Posted on September 29, 2025
Fishermen say dredging from Venture Global’s LNG export terminal is smothering oyster beds and crab traps in Calcasieu Lake
BATON ROUGE, La. – Tension is growing between two legacy Louisiana industries – seafood and fossil fuels – in Southwest Louisiana, where local fishermen are clashing with the operator of a massive liquified natural gas export facility.
Those who make their living harvesting fresh oysters, fish and crabs from Calcasieu Lake and the surrounding marsh waterways say Venture Global’s liquified natural gas terminal continues to disrupt and damage the estuary. They want state and federal regulators to hold the company accountable for improperly dispersing dredged sediment from a new ship channel it’s creating.
“It’s been a month since we first told them what was going on,” said James Hiatt, director of the local environmental advocacy group For a Better Bayou. “They haven’t stopped screwing up.”`
Venture Global is dredging near its terminal to make way for the massive tankers that transport liquified natural gas to its global customers. Its sprawling export facility on Calcasieu Pass is known as CP1, and it plans an expansion site, CP2, nearby.
Venture Global is allowed to move sediment from nearby Monkey Island and the existing ship channel into Sabine National Wildlife Refuge, according to its permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Louisiana Department of Energy and Natural Resources. The refuge borders the southwest section of Calcasieu Lake, just a few miles from the LNG terminal.
The dredged mud is supposed to be placed within marsh creation projects around the refuge, but eyewitnesses and officials confirm the material has spilled outside those areas, creating issues for local fishermen.
Federal law says dredged or fill material cannot be dumped into a navigable body of water — such as Calcasieu Lake — without permission from the Corps of Engineers. When state or federal permits are breached, regulators are allowed to seek a wide variety of enforcement actions, such as cleanup or fines.
Eddie Lejuine of Hackberry, who uses trotlines to fish for red drum among the oyster reefs and marshes around Calcasieu Lake, said he saw silty water pouring into the lake from a flood control weir on the night of Aug. 3.
“The next morning, I noticed my lines had a lot of silt on them, dirt on them,” Lejeuine said.
Nearby oyster beds, where red drum frequently swim, and crab traps were buried in the same mud, he said.
“I use like 60 pounds of crab claws for bait every day, and I fish on top of oyster beds during the summer. So my living relies on oysters growing and crabs,” Lejuine said.
Sky Leger from Cameron Parish said dredged materials inundated the floating oyster cages he harvests with other fishermen, killing some of their crop.
Fishermen who have lost their catch as a result of the mud are frustrated with Venture Global.
Leger said he and others who work the waters must strictly follow state Wildlife and Fisheries regulations, but feel Venture Global has not faced the same level of accountability.
“It was kind of just looked over, which kind of makes me mad because every time something happens with the game warden … we gotta abide,” he said.
Venture Global did not respond to the Illuminator’s calls and emails for this report, but it has publicly acknowledged the early August spill.
The company initially denied it had anything to do with the spill in early August but later acknowledged its role, according to an Aug. 9 KPLC-TV report. The issue still merited discussion at a Sept. 2 Cameron Parish Police Jury meeting, when representatives from Venture Global acknowledged that about 15,000 cubic yards of dredge material had spread beyond permitted areas in early August.
A Venture Global representative said more containment booms were placed next to the weir three days after the spill to fix the problem. No further mud has spilled into Calcasieu Lake, and no other materials have ended up outside permitted areas despite claims to the contrary from local fishermen, according to the company.
“In future endeavors, and especially with dredging jobs … I would like to see us crack down a little bit,” Cameron Police Juror Mark Daigle said at the meeting.
During the same meeting, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries confirmed the early August spill had spread into the lake, validating fishermen’s claims of smothered oyster beds and crab traps.
“They didn’t want to put no blame on Venture Global because it was just our word,” Lejuine said. “But once Wildlife and Fisheries announced it, then you know – no matter what [Venture Global] said – they for sure knew there was an issue at that point.”
Venture Global representatives at the meeting said the company wanted to meet with fishermen and come up with a way to help with the problems the spilled sediment caused.
Lejuine and Leger said they participated in one-on-one meetings with Venture Global in the days following the police jury meeting to discuss solutions. The company gave fishermen a chance to talk, Lejuine said, but he isn’t sure all their problems will be immediately apparent.
“The parts that leaked into the lake, the oysters are probably dead by now because it went over, silted over. But we won’t know the impact ‘til oyster season opens,” he said.
Fisherman Sky Leger stands in front of a shrimping boat in Cameron Parish, Louisiana.
Documents available online from the Department of Energy and Natural Resources indicate state officials and the Corps of Engineers were “aware of this incident” from early August.
The state issued an emergency permit for the Cameron Parish Port and Venture Global to pick up “to the best extent practicable” and return the spilled silt to its permitted area. The permit indicates between 9,000 to 18,000 cubic yards of silt spilled into the lake and marsh.
The environmental organization EarthJustice got involved after the spill, sending a letter to the Corps of Engineers and Natural Resources. It pressed the agencies again in emails when fishermen and advocates claimed to see more muddy water spilling over containment berms into the lake and refuge wetlands toward the end of August.
State and corps officials said Venture Global reported no knowledge of any additional dredge spills.
Evidence of more alleged mud spills has popped up in videos that advocacy groups have posted on social media in recent weeks. For a Better Bayou shared footage of a spill taken Sept. 8 in the Cameron Ship Channel. A Sept. 10 video the Habitat Recovery Project shared shows a geyser of mud shooting from a pipe that transports dredge material to a permitted area.
A joint connecting two pipes failed under excessive pressure on Sept. 10, shooting muddy water into the air, according to the Cameron Parish Sheriff’s Office, which said the break was repaired the next day.
Both groups said fishermen shot the videos but did not disclose their names. It is unclear whether either spill allowed mud to flow into unpermitted areas.
Lejuine said that, despite the lack of communication from the company and regulators so far, he believes there’s still hope in the fishermen’s collective voice. Fishermen will continue to be vigilant when it comes to reporting any additional spills, he said.
“It is at a breaking point, what I do for a living. I don’t know how it lasted this long; it’s by God’s grace that we’ve managed,” he said. “At least we, the fishermen, are finally speaking up and doing things.”
