Lake Maurepas is a beautiful, very shallow, brackish, tidal estuarine system, located approximately half way between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. It is surrounded by over 162,000 acres of Wildlife Mangement Areas (WMAs).

The lake provides a livelihood to local commercial fishermen supplying a variety of seafood,including the renowned blue crab. It is an important recreational hub for boaters, fishermen, birders and naturalists, as well as a tourism hub with restaurants and bars along the scenic rivers feeding into it.  Visitors travel to the area to enjoy the regional cuisine and rural setting. Home to the Tickfaw 200, one of the largest poker runs in the US, the lake brings economic dollars to Louisiana attracting competitors from across the country.

In addition to being habitat to many endangered species including bald eagles and manatees, many hard working people call the lake HOME, some tracing their local lineage back over 100 years.

The wetlands surrounding Lake Maurepas were once an ancient cypress forest. In the 1900’s Cypress logging devastated the landscape turning the forest into marsh. The bottom of the lake is now scarred by prior shell dredging,  a practice now banned because of the damage it has caused. It is illegal to run shrimp trawling nets in Lake Maurepas due to its fragile conditions. The lake however, has largely been spared from industrial harm. UNTIL NOW

A large Carbon Capture Sequestration (CCS) project has been proposed to go under Lake Maurepas. CCS has been promoted as an environmental solution to climate change. However, many scientists question the validity of this practice. This project involves drilling multiple well heads, running pipelines through wetlands and underneath the lake bottom.  Seismic testing for this project, which involves exploding over 17,000 dynamite charges 60 feet under the surface of the lake, has already begun. While this seismic activity is taking place, access to areas of the lake will be restricted. The initial seismic demonstration included armed security to intimidate local citizens.

All of this is being done in a sensitive ecosystem without an Environmental Impact Study (EIS). In addition to environmental destruction of wetlands and damages to the lake, the serene waterscape will then host an eyesore of well heads. To add insult to injury, as a result of this project, the company destroying our environment will then be able to claim an environmental federal tax credit, which is paid for by the very taxpayers who will be negatively affected.

We want to raise awareness and show our legislators that this is a highly unpopular project that will threaten the lives of wildlife and the livelihoods of the people who live here.

We ask you to sign this petition to  ask Governor Jon Bel Edwards and the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources to halt the current activity in Lake Maurepas and surrounding wetlands, place permanent moratorium on new CO2 wells and CO2 pipelines, and require an EIS for any industrial activity in Lake Maurepas and the surrounding wetlands. We believe that Lake Maurepas deserves the same protections as Lake Pontchartrain to which it is directly connected.

PLEASE PROTECT AND PRESERVE LAKE MAUREPAS