avenue.
Port NOLA acquired 1,200 acres of land in Violet and struck a deal with the St. Bernard port just over three years ago to build its terminal there, to be called the Louisiana International Terminal, or LIT. They've been facing opposition ever since from Save Our St. Bernard, or SOS, the group that called the meeting Thursday at the St. Bernard Parish Council chambers to unveil a new consultant's study critical of the project.
Close to 40 opponents were there, sporting t-shirts with SOS logos and waving placards. Also there to show solidarity was the newly elected parish president, Louis Pomes, most members of the Parish Council, and state Rep. Mike Bayham, a Republican whose district includes Violet.
Lt. Governor Billy Nungesser, who is the first state government official not from the parish to back the opposition, spoke in support of the protestors.
"For too long, we have let the political powers that be decide what we do and where we do it," said Nungesser, who hails from neighboring Plaquemines Parish. "When are we gonna start doing what's best for all the people of Louisiana?"
St. Bernard Parish Council commissioned veteran port planning consultant John Vickerman for the report, which argues that the Violet port, at 83 miles upriver from the mouth of the Mississippi, would have safety issues for large container vessels, among other criticisms. He concluded that a terminal closer to where the river meets the Gulf would be a better option for Louisiana as a whole.
The report lands as Port NOLA's container terminal faces a renewed challenge from the Plaquemines Port Harbor and Terminal District, which last week announced it had revived a deal with Dutch firm APM Terminals to build a container ship terminal on the parish's west bank.
The Port of New Orleans' proposed new layout for its Louisiana International Terminal, a $1.8 billion downriver container terminal that is to be built at Violet, in St. Bernard Parish. The changes from the original layout, which include keeping the St. Bernard Highway running along the Mississippi River, were to assuage concerns raised by parish residents.
Port NOLA on Thursday dismissed Vickerman's report as "illegitimate," specifically rejecting his criticism that alternative sites were not properly studied.
"Because a container terminal is a component of transportation infrastructure, it is critical that the terminal is connected to adequate road and rail networks...(and) must offer a level of protection from climate impacts, including hurricane storm surges," port officials said in a response to the report.
Sites closer to the mouth of the river would require significant investment and time to build those transport networks, and they are more vulnerable to sea-level rise and hurricane impacts, port officials added.
Meanwhile, Capt. E. Michael Bopp, president of the Crescent River Port Pilots Association, downplayed Vickerman's concerns about the safety of turning big ships at Violet, saying those concerns didn't jibe with an extensive study he did for Port NOLA three years ago.
"We studied every possible scenario and found no issues," Bopp said. "Big ships turn around in the river every day without a problem."
Port NOLA's rejection of the report also detailed the progress made so far on the project, including recently securing nearly $74 million in federal funds to help pay for early stage design work, which was supported by Louisiana's senior U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge.
The port statement also noted that it had secured commitments of $800 million in private investment for LIT just over a year ago from Ports America, the largest marine terminal operator in the U.S., and Terminal Investment Limited.
U.S. Sen. John Kennedy, R-Mandeville, is also trying to secure $15 million of funding for LIT in the security package being negotiated in the U.S. Congress.
The Plaquemines port's executive director, Charles Tillotson, said its new plan for a $500 million, 200-acre terminal is a dramatically scaled-down version of an earlier proposal that would have been more of a direct rival to LIT. The new plan is to focus on trade that would move upriver and west via rail, which would not compete directly with LIT's plan to move container loads mostly by truck, he said.
Indeed, one of the most controversial aspects of LIT for St. Bernard residents is that it will increase road traffic exponentially.
Port NOLA said it plans to add new road access to the interstate network through New Orleans East. On Thursday, its board approved hiring WPS USA as the lead consultant to prepare to build a new transportation corridor that will divert most truck traffic from the Violet terminal.
Greg Rusovich, CEO of Transoceanic Shipping Co., said Louisiana has already taken too long to come up with a plan to compete with rival Southern ports like Mobile, Alabama and Charleston, South Carolina, which have seen their container volume growing at a much faster rate than New Orleans.
Rusovich is chairman of the Louisiana Board of International Commerce, a state-sponsored body within the state's economic development agency. That board backed LIT as the best downriver container terminal option in its ports strategy report last November.
"We have a clear plan of action," Rusovich said. "The cannibalism and competition we have now between our ports is unacceptable, and our competitors are laughing at us and throwing a party in celebration."
The new administration of Gov. Jeff Landry hasn't yet said if they back LIT over other downriver options. Landry made a statement last week in support of Plaquemines Port's new deal with APM. His office didn't respond to requests for comment Thursday.
But Rusovich, who served on Landry's transition committee on New Orleans, said, "I'm confident that the governor will be strongly supportive of the project, assuming the (transportation corridor) road gets built."
Meanwhile, the opposition will continue its efforts.
"We're not letting up," said Robby Showalter, the former ports executive who is leading SOS. "We're standing up against money and power to say, 'No, not in our community.'"
The story has been updated to clarify the entity that commissioned the Vickerman study.
Email Anthony McAuley tmcauley@theadvocate.com.
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