The Bayou Postillion Water Quality Project, first considered in 2000, was the State of Louisiana’s first water quality project in the Atchafalaya Basin by the Atchafalaya Basin Program.  However, the plans to dredge at the mouth of Bayou Postillion and remove the sediment were quickly and silently changed without public knowledge.  Originally, the project consisted of minor dredging of the mouth to open the waterway to recreational and commercial fishermen, improve water quality by introducing freshwater into the area, and guarantee state ownership of the bayou that was in danger of totally filling with sediment.  In reality, the end project was a three-mile-long publicly funded oil field access canal to benefit oil and gas companies and large landowners in the Atchafalaya Basin.  Seven productive oil and gas wells were subsequently drilled in the area to produce almost 100 million cubic feet of natural gas per day.  Construction of the canal resulted in over a mile of spoil banks next to the canal, which trap water from moving across the area, leading to further declines in water quality and swamp health. 

In response to this “water quality project” Atchafalaya Basinkeeper filed a lawsuit represented by Tulane Environmental Law Clinic against the former director of the Atchafalaya Basin Program for the project’s lack of compliance with the Army Corps’ Clean Water Act Permit.  The lawsuit was later dismissed in Federal court for lack of standing. 

Meanwhile, Dan S. Collins, CPL, of the land and service firm Dan S. Collins, CPL & Associates, Inc. was discovering misinformation and the attempted cover-up of the corrupted Bayou Postillion project by the State.  Collins was contracted by the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources (LDNR), the agency overseeing the Atchafalaya Basin Program, to perform land research and title issues and to secure signatures from landowners near LDNR projects.  He found ties between politicians, landowners, and oil and gas companies, advertisements for drilling near the new canal posted in Houston, and incorrect information on the required Army Corps of Engineers Clean Water Act permit to hide the location of the dredge—among other incriminating evidence.  The project also failed to protect swamplands damaged by the dredge.  Additionally, Collins discovered that the state gave the surface and minerals of lands within the waterway to the landowner group, Kyle-Peterman, reducing State ownership to a mere 25’ in the center of the approximately 150’ dredged bayou.  This divestment gave the landowner group the ability to create a toll or usage fee for those that utilized the publicly dredged bayou, or risk trespassing. 

In 2007, Collins presented his detailed evidence of corruption to members of LDNR, the incoming Governor’s staff, the Inspector General, Attorney General, and later to the Louisiana Legislative Auditor and staff.  This did not lead to any formal investigation of the project, its inception, or its impacts. 

In 2010, the State canceled its contract with Collins and he immediately filed a lawsuit as a Louisiana Whistleblower.  The suit resulted in a jury trial in the 19th Judicial District Court in Baton Rouge which unanimously supported Collins and awarded him $750,000 for damages.  However, the decision was later overturned by the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals because the judges did not consider Collins a government employee of the state, and therefore, he could not file a whistleblower lawsuit as a contracted worker.  Collins award was rescinded; and, to this day there has been no formal civil or criminal investigation performed regarding the findings by Collins, Atchafalaya Basinkeeper, and our associates.  Today, Collins sits on the Board of Directors at Basinkeeper.

