Louisiana Braces for a Storm While Weighing New Fossil Fuel Projects

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Yesterday, I stopped writing another story for DeSmog to get ready for what could likely become this yearโ€™s first hurricane in theย U.S.ย 

I live in Mandeville, Louisiana, on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain across from New Orleans. My home is above sea level, unlike much of New Orleans, so Iโ€™m at a much lower risk for flooding impacts than residents of a city nearly synonymous withย flooding.

However, like most residents in south coastal Louisiana, Iโ€™m bracing myself for a sustained barrage from the sky, as bands of rain and wind from Tropical Storm Barry arrived in parts of the state this morning. The entire Louisiana coast could be hit with the seasonโ€™s first hurricane byย Saturday.

Hurricane or not, the storm is forecast to drop more than a foot-and-a-half of rain on parts of the state as it movesย inland.

Aย National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)ย warning issued this morning states: โ€œThere is danger of a life-threatening storm surge inundation along the coast of southern and southeastern LA, where a storm surge warning is in effect.ย The slow movement of Barry will result in a long duration of heavy rainfall and flood threat along the central Gulf Coast and inland through the lower Mississippi Valley through the weekend and early into nextย week.โ€


New Orleans near Algiers Point Thursday, July 11, 2019.ย The Mississippi River, a little too close to the top of the leveeย for comfort, as Tropical Storm Barry approaches Louisianaโ€™sย coast.ย 

And a report issued by NOAA just a couple days earlier now serves as an ominous warning about what is to come in a climate-changed future. โ€œAnnual flood records are expected to be broken again next year and for years and decades to come from RSL [relative sea level] rise,โ€ it reads. โ€œProjecting out to 2030 and 2050 provides vital information for communities that are already taking adaptation steps to address coastal flooding impacts and those that are beginning to assess future flood risk in theirย communities.โ€

โ€œWe need a new model to base storms warnings on,โ€ Lt. General Russel Honorรฉ, founder of the Green Army, told me on a call on Thursday night. He worries that people are still used to basing their evacuation plans on a hurricaneโ€™s predicated category number, which is based on wind strength, and not factoring in a stormโ€™s flood potential. โ€œWe have seen with Harvey and other recent storms that even no-name storms can be lifeย threatening.

โ€œClimate change impacts arenโ€™t factored into storm danger warnings, like the increased potential of storm surges due toย sea level rise, and the weakening of natural defense of natural storm protection due to theย erosion of the marshes,โ€ he said, so relying on a hurricaneโ€™s wind strength is both dangerous andย foolish.

Honorรฉ blames politicians and the media for not informing the public that we are already in a climate crisis. โ€œIt is a crying damn shame that politicians are muffling the warnings of scientists,โ€ he said. โ€œWe need a World War II-like effort to combat the climate crisis, but instead we are moving in the opposite direction. The government is not only permitting more polluting facilities that contribute to global warming to be built, it is subsidizing them,ย too.โ€


Trains parked under the Crescent City Connection before Barry hits in an area that is below sea level, though protected by theย levee

Though both Governor John Bel Edwards and President Donald Trump declared a state of emergency in Louisiana as it braces for Barryโ€™s landfall this weekend, neither acknowledge the conclusions of mainstream climateย science.ย 

Earlier this week The Washington Post reported that Trump White House officials barred a State Department intelligence agency from submitting written testimony to the House Intelligence Committee warning that human-caused climate change is โ€œpossibly catastrophic.โ€ This came after State Department officials refused to edit out references to federal scientific findings on climateย change.

Honorรฉ, most famous for taking control in New Orleans in Hurricane Katrinaโ€™s aftermath, has been busy since 2012 trying to find a solution to pollution and advising on disaster readiness. โ€œAl Gore started warning us about the impacts of global warming over a decade ago, and we didnโ€™t heed the warning,โ€ Honorรฉ said, himself included โ€” but he isย now.

The need to prevent the worst impacts from climate change is one of the reasons that he has come out against building new petrochemical plants alongย the 80-mile stretch of the Mississippi River known as Louisianaโ€™s Cancer Alley, where more than 100 petrochemical plants and refineries currentlyย stand.ย 

Honorรฉ sees the building of more fossil fuel-powered factories along the river as a precursor to aย Chernobyl-like situation. In doing so, โ€œwe are allowing a vicious cycle of reckless corporate drives to speed up globalย warming.โ€

โ€œLouisiana politicians and the Trump administrationโ€™s ongoing denial of climate science wonโ€™t change the climate crisis that we are already facing,โ€ย Honorรฉ said. โ€œThe future we feared isย here.โ€

On July 9,ย Honorรฉ was one ofย more than 100 people who attended a public hearing held by the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality concerning 15 air quality permits for a proposed Taiwanese-owned industrial complex called the Sunshineย Project.


LDEQโ€™s permit hearing for Formosaโ€™s air quality permits on Julyย 9.

If approved, Formosa, the projectโ€™s owner, will be one step closer to starting construction onย its $9.4 billion plastics manufacturing complex in northern St. James Parish on the bank of the Mississippiย River.

The project would allow for millions of tons of greenhouse gases and hundreds to thousands of tons of pollutants, like fine particulates and sulfur and nitrogen oxides, that can cause human health problems. In the mix of toxic emissions will beย benzene and ethylene oxide, two cancer-causing agents that will be worsening the areaโ€™s already pollutedย air.ย 

The following night Honorรฉ planned to attend a St. James Parish Council meeting about an appeal for a proposed Chinese-owned Wanhua chemical plant, but he didnโ€™t make it due to theย weather.ย 


St. James Parish Council meeting on Julyย 10.

However, I was at the hearing, as were a handful of others, including opponents of the plant who are part of the appeal, which the parish council has to hear before letting the permit it granted for the project stand. Getting to the meeting was a risky venture. I had to steer clear of downed trees and hold on tight while my car was pushed around by high winds while I drove through a torrential downpour that greatly limitedย visibility.

โ€œHolding the meeting while people are preparing for the coming storm, as rain bands are coming in, is a total disconnect from reality,โ€ Honorรฉ said.ย โ€œHolding the meeting under those circumstances is the ultimate for being stuck on stupid,โ€ he added.ย Though the meeting went on as planned, Lisa Jordan, director of Tulaneโ€™s Environmental Law Clinic, which represents the chemical plantโ€™s opponents, was able to get a continuance, set for July 24, after asking for an extension to make her remarks. She explained that because she only received documents she requested a few days ago, she needed more time for theย appeal.


Lt. General Russel Honorรฉ, founder of the Green Army, at a community meeting about Mosaicโ€™s fertilizerย plant.

Honerรฉ is also tracking a dangerous situation at Mosaicโ€™s Uncle Sam fertilizer plant in St. James Parish, which is located next to the site where the Wanhua plant will be built if approved. Last month Mosaic met to discuss efforts to prevent a potential environmental catastrophe in the heart of Cancