Louisiana

What Is Going On With The Water In St. Joseph, Louisiana?

February 1, 2016 Kevin Zeese, www.PopularResistance.org Educate! Louisiana, Water

By Kevin Zeese for Popular Resistance. As we have reported regarding the water crisis in Flint, it is not alone in water that is dangerous. Below is a small portion of an article from ATTN: by Alex Mierjeski. They report: In St. Joseph, Louisiana, residents say the situation is particularly bad. Pictures posted online of chalky, dirt-brown water in bathtubs, washing machines, and sinks present a sickeninGarrett Boyteg image of what they mean. . . . According to local news reports, residents say they have dealt with water safety issues for years. But some said they had seen drastic changes in water color — from yellowish to murky brown — in recent weeks. Others said the problems had persisted for as long as a decade. Since 2012, the town has mostly been under a boil notice — meaning residents are encouraged to boil water before drinking. To highlight the problem with the regulation of water safety, according to ATTN: "the state's Department of Health and Hospitals said water samples from the town met the Environmental Protection Agency's minimal quality standards.

Louisiana Judge: Local Zoning Laws Can’t Stop Fracking

April 22, 2015 Robert Rhoden, www.nola.com Resist! Environment, Fracking, Law, Louisiana

Fracking opponents suffered a major defeat Monday morning (April 20) when a state judge ruled St. Tammany Parish cannot use its zoning regulations to block a proposed oil drilling and fracking project northeast of Mandeville. Judge William Morvant of the 19th Judicial District Court in Baton Rouge said parish regulations cannot trump state law and that the Department of Natural Resources' Office of Conservation is the sole regulator of oil and gas drilling in Louisiana. The much-anticipated ruling, coming after a year of controversy over the project, does not mean Helis Oil & Gas Co. of New Orleans is free to start drilling, however. An appeal is likely to be filed, and Helis still needs a wetlands permit from the Army Corps of Engineers before it could begin work.

Citizens Protest Fracking Permit In Louisiana’s St. Tammany Parish

November 18, 2014 Julie Dermansky, www.desmogblog.com Resist! Energy, Environment, Fracking, Louisiana, Protests

On November 13, over 600 people filled the Lakeshore High School gym for a public hearing on a drilling permit for the first hydraulic fracturing site in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana. According to Patrick Courreges, a spokesman for Louisiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR), it was the first public hearing for a drilling permit that anyone can remember. DNR isn’t used to opposition to drilling permits and rarely rejects such industry requests. But since April when Helis Oil and Gas announced plans to frack in St. Tammany Parish, 45 miles outside of New Orleans, public opposition has grown steadily in an effort to stop the company’s operations before they start.

Louisianans Ask For Protections From Big Oil

August 29, 2014 Jessica Hodge, www.earthjustice.org Create! EPA, Louisiana, Oil, Texas

Twenty-four residents representing eight Louisiana communities traveled to Galena Park, Texas, on August 5, 2014 in support of a refinery rule recently proposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that will force petroleum refineries to reduce toxic air emissions. The Deep South Center for Environmental Justice in partnership with Advocates for Environmental Human Rights organized a group of community residents who have suffered both physical and psychological health problems from toxic chemical exposure due to emissions from nearby refineries in their community. There are currently 142 petroleum refineries in the United States. Exposure to toxic air pollutant emissions can cause upper respiratory problems and can increase the risk of developing cancer. Louisiana residents had an opportunity to testify at the public hearing to urge EPA to move forward with stricter refinery emissions standards to control toxic air emissions being released in their communities. Dorothy Felix, president of Mossville Environmental Action Network (MEAN) in Mossville, LA, testified that there are already 14 large industrial plants in her community and Sasol, a gas to liquid plant, wants to build another facility in her community. She said, “In fact, a section of Mossville is being relocated due to ground water contamination.” Residents in her community were tested for dioxin exposure and test results revealed that some Mossville residents had three times the national average of dioxin in their blood levels. Ms. Felix appealed to the EPA to protect them, saying: “You are the agency in place that has the power to protect fenceline communities.We want you to strongly enforce regulations so that we human beings in the current and future generations can have a healthy and safe environment to live in.”

How Does Someone Shoot Themself In The Chest While Handcuffed?

August 27, 2014 Justin King, www.theantimedia.org Educate! Louisiana, Police, Violence

The original story from Iberia Parish was that 22-year-old Victor White III was apparently unable to cope with the thought of a simple possession charge, pulled a handgun from somewhere while handcuffed in the backseat of a patrol car, and shot himself in the back while the Deputy had conveniently left him unattended. On its face, this story is utterly absurd. Now the coroner has released the autopsy which states that White wasn’t shot in the back. He was shot in the chest from the right side, but missed his right lung, and the round exited the left side of his body after perforating his left lung. The bullet, after exiting the torso, injured White’s left arm. This places the weapon slightly to the front of White and put the bullet on a path that runs parallel to the ground. So to combine these stories with a quick recap, a church-going man arrested for a relatively minor charge managed to will a firearm into existence out of thin air while sitting in the back of a patrol car. Then in a feat that would make Stretch Armstrong jealous, he managed to shoot himself in the chest despite the fact that his hands were cuffed behind his back and he was seated within the tight confines of the rear of the patrol car. Not the abdomen, the chest. That’s the upper part of the front torso. To add insult to improbability, the coroner ruled the death a suicide.

March Protests Threat Oil And Gas Industries Pose To Drinking Water

July 1, 2014 EcoWatch, www.ecowatch.com Resist! Louisiana, March, Oil and Gas, Protest, Water

A group of concerned citizens walked 155-miles in eight days from Grand Isle to Baton Rouge, along Louisiana Highway 1. They arrived at dusk Friday via the east bank levee of the Mississippi River and headed to Gov. Bobby Jindal’s mansion yesterday for “Flood into Baton Rouge,” an event focused on water quality issues and threats to clean drinking water by the oil and gas industry in communities throughout the state. The march was organized in response to Governor Jindal’s signing of SB 469 into law (Act 544) earlier this month. Although the purported intent of the law was to kill the lawsuit filed against 97 oil and gas companies by the South Louisiana Flood Protection Authority–East, the law was so hastily and broadly written that Attorney General Caldwell and more than 100 legal scholars from across the nation urged the governor’s veto because as written, the law might jeopardize the state’s claim to environmental penalties that will be levied against British Petroleum (BP) from the 2010 BP Macondo explosion, according to march organizer Mike Stagg. Exempting the oil and gas industry from liability for their share of damages to the coast and jeopardizing the state’s claim to BP penalty money, leaves the state with a Coastal Master Plan that has a Phase I price tag of $50 billion and no revenue stream for its implementation.

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