THE TRUE STORY OF BAYOU POSTILLION - By Dan Collins     

The Bayou Postillion Water Quality Project was the wakeup-call for Dean Wilson and the newly formed Atchafalaya Basinkeeper of what was about to come with the Atchafalaya Basin Program, Louisiana Department of Natural Resources use of public funds to pay for projects disguised as “water quality projects” to benefit large corporations at the expense of the Basin. Dean Wilson was a member of the Channel Maintenance Committee that initially proposed what was to be the State of Louisiana’s very first water quality project within the Atchafalaya Basin, that project was known as the Bayou Postillion Water Quality Project, touted primarily to benefit fisherman and crawfishermen. The proposal that the Committee agreed on was to do a minor dredge at the mouth and to remove the dredge material out of the Basin or dispose on a hill at the mouth of the bayou.  Soon after, the main landowner met with DNR and requested to instead dredge an oil access canal for barge access which was never disclosed or shared with the other members of the Channel Maintenance Committee or to the Public. Basinkeeper Director Dean Wilson along with others including Jody Meche, Louisiana Crawfish Producers Association (LCPA) quickly learned the end product was something completely different than originally proposed riddled with false, flawed, inaccurate information and design. The result was nothing more than a huge oil field access canal that was dredged approximately three (3) miles into the Basin (instead of the minor dredge at the mouth of Bayou Postillion), with solid spoil banks for over 1 mile, using taxpayer’s money that exceeded One Million Dollars to aid and benefit oil and gas companies and politically connected landowners and cronies with direct ties to the Governor of Louisiana. The end result, seven (7) very productive oil and gas wells were drilled producing almost 100 million cubic feet of natural gas a day - a huge oil and gas discovery by any standard grossing at one point over a million dollars a day. The time period was 2007 and Wilson and Meche could clearly see the accelerated drilling located at the direct end of the dredge was not anything near what was initially presented at various stakeholder meetings within the approval process prior to the dredge that was supposed to be intended for water quality. The Atchafalaya Basinkeeper, with the assistance of Tulane Environmental Law Clinic filed a $36 million lawsuit (link to Petition AB vs Thompson, Fruge, LDNR) against the director and former director of the Atchafalaya Basin Program under the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources (LDNR). The lawsuit was later dismissed in Federal court for lack of standing (link to ruling-get from Dean) however Wilson, Meche and others were convinced they had been “duped” by the Atchafalaya Basin Program, a State agency within the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources (LDNR) overseeing the project and the so called first water quality project was really dredged for oil and gas exploration and production. This was the first of many other projects to come, all disguised under ‘water quality projects”, all modified to benefit corporations to the great detriment of the Atchafalaya Basin. 

