Tribes contest permit for Moda oil export terminal

Two indigenous groups have filed a federal lawsuit against the US government challenging a water permit for Moda Midstream's crude export terminal expansion in Texas.

The Indigenous Peoples of the Coastal Bend and the Karankawa Kadla tribe of the Texas Gulf coast, allege that the Army Corps of Engineers violated the Clean Water Act, the National Environmental Protection Act and the Administration Procedure Act when it approved the permit in April, according to a filing to the US District Court for the Southern District of Texas.

The water permit will allow dredging in the Corpus Christi bay to expand the Moda terminal at Ingleside. The terminal expansion would add five berths for oil tankers and barges, and essentially double its vessel capacity, according to the lawsuit.

The tribes are concerned that the dredging will destroy ancestral artifacts and "thwart their efforts to learn more about their people's history and culture," the lawsuit said. The tribes also allege that the increase in ship traffic and the associated increase in noise, industrial activity, and pollution will destroy their ability "to pray and find spiritual joy and fulfillment in observing their ancestral lands and waters."

The lawsuit also said that the Moda construction will have significant impacts on about 9.8 acres of diverse seagrasses and estuarine wetlands. A non-profit citizen group, Ingleside on the Bay Coastal Watch Association, is also a plaintiff in the case.

According to Moda's Army Corps permit, the construction could impact 8.86 acres of seagrass and about 1 acre of estuarine wetlands. The permit also says that the company will create a 20-acre seagrass habitat at a nearby protected site and will preserve flora and fauna in 70 acres of its property that it will set aside in perpetuity.

Moda declined to speak directly about the lawsuit, but said that it is confident the nearly year-and-a-half application review process was comprehensive, and the Army Corps permit was properly issued.

Moda also said it has deep respect for its neighbors and for the Karankawa people.

Moda is expanding docks at the Ingleside terminal as Corpus Christi has become the top hub to export US crude. Three major pipelines started service over the past two years with capacity to move more than 2mn b/d of Permian basin crude to Corpus Christi.

Moda last year completed a 10mn bl expansion at the terminal.

Native American groups have been increasingly involved in fighting against oil and gas infrastructure projects in North America often joining forces with large environmental organizations. Indigenous tribes led the high-profile fight which delayed the start of Energy Transfer's Dakota Access crude pipeline (DAPL) in 2016-2017 and were a key player in a multi-year battle against TC Energy's now-cancelled Keystone XL crude pipeline project.

By Eunice Bridges