If you’ve never been to Louisiana, the southern state is home to swamps, mangrove forests, alligators, and a plethora of wetland habitats. Texaco, a well-known petroleum company owned by Chevron, has oil extractors all along the coast of Louisiana.

Environmentalists, biologists, ecologists, and other concerned agencies noticed a dramatic decrease in wetland habitat in the southeast part of the state, and they blamed Chevron’s construction and maintenance on offshore drillers. Lawsuits against the drillers to stop the destruction started in 2013, seeking almost $10 billion for damages.

In fact, the US Geological Survey noted a loss of almost 5,000 square kilometers of habitat in Louisiana’s Plaquemines Parish between 1932 to 2016, or around 25% territory lost due to construction. If Chevron’s tactics go unchecked, the agency thinks it could lose another 3,000 square miles in the next 50 years.

Louisiana’s wetlands are crucial for hurricane protection

Since 2013, 41 lawsuits have been filed against Chevron for the damages. Many lawsuits claimed the construction, abandoned equipment, and operations blocked canals leading into mangrove forests and wetlands. Not only did this damage an ecosystem, but reduced protection from waves caused by hurricanes.

As the water’s flow became more restricted, more damage was done by a storm’s wave. This caused habitat loss over time, bringing large waves from storms closer and closer to shore.

Jimmy Faircloth Jr, an attorney who represented the state, said Louisiana can’t withstand more habitat loss that protects the shore. Especially since so many communities are on the water.

“Our communities are built on the coast, our families raised on the coast, our children go to school on the coast,” he said, quoted by The Guardian. “The state of Louisiana will not surrender the coast. It’s for the good of the state that the coast be maintained.”

A judge ordered Chevron to pay millions

On Friday, April 4, a judge found Chevron’s Texaco guilty of violating state regulations passed in 1978 surrounding coastal resources and therefore contributing to the region’s loss of wetland habitats. To help fund habitat rehabilitation, Chevron has been ordered to pay $744 million.

Broken down, the company is expected to pay $575 million for land loss, $161 million for contamination, and $8.6 million to clean up abandoned equipment.

Mike Phillips, an attorney representing Texaco, confirmed a plan to appeal the court’s decision. He called it “unjust,” and said “several legal errors” were made. He argued the company shouldn’t be responsible for “conduct that occurred decades before the laws were enacted.”