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Katrina & Rita: Who Pays? Who Profits?
A I’m in Louisiana, in the flood zone. Katrina was here, in many ways is still here. Now Rita is in the gulf, gaining strength. I’m sending this early because I can’t predict where I’ll be Thursday and I doubt I’ll have time to write. While the tragedy of New Orleans has been well reported, there are stories not being told about Katrina. One is about the areas outside New Orleans, another is the question of who pays and who profits when disaster strikes.
I’ve been down in Plaquemines Parish, in far southeastern Louisiana. (A parish in Louisiana is what other states call a county.) Plaquemines is comprised of two narrow stretches of land on either side of the lowest reaches of the Mississippi River. Plaquemines Parish has paid a low price in death. According to the sheriff’s department Monday, only three residents died in Katrina; all three had refused to evacuate. Both citizens and the parish government are well acquainted with hurricanes, they are prudent in their preparations. Lives were saved, but the lower 40 miles of the parish are — for all intents and purposes — gone. A 30-foot storm surge swept over the levees and the communities along the river. Houses, schools, businesses and churches were leveled. Those that remain standing were soaked through with seawater and left coated with an oily scum. The boats of Plaquemines’s fishing fleet are smashed, sunk or scattered. The worst consequence is the oil. Plaquemines has numerous transfer points for oil pumped in the gulf and sent ashore in pipelines. Pipelines and oil tanks ruptured in the storm, sending millions of gallons into local marshes and oyster and shrimping grounds. Fishermen I spoke with said the fishing grounds may be closed for years. The Dallas Morning News estimated that the total oil spilled in Louisiana by Katrina may rival the 11 million gallons spilled by the Exxon Valdez in 1989; MSNBC reports 44 oil spills in southeast Louisiana. I’ve been to some of those spills. I stood along Highway 23 Monday and watched workers for Environmental Safety and Health Consulting preparing to treat a spill from a Shell Oil facility near Nairn. Don’t be fooled by the name, ES&H hires low-wage workers, provides them only with latex gloves and hard hats for safety gear, puts them in 20-foot aluminum boats and sends them off to clean the spill. Each boat had a pitchfork, dip net and bales of, well, towels. The workers spread the towels on the oil slick, the towels absorb oil and the workers collect them again. It’s not rocket science. The water table in Plaquemines is near the surface; houses draw treated water from central facilities and still most people drink only bottled water. This was prior to Katrina, water quality will sink lower now. None of the residents we spoke with said they have heard any word about the oil spills or possible toxic threat. Parish officials and police — who have been stretched to the utmost — also express frustration with the lack of cooperation from the oil companies, although they would not express such frustration for the record. We heard one breached levee’s repair has been delayed until the oil companies can fix a nearby pipeline. Cows and horses roam the polluted marshes, looking sick and dehydrated for lack of clean water. Dogs and cats are approaching a feral state after three weeks among the ruins. Animal rescue teams from around the country are on site. Citrus groves, trees and grass are brown, killed by the surge of oil-tainted seawater. Fishing nets and bed linen hang from trees. Trucks, cars and boats lie everywhere, personal possessions lie everywhere. Cicadas drone, but no birds sing. The silence is broken by the slow banging of ripped sheet metal hanging from the sides of mobile homes. Only the road, cleared by emergency crews, seems normal. Due north of Plaquemines is St. Bernard’s Parish. We have not yet visited St. Bernard’s but have heard the destruction is similar to what we’ve seen in Plaquemines, and involves not just oil but other industrial chemicals. The cost of cleaning the oil spills will be enormous, but when the federal Superfund act was passed in 1986, two important loopholes were installed by the oil and chemical industries. One decreed that oil is not a toxic substance and therefore not covered by Superfund. The second decreed that hurricanes are “acts of God;” oil or chemicals spilled during a hurricane are not covered by Superfund, regardless of how unprepared the industries were for the storm. The bottom line — the real bottom line — is that while the price of gas hovers between $2.50 and $3 per gallon and while the oil companies report record profits, it is taxpayers who will pick up the tab for what cleaning Plaquemines Parish and the rest of Louisiana receive. © Mark Floegel, 2005 |