At the same time, Dan S. Collins, CPL, of the land service firm Dan S. Collins, CPL & Associates, Inc., the State contractor that was hired by LDNR to perform land research and title issues and to secure signatures from landowners where LDNR projects were identified. As Collins indicated it was like a John Grisham novel regarding the detailed information he uncovered or better put the misinformation that he discovered in what he and others believes was fraud and deception that originated in former Governor Mike Foster’s administration and was spun to incoming Governor Kathleen Blanco and then attempted to be covered up by Governor Bobby Jindal’s administration. The Bayou Postillion project was dredged through the property of a cousin of Governor Mike Foster, Newman Trowbridge, Jr., one of the many co-owners of a landowner group known as the Kyle-Peterman Corporation with Trowbridge as the mastermind behind the dredging project. Ironically, Collins presented detailed supporting information to then Secretary of Natural Resources Scott Angelle, to no avail rendering the appearance Angelle supported Trowbridge’s contrived scheme.Collins went on to discover details that were astounding even for Louisiana whose reputation of good food and corruption has been a hallmark of Louisiana for generations. Among a few notable items Collins discovered the signatures for consent to perform work on the landowners property (Kyle-Peterman Corporation) adjacent to the dredge was actually tasked to Newman Trowbridge, Jr., one of the actual co-landowners whose property was being dredged and not to Collins land consulting firm as contracted by the State. Trowbridge was also under contract to the Atchafalaya Basin Program allegedly for other purposes at the same time as Collins in addition to being hired as an assistant to the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office, obvious conflicts of interest. Shocked, Collins discovered Trowbridge was unable to secure all the signatures of the numerous co-owners and simply erased those names of co-owners that did not or would not sign the source permission documents required by the State of Louisiana. Around the year 2007, Collins also discovered at a trade show in Houston, drilling flyers being promoted as the Blackbird Prospect (link to Promotional Flyer Blackbird) and Falcon Prospect (link to Promotional Flyer Falcon) by one of Trowbridge’s business partner and relative, John Hine of Tortuga Interest, Inc., another one of the undivided co-owners of Kyle-Peterman Corporation. Those deep natural gas rich oil and gas prospects were known as the Falcon and Blackbird prospects located directly adjacent to the freshly dredged bayou. Unexpectedly, it was reported Trowbridge died in a scuba diving accident in the Bahamas in 2009 at the peak of the turmoil and revealed deception. Additionally, Collins findings discovered the incorrect parish name was listed on the required Army Corp. of Engineers (ACOE) Clean Water Act permit believed to throw off interested parties as to the correct location of the dredge; the project was out of compliance after it was initially dredged as stated by the ACOE; the LDNR initially failed to mitigate the effected swamplands that were damaged by the dredge nor did the LDNR maintain the mitigation requirements; to throw off competition of competing oil and gas companies and giving the appearance of an alternate location, maps bearing the correct name of Bayou Postillion were deceptively and falsely mislabeled and changed in the State of Louisiana’s public bidding process of oil and gas leasing performed by the Office of Mineral Resources regarding State Lease 18258 for the State ownership of the water bottom under Bayou Postillion to read “Bayou Gravenburg” another bayou some 20 miles on the opposite side of the Basin (link to Gravenburg/Bayou Postillion Map). This fraudulent deception related to the State of Louisiana mineral leasing process located over and at the end of the dredge and adjacent to the promoted prospects resulted in millions of dollars related to this activity. Collins also discovered the process of changing names on maps for State owned water bottoms for oil and gas leasing occurred again a second time on Bayou Fourche, eight tenths (8/10ths) of a mile south of bayou of Bayou Postillion which to no surprise lead directly into the Falcon and Blackbird prospects clearly dredged a second time for oil and gas exploration access, again paid for by the citizens of Louisiana. Not a coincidence, the CEO of the firm that acquired the lease over the mis-named Bayou Fourche waterway, again dredged by the Atchafalaya Basin Program, LDNR, gave (donated) Scott Angelle in excess of a million dollars ($1,000,000+) campaign contributions in Angelle’s failed run for Governor of the State of Louisiana. Collins also discovered the State actually divested (gave away) to Kyle-Peterman the surface and minerals of lands within the actual waterway (the water bottoms) of Bayou Postillion reducing State ownership to a mere 25’ in the middle of the 150’+ dredged bayou for the first mile of the 3 mile dredge project which enabled the landowner group (Kyle-Peterman) the ability to create a toll or usage fee for those that utilized the dredged bayou or risk trespassing while traveling the dredged bayou that was paid for at the expense of Louisiana taxpayers. These findings were presented by another Landman, Paul Maclean, Collins and others not only to Scott Angelle, Secretary of LDNR but also to the then incoming Governor Bobby Jindal, first assistant Timmy Teepell and then newly established Inspector General Stephen Street, Attorney General Buddy Caldwell (multiple correspondences: 11/21/08, 2/6/09, 2/13/09, 4/1/09, 5/13/09, 5/18/09, 5/20/09, 12/30/09, 1/8/10) and later to the Louisiana Legislative Auditor Darryl Purpura and staff. Purpura’s group did find questionable activity but failed to pursue any formal investigations. In 2010, Collins filed suit (link to Petition DSC vs RB LDNR) when his contract work halted and ceased for blowing the whistle as a Louisiana Whistleblower which resulted in a jury trial in the 19th Judicial District Court in Baton Rouge unanimously awarding $750,000 which was later overturned by the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals. The Appeals Court stated Collins was not considered a “governmental employee” of the State and rescinded the unanimous 12 person jury’s decision. To date there has been no formal civil or criminal investigation performed regarding the findings identified by Collins, Maclean,Wilson or Meche nor have those that profited and pocketed the money been brought to justice (follow the money) regardless of the information the jury heard (and believed) outlining the fraudulent events. Under Louisiana law there is no time period regarding the statute of limitation if fraud is committed against the State of Louisiana. Cover-up, scandal, deception, corruption as usual, and politicians failing to perform their jobs, you be the judge. And remember if you happen to travel by boat on Bayou Postillion one day, be sure and stay within the 25’ center of the bayou for the first mile or you just might be arrested for trespassing by the Kyle-Peterman Corporation.