Cooper Fournet of The Johnson Firm in Lake Charles
A lawsuit alleging the construction of a liquefied national gas (LNG) project in Cameron Parish has harmed the livelihood of commercial fishermen and fisheries-related companies has been temporarily put on hold by a federal court.
The complaint, which was filed in the state’s 38th Judicial District Court (JDC) in July, names Venture Global CP2 LNG as a defendant, along with the Cameron Parish Port, Harbor, and Terminal District, dredging contractor Callan Marine Ltd. and an engineering firm. The lawsuit argues that beginning in June of last year, dredging activities at the LNG project site caused a surge of sediment to spill out of the Calcasieu Pass area and into the surrounding estuary.
“The affected area of Calcasieu Lake … includes a permitted floating oyster park, several public oyster beds and historically high-activity commercial fishing zones that petitioners utilize extensively and depend upon for their livelihood,” the lawsuit states.
As a result of the sediment spillage, the plaintiffs had to deal with vessel damage, sediment deposition on their fishing equipment, increased cleaning costs, spoiled seafood products, a higher level of dead oysters, crabs, shrimp and finfish, and a decrease of game fish in traditional fishing areas, according to the complaint.
The litigation will remain on hold for the time being, however, according to the plaintiffs’ attorney, Cooper Fournet of The Johnson Firm in Lake Charles.
“Callan Marine invoked the (federal) Limitation of Liability Act to limit their exposure to the value of their ship involved in the dredging process,” Fournet told the Louisiana Record in an email. “The (Western District of Louisiana) federal court then stayed all related state court litigation. So at this point, my 38th JDC case is stayed and the defendants are not even answering the suit.”
Several failures in the dredging operations followed in December of last year through February 2026, according to the lawsuit, including the opening in a berm and slurry-line problems that released additional sediment into surrounding areas.
“Aquatic species, including shrimp, crabs and finfish rely upon oyster reef habitat and the waterways in the vicinity of the dredge spill and were adversely affected and displaced by increased sedimentation and turbidity, resulting in reduced availability of commercially harvestable species in historically high-activity commercial fishing zones,” the complaint states.
Neither Venture Global nor the port responded to requests for comment about the litigation.
The plaintiffs are asking the court to grant them compensation for past, present and future business losses, business-interruption damages, reduced property values, loss of business opportunities, mitigation costs and loss of seafood inventories.
In a statement released last year, the Louisiana-based Habitat Recovery Project said fishermen in Cameron Parish face an uncertain future due to concerns about the safety of consuming local oysters in the wake of the sediment contamination and “major die-offs following mass buildout of LNG terminals.”
“We are living with the compounded mistakes of generations – dredging, dumping and ignoring the natural rhythms that sustain life here,” Alyssa Portaro, the project’s executive director, said in a statement. “... The multigenerational fisherfamilies have their hands on the pulse of the Calcasieu, and they have been calling for necessary, immediate change.”
The project is also calling for updated testing of Calcasieu River water as well as monitoring to determine the safety of local seafood. Conservationists are also urging fishermen to be included in decisions about coastal restoration and monitoring.
