Bucket Brigade LABB
sci am listing http://www.scientificamerican.com/citizen-science/louisiana-bucket-brigade/
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https://theintercept.com/2020/06/25/environmental-activists-charged-terrorizing-louisiana-formosa/
TWO LEADERS OF the long-running fight for environmental justice in Louisiana turned themselves in to police in Baton Rouge Thursday morning. The activists, who work in a part of the state known as “Cancer Alley,” faced charges of “terrorizing” related to a nonviolent protest action. Civil liberties attorneys are calling the charges a dramatic escalation of a yearslong effort by the fossil fuel and petrochemical industries to criminalize efforts to halt the expansion of polluting facilities in the state — part of a nationwide trend of cracking down on dissent around climate change issues.
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The accusations against the activists, Anne Rolfes and Kate McIntosh, stem from a seemingly innocuous activist stunt carried out in December, the day after a festival designed to draw attention to the environmental misdeeds of Formosa Plastics. The Taiwanese petrochemical company plans to build a massive plastics manufacturing complex in a largely Black Louisiana community that has already suffered health problems linked to local industry. In October, Formosa agreed to a $50 million settlement for dumping pollutants, including the small pellets that form the building blocks for plastic products known as nurdles, into Texas’s Lavaca Bay — the largest settlement of a Clean Water Act lawsuit filed by private citizens.
with a key environmental permit still pending for Formosa in Louisiana, the action — dubbed “Nurdlefest” — was meant to pressure the state’s Department of Environmental Quality to scrutinize the company’s record. Boxes of the plastic pellets, used as evidence in the Texas case, were carted to the front of the agency, where around 75 people gathered in the rain.
What apparently terrorized community members, however, was a container of the pellets that appeared on the porch of an oil and gas lobbyist, with a detailed note attached, explaining what they were and their Texas origin. “We have delivered this package of nurdles as a reminder – Louisiana does not need anymore pollution, plastics or otherwise,” the letter said. “We demand that LDEQ DENY Formosa’s air emissions permit application.”
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The letter was signed by Concerned Citizens of Louisiana and included the phone number of Bill Quigley, the activists’ pro bono attorney.
The Baton Rouge Police Department apparently agreed that the plastic particles were threatening. “A note was observed on the top of the package indicating not to open the container as the contents could be hazardous. Police requested Hazmat to be contacted,” spokesperson Don Coppola told The Intercept. Although the note discouraged against removing the nurdles or leaving them around children or pets, it did not describe them as “hazardous.” It included a Formosa phone number for safely recycling the material.
Rolfes and McIntosh, who are respectively the director of and a program assistant at the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, which provides support to groups of community members living near polluting facilities, face a maximum of 15 years in prison and $15,000 in fines for so-called terrorizing — defined as “the intentional communication of information that the commission of a crime of violence is imminent or in progress or that a circumstance dangerous to human life exists or is about to exist” — with the intention of causing members of the public to fear for their safety.
“This is an unwarranted escalation because they are using the term ‘terrorizing,’” said Pam Spees, senior attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, who is representing McIntosh and Rolfes. “It is imposing unfairly and inappropriately a label on people that have been peacefully working for years to raise awareness of the impact of industry on frontline communities. To use that word in a context like this is potentially damaging and chilling to others.”
THE CHARGES AGAINST Rolfes and McIntosh come on the heels of a series of incidents where environmental activists have been dealt hefty charges for actions challenging the petrochemical, oil, and gas industries in Louisiana.
In August 2018, Louisiana legislators passed a law establishing a new felony charge for anyone who trespasses on critical infrastructure facilities, including chemical manufacturing facilities and oil and gas pipeline construction sites. Over the following couple months, police used the new law to charge 14 people protesting the oil company Energy Transfer’s Bayou Bridge pipeline, as well as a journalist. Local prosecutors have not yet acted on the charges.
[pix Taiwanese petrochemical company Formosa agreed to a $50 million settlement for dumping small pellets that make up the building blocks for plastic products, known as “nurdles,” into Texas’s Lavaca Bay.
Photo: Courtesy of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade
Last October, police charged Gregory Manning, the legally blind pastor of Broadmoor Community Church and a member of the Coalition Against Death Alley, with a felony for allegedly inciting a riot. Authorities said Manning failed to immediately leave a hallway outside the office of the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry during a protest against the association’s influence over state politics. A prosecutor later dropped all charges.
This spring, legislators passed an enhanced version of the critical infrastructure law, which would have ramped up charges for trespass during a state of emergency. Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards vetoed the bill.
To Rolfes and McIntosh’s attorneys, the timing of the latest charges is particularly suspect. At 9:30 a.m. on Juneteenth, the June 19 holiday celebrating the emancipation of slaves in the U.S., Quigley — Rolfes and McIntosh’s pro bono lawyer, who is also a professor at Loyola University New Orleans — received a phone call from a Baton Rouge Police Department detective, notifying him that a warrant was out for the pair’s arrest. (Formosa and the Baton Rouge Police Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.)
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“It seems more than a little suspicious that this long dormant warrant was activated 12 hours after Formosa lost in court. It seems like it’s clearly retaliation.”
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Both the activists were en route to a ceremony at a burial site for enslaved people, located in a field where Formosa plans to build one of its facilities. The right to carry out the ceremony had been hard-won: Formosa had fought in court for the past week to prevent community members from holding the gathering. A judge denied the company’s final appeal only the night before.
The detective told Quigley that the charges had been filed in April, but they’d held off on issuing the warrant because of risks associated with the coronavirus pandemic. “It seems more than a little suspicious that this long dormant warrant was activated 12 hours after Formosa lost in court,” said Quigley. “It seems like it’s clearly retaliation.”
Spees, the Center for Constitutional Rights attorney, said, “If there’s such a danger, why wait seven months and pick the day of a community celebration of its liberation from slavery to send that message?”
In response to the latest charges, local organizers are launching the Alliance to Defend Democracy to push back on the increasing criminalization.
“Five years ago — maybe three years ago — this kind of charge against an activist would have had an isolating effect. The movements are stronger now,” said Spees. “It’s an overreach, and it’s going to backfire.”
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https://www.democracynow.org/2018/3/13/critics_of_bayou_bridge_pipeline_in
in Louisiana, newly disclosed documents reveal a state intelligence agency regularly spied on activists opposing construction of the Bayou Bridge pipeline, which would carry nearly a half-million barrels of oil per day across Louisiana’s wetlands. The documents show the Louisiana Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness regularly drafted intelligence memos on anti-pipeline activists, including a gathering of indigenous-led water protectors who’ve set up a protest encampment along the pipeline’s route. Other newly revealed documents show close coordination between Louisiana regulators and the company building the pipeline, Energy Transfer Partners. This comes just one week after a U.S. district judge in Baton Rouge ordered a temporary injunction against construction of the Bayou Bridge pipeline in order to “prevent further irreparable harm” to the region’s delicate ecosystems, while court challenges proceed. For more, we speak with Pastor Harry Joseph of the Mount Triumph Baptist Church. We also speak with Pamela Spees of the Center for Constitutional Rights and Anne Rolfes, founding director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigad
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no link many
Bayou Bridge Pipeline Opponents Say Louisiana Governor's Office Is Surveilling Them
By Julie Dermansky • Wednesday, March 7, 2018 - 16:43
Louisiana Bucket Brigade founder Anne Rolfes at a press conference protesting Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards' treatment of anti-pipeline activists.
Opponents of the Bayou Bridge pipeline accused Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards of meeting with representative of the oil and gas industry while refusing to meet with activists and communities affected by the pipeline’s construction. They further allege that the administration has instead placed them under surveillance, pointing to similar treatment of Dakota Access pipeline opponents in North Dakota in 2016. Their claims are based in part on emails and other public records released by the state.
The activists brought their grievances to the Democratic governor’s home and office on March 1, holding a press conference in front of the Governor’s Mansion in Baton Rouge and then occupying the foyer to his office in the State Capitol for over an hour.
“The Bayou Bridge pipeline should be called the John Bel pipeline,” Louisiana Bucket Brigade founder and director Anne Rolfes declared at the press conference. In her view, “any accidents that will happen” related to the pipeline lead back to the Governor. He had the power to stop it, she said, but chose not to.
At the press conference, representatives from the HELP Association, 350 New Orleans, L'eau est La Vie (Water Is Life) camp, and the Center for Constitutional Rights also expressed disappointment in what they described as the state government’s cozy relationship with industry.
Louisiana Bucket Brigade read aloud emails about the Bayou Bridge pipeline from the Edwards administration and industry that were obtained by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), a New York-based legal and educational nonprofit.
Pastor Harry Joseph of Mt. Triumph Baptist Church in St. James, Louisiana
Pastor Harry Joseph of the Mount Triumph Baptist Church in St. James, where the pipeline will terminate, speaking at the press conference in Baton Rouge.
Security staff at the Louisiana Bucket Brigade press conference March 1
Security next to the press conference in Baton Rouge.
The governor, who voiced his support for the pipeline early on, has not commented on a federal judge’s recent ruling halting construction of the project through the Atchafalaya Basin, an environmentally sensitive National Heritage Area.
The pipeline is a joint venture between majority stakeholder Energy Transfer Partners, the company behind the Dakota Access pipeline, and Phillips 66 Partners, LP. Pipeline construction along its route from Lake Charles, near the Texas border, to St. James, about 60 miles west of New Orleans, began in January.
CCR attorney Pamela Spees grew up in Lake Charles, Louisiana, one of the communities affected by the pipeline. She said in a press release that the emails show how “the deck is stacked against people in Louisiana who stand in opposition to the ongoing destruction and harm caused by the Oil and Gas industry. The indications of monitoring and surveillance of local advocates and small organizations by the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness are particularly concerning. It is astounding that the resources of so many law enforcement agencies are trained on watching these organizations and communities trying to exercise their rights to be heard.”
In addition, Spees found it “deeply troubling that not one email released by the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality contained any discussion of or expressions of concern by people in the agency about the alarming accident history of the companies involved in the Bayou Bridge project.”
CCR is still fighting to get other public records related to the Bayou Bridge pipeline, and has appealed two cases it lost. One is against Bayou Bridge Pipeline LLC, in which the nonprofit sought records concerning the company’s use of eminent domain. And the other is against Louisiana’s St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office and Sheriff Greg Champagne for failing to release public records related to trips he and some of his deputies took to North Dakota to observe how law enforcement was responding to the Dakota Access pipeline protests.
“We saw a dangerous blurring of the lines between law enforcement and private corporations at Standing Rock,” Spees said. “Louisiana residents have a right to know what role local officials played in that situation and how it relates to events playing out closer to home.”
Surveillance of Opponents of the Bayou Bridge Pipeline
Dominic Renfrey, a representative with the Center for Constitutional Rights, informed me that Bayou Bridge Pipeline LLC is employing the firm Hub Enterprises to provide security for the company, based on sightings at pipeline construction sites.
Energy Transfer Partners spokesperson Alexis Daniel told me, “The safety of our employees and the communities in which we live and work is our top priority. In order to ensure that, we do have security plans in place and we do communicate with law enforcement agencies as appropriate. Beyond that, we do not discuss details of our security efforts.”
CCR’s Renfrey also said that documents released last week indicate the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP) “might be involved in surveillance.” The GOHSEP director sent an email about the Louisiana Bucket Brigade to state regulatory and law enforcement agencies, including the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), the Department of Natural Resources, the Louisiana State Police, and the Louisiana National Guard. The agency also prepared a report about the L'Eau Est La Vie Camp, contrasting it to the resistance camps against the Dakota Access pipeline.
Hub Enterprises security personnel near a Bayou Bridge pipeline construction site
Hub Enterprises security personnel across the street from a Bayou Bridge pipeline construction site that activists shut down temporarily on February 26 during a direct action leading to the arrest of three protesters.
GOHSEP Communications Director Mike Steele told The Advocate that there’s nothing sinister about his agency’s role. “The agency keeps an eye on issues that may, at some point, draw big crowds requiring security, traffic control, or crowd control. Homeland security may have an ominous connotation,” he said, “but they aren’t spies.”
“It’s not surveillance. It’s letting these agencies know that these matters are ongoing,” Steele said.
There was plenty of security on hand at the March 1 press conference and impromptu visit to the governor’s office. Some of the security personnel were impossible to identify because they remained in vehicles with tinted windows.
Anne Rolfes tries to catch who is inside an apparent security vehicle
Anne Rolfes, founder of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, trying to figure out who was in an SUV monitoring the press conference across from the Governor’s Mansion.
Security inside the foyer of the Louisiana governor's office during an anti-pipeline protest
Security inside the foyer in front of the governor’s office.
The documents so far obtained by CCR don’t indicate that any state agency hired a private security firm to surveil opponents of the pipeline. However, if one did, it wouldn’t be the first time a government agency in Louisiana hired a private firm to supplement its resources.
Last year, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s administration hired Trident Response Group, a private security firm based in Texas, for risk assessment, surveillance, intelligence gathering, and extra security at sites where Confederate monuments were slated for removal.
Landrieu’s administration defended the move to hire a private security firm after documents from an open records request showed the city paid over $700,000 dollars to Trident in May while the city prepared to remove the monuments. While denying that the city spied on local groups on either side of the issue, the city has not been transparent about what services Trident provided.
Take ’Em Down Nola, the group pushing for the removal of the Confederate monuments, suggested that Trident may have hacked some of its members’ emails and social media accounts and possibly infiltrated the group.
Trident shares similarities with TigerSwan, one of the private security firms employed by Energy Transfer Partners in North Dakota, and Hub Enterprises. All three companies’ websites tout staff that include former military personnel.
TigerSwan’s license application with the Louisiana State Board of Private Security was turned down last year. The denial was based on the pending litigation against the company for allegedly operating in North Dakota without a permit.
Some Bayou Bridge opponents believe the company was working in Louisiana without a license before its application was turned down.
In February 2017, James “Spider” Marks spoke in favor of the Bayou Bridge pipeline at a permit hearing. He identified himself as a retired U.S. Army major general and president of a corporate advisory firm, but did not disclose that he also sits on TigerSwan’s board of advisors.
The Louisiana Bucket Brigade says that emails from GOHSEP reveal Louisiana officials are aligned with a growing national trend of surveillance intended to intimidate citizens exercising their First Amendment rights, a finding the group considers alarming.
“Since the Standing Rock camp opposing the Dakota Access pipeline in North Dakota was disbanded last year, 56 bills that heighten the risk and criminal penalties of dissent have been introduced across 30 states,” reads a press release from the organization. “Many of these bills seek to frame protests as ‘riots’ and activists as ‘terrorists‘ or ‘jihadists,’ in attempts to criminalize protected free speech activity.”
Several states have even gone as far as introducing or passing bills that critics say would specifically criminalize pipeline protests.
“The documents reveal an unacceptable disparity in the public agencies’ treatment of pipeline and industry representatives in contrast to the communities they're obligated to serve,” Spees said. She told me that CCR will continue to seek more information from Louisiana’s public agencies because the documents already obtained suggest there is more to the story.
Energy Transfer Partners spokesperson Alexis Daniel told me, “The safety of our employees and the communities in which we live and work is our top priority. In order to ensure that, we do have security plans in place and we do communicate with law enforcement agencies as appropriate. Beyond that, we do not discuss details of our security efforts.”
I asked Governor Edwards’ office what he would say to those who feel he is willing to meet and listen to representatives of the oil and gas industry but not the Bayou Bridge pipeline’s opponents, including those directly impacted by the project. Shauna Sanford, a representative from the governor’s office, said, “We don't have a comment at this time.”
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https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/11/13/bayou-bridge-pipeline-opponents-file-intervene-hearing-private-security-firm-louisiana
A broad base of advocacy groups opposed to Energy Transfer Partners’ (ETP) proposed Bayou Bridge pipeline continue to pressure officials in Louisiana to deny the remaining permissions the company needs to build the pipeline.
The groups are also trying to stop TigerSwan LLC, one of the security firms that ETP worked with in North Dakota, from obtaining a permit to operate in Louisiana.
ETP, the company behind the Dakota Access pipeline, intends to build a 162-mile pipeline across southern Louisiana. If built, the Bayou Bridge will be the last leg, carrying oil fracked in North Dakota to Louisiana.
Before the pipeline can be built, ETP needs a water quality certificate from the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and a permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The company already obtained another required permit to operate from Louisiana Department of Natural Resources under the state’s Coastal Zone program, but that permit is being challenged vy a lawsuit spearheaded by the St. James community, where the pipeline will end, roughly 50 miles west of New Orleans.
TigerSwan in Louisiana?
Meanwhile, TigerSwan is trying to obtain a permit from the Louisiana State Board of Private Security Examiners to operate in the state.
The Board rejected TigerSwan’s permit application in June. In part, the denial was based on the ongoing litigation filed against the company by the North Dakota Private Investigative and Security Board for allegedly providing services without the required license.
Despite being turned down for a permit twice in North Dakota, TigerSwan operated on ETP’s behalf anyway.
A few days after TigerSwan’s permit was denied in Louisiana, the company filed an appeal and hired five lobbyists who work for the lobbying firm Southern Strategy Group.
At a November 9 press conference at the office of Louisiana’s Democratic Governor John Bel Edwards, groups opposing the Bayou Bridge pipeline, including theLouisiana Bucket Brigade, Bold Louisiana, 350 New Orleans, Atchafalaya Basinkeeper, Gulf Restoration Network, Louisiana Crawfish Producers Association - West, and L’eau Est La Vie (Water Is Life) Camp, announced that the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed a petition to intervene on their behalf. CCRwants to ensure that the groups can participate in the permit appeals hearing set for December 14.
Video: Anne Rolfes, director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_Bucket_Brigade
The Louisiana Bucket Brigade is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit environmental health and justice organization based in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded in 2000, the organization works with communities neighboring state oil refineries and chemical plants to address air quality issues.
Contents
- 1 Background
- 2 Mission
- 3 Bucket technology
- 4 Organizing in Louisiana
- 5 See also
- 6 References
- 7 External links
Background
"Buckets" that sampled air quality were pioneered by attorney Edward L. Masry in 1995 after he and Erin Brockovich fell ill when exposed to fumes from a petroleum refinery in Contra Costa County, California. Unsatisfied with the monitoring conducted by government authorities, Masry hired an environmental engineer to design a low cost device which community activists could use to monitor toxin levels themselves.
Denny Larson promoted the use of the buckets in other communities, including outside of California, and helped found the Louisiana Bucket Brigade. In 2001, Larson formed the "Global Community Monitor" to act as an umbrella organization for Bucket Brigades around the world. According to Larson, "The Bucket Brigade is not a scientific experiment. Our focus is on organizing. We use science, but only in the service of organizing.”[1]
Mission
The mission of the LABB is to “support communities' use of grassroots action to create informed, sustainable neighborhoods free from industrial pollution.”[2] To accomplish this goal, the organization uses the bucket to take air samples in residential areas that are located near oil refineries and chemical plants. The LABB compiles several air samples from different citizens around one area; with this evidence they strive to reduce the levels of pollution.[2]
Bucket technology
Designed to function like the Summa canisters used by government and industry, the buckets used in a Bucket Brigade are far cheaper and have comparable results. Air is drawn into a Tedlar bag housed inside afive gallon bucket. The bag is sealed and sent to a laboratory for analysis. The bag's contents are analyzed using Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and compared to a library of toxic gases. While the buckets cost only $75 each, the GC-MS samples cost $500.
Organizing in Louisiana
The community of Mossville is located near the city of Lake Charles in Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana. Forty of the fifty-three industrial facilities in Calcasieu Parish are located within 10 miles of Mossville. These facilities represent the largest concentration of vinyl plastic manufacturers in the U.S., a coal-fired power plant, oil refineries, and chemical production facilities.
In September 1998, Mossville residents of "fenceline communities" formed a bucket brigade and began taking samples. The samples revealed violations of Louisiana standards for vinyl chloride, ethylene dichloride, and benzene. One sample found carcinogenic benzene in excess of 220 times the State's standard.
In the following year, after much media attention, the Environmental Protection Agency confirmed pollution levels higher than detected by the bucket brigade. Some facilities were fined and new monitoring devices were installed. By 1999, bucket brigades had spread throughout the cancer alley of Louisiana, leading to the formation of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade. The organization gives grants to community groups to continue bucket monitoring.
Communities currently participating in the Bucket Brigade include Alsen, Baton Rouge, Chalmette, Mossville, New Sarpy, Norco, Louisiana, Port Arthur, Texas, and Durban, South Africa.[3]
The Louisiana Bucket Brigade is featured in the 2002 documentary film Blue Vinyl.
See also
 | Sustainable development portal |
|---|---|
 | Environment portal |
 | Ecology portal |
 | Earth sciences portal |
References
- :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ Denny Larson, Good Neighbor Campaign Handbook Chapter 6: Crime Scene Investigation: Tools you can use to catch and expose pollution, Bucket Brigades 2006
- ^ :{Jump up to::(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^a b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louisiana_Bucket_Brigade#cite_ref-SALBB_2-1) http://www.scientificamerican.com/citizen-science/project.cfm?id=louisiana-bucket-brigade
- :{Jump up:(style="top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px 1px 1px 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important;-webkit-user-select:none"):}:^ Louisiana Bucket Brigade: Communities
External links
- Non-profit organizations based in New Orleans, Louisiana
- Environmental organizations based in the United States
- Environment of Louisiana
Letter I delivered to Mathy Stanislaus, EPA Deputy Administrator for Solid Waste and Emergency Response
Posted on September 28, 2012 by Louisiana Bucket Brigade
By Anna Hrybyk, LABB Program Manager
September 20, 2012
Arthur Elkins
Office of Inspector General
Environmental Protection Agency
Mail Code 2410T
Lisa Jackson
Administrator
Environmental Protection Agency
Mail Code 1101A
Ariel Rios Building
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20460
Re: LDEQ’s Rapid Response to Chemical Emergencies Poses Serious Dangers to the Public
Dear Mr. Elkins and Ms. Jackson:
We write to you today to alert you to the great frequency of life threatening petrochemical accidents in South Louisiana. We are requesting two action items that require your immediate attention:
Risk Management Plan inspections be conducted for all chemical plants and refineries in the path of Hurricane Isaac, particularly Stolthaven Chemical Plant Braithwaite, Phillips 66 Refinery Belle Chasse, Chalmette Refining, Shell Chemical and Motiva Refinery Norco, Valero Meraux and Valero Norco to ensure that they are prepared to prevent future risks.
Revoke the authority of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality to administer the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act and Emergency Response programs.
So far in 2012, we have seen 14 major chemical emergencies in Southeast Louisiana:
March 22, 2012 & May 10, 2012 – On March 22, 2012 at Westlake Chemical, Geismar a tank exploded releasing vinyl choride, chlorine and many other chlorinated chemicals. Even though the tank exploded at 8:30am, EPA does not start air monitoring until that afternoon. The Geismar community is required to shelter in place even though the wind direction put the Modeste community across the river in Ascension Parish at greater risk. Modeste is not even notified that they may be in danger. On May 10, 2012 Westlake Chemical suffers a power outage in the same unit releasing more vinyl chloride and sending three workers to the hospital for inhalation injuries.
May 8, 2012 – Shell Chemical in Norco is struck by lightening and flares for over 24 hours releasing benzene, butadiene, carbon monoxide, ethylene, hydrogen sulfide, nitrogen oxide, propylene, sulfur dioxide, xylene, and other volatile organic compounds. LDEQ air monitors arrive on the scene over 12 hours later, and the agency states in the press that the release poses no danger to the public.
May 15, 2012 – Honeywell in Baton Rouge leaked hydrofluoric acid, a highly toxic substance. There is no LDEQ presence at the scene even though the LDEQ Headquarters are less than two miles from the plant.
June 14, 2012 – ExxonMobil in Baton Rouge reported to the NRC only 10 pounds of Benzene released but by June 18 they had revised their estimate to upwards of 28,686 pounds of Benzene after workers alerted LABB to the real amount. No one in the community was notified of the ongoing release even though 400 workers were being monitored for exposure. LDEQ was on-scene the morning of June 14th but did not enter the plant, did not test for low levels of Benzene on the perimeter and publicly stated that the release did not leave the plant. EPA Region 6 was in the neighborhood on June 14th and smelled the strong VOC odors but did nothing.
June 15 – 27, 2012 – Shell/Motiva Norco began flaring nitrous oxide, volatile organic compounds and other chemicals for 12 straight days. Nothing by the company has been reported to the NRC or to LDEQ regarding the cause and exact amount of pollution release during this flaring marathon. Reports to LABB’s iWitness Pollution Map say the flare fluctuated between 20 to 100 feet in height. Photos posted to the map show a large ground flare with black smoke.
August 3, 2012 – A 422-foot-deep, 372-foot-diameter sinkhole emerged close to Texas Brine salt domes containing oil waste, diesel and natural gas. Residents were reporting roiling bubbles and odors for months to the LDEQ, but no one listened. Almost one month later, residents are still reporting strong hydrocarbon odors coming from the site. LDEQ has dispatched their MultiRae air monitor but has not picked up anything and has been seen riding around with it held out the window, potentially compromising the samples due to wind speed. Since August 3rd, the sinkhole has expanded by over 200’.
August 17, 2012 – Sun Drilling in Belle Chasse released a vapor cloud of divinylbenzene affecting hundreds of residents living within 2 miles of the facility. LDEQ towed the company line and insisted the cloud was only nitrogen used to cool the expanding tank. LABB surveyed 160 residents who claimed that the cloud smelled like benzene, spraypaint and burning oil. Nitrogen has no smell. Surveyed residents also reported health impacts from breathing in the cloud such as headaches, eye irritation, skin irritation and respiratory health problems. Nitrogen would not cause this.
August 29, 2012– Hurricane Isaac was a Category 1 hurricane. It’s storm surge, rain and winds inundated Southeast Louisiana. Two refineries, Phillips 66 in Belle Chasse and Chalmette Refining, shut down operations quickly reportedly causing over 550,000 pounds of pollution in the process.
Shell, Motiva and Valero refineries in Norco and Meraux did NOT shut down even though the parish was under a mandatory evacuation order. According to a worker at Shell Chemical Norco, the plant manager should have shut down because they could not get the flare to light because the ignition boxes were dislodged in the wind, all of the furnaces tripped, motors went underwater, half of the pumps cavitated burning up all the pump seals and operators were ordered to go out in hurricane force winds to tie things down and drain blocked canals all while sheets of metal were flying through the air.
Stolthaven Chemical in located in Braithwaite was inundated with 12 feet of storm surge that caused storage tanks to collapse or move off their foundations and rail cars to overturn. Overflight photos and citizen reports from right after the hurricane show offsite contamination. Stolthaven’s report to LDEQ states that contamination “flowed offsite with storm surge,” yet LDEQ continued to make public assurances that there was no spill.
This list does not include the chronic petrochemical accidents that occur, according to the National Response Center, at a rate of approximately 10 per day all over the state. As hurricane season continues, this pattern is of great concern to the Louisiana Bucket Brigade and our constituents.
Of even greater concern is the LDEQ’s propensity to declare to the public that none of these accidents pose any danger to human health or property. The Louisiana Bucket Brigade feels that these statements are inaccurate and place the public at greater risk because:
Monitoring has never been conducted exactly at the time of peak exposure or any time period even close to the peak exposure.
LDEQ never shares with the public elevated levels of chemicals that were found in their sampling unless you submit a public records request.
It is not made transparent the exact times and locations of the peaks and valleys in the monitoring data, indicating communities most impacted by acute chemical exposure, unless you submit a public records request.
The LABB’s iWitness Pollution Map (www.labucketbrigade.org) is a real time crowd sourced map of citizen reports of petrochemical accidents and their effects on people’s health and their environment. These reports detailing symptoms of acute chemical exposure contradict the “no danger to the public” statements made by LDEQ and the companies. LABB conducts due diligence with these reports by sending them to all enforcement agencies, including the EPA, the US Coast Guard and LDEQ.
This lack of rapid response creates even more danger to the public because:
People are exposed to highly toxic chemicals.
Evacuation/shelter in place orders are never called.
Health surveillance for symptoms of chemical exposure are never triggered.
Communities distrust the LDEQ because they never find a problem.
It increases the population at risk. If people believe the LDEQ statements that these accidents pose no danger to the public, they make decisions like buying a house next to a refinery or sending their kids to school near a chemical plant due to a (false) sense of safety.
We have been tracking citizen complaints made to the LDEQ since 2005 on our Refinery Accident Database (http://www.labucketbrigade.org). In some cases it takes LDEQ over 20 days to get to the scene of reported air pollution. Obviously, the monitor will not pick up anything 20 days later! With air releases, pollution can move within a matter of minutes so the quicker the response time the more accurate the readings.
The Louisiana Bucket Brigade and the Environmental Integrity Project are renewing our petition to the EPA to revoke the LDEQ’s authority to manage the Clean Air Act program due to the frequency of hazardous petrochemical accidents happening in our area. As of today, we still have not received a response from the Inspector General’s office on the petition filed on December 14, 2011.
We look forward to your response no later than October 31st, 2012.
Sincerely,
Anna Hrybyk
LABB Program Manager
CC:
Peggy Hatch, Secretary, Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality
Cheryl Nolan, Administrator of Enforcement, Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality
Esteban Herrera, Chief of Air Toxics Enforcement, EPA Region VI
Ron Curry, Regional Administrator, EPA Region VI
Steve Mason, Emergency Response, EPA Region VI
Mathy Stanislaus, Solid Waste and Emergency Response, EPA HQ
Cynthia Giles, Administrator Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, EPA HQ
Eric Schaeffer, Executive Director, Environmental Integrity Project
https://labucketbrigade.wordpress.com/2012/09/28/letter-i-delivered-to-mathy-stanislaus-epa-deputy-administrator-for-solid-waste-and-emergency-response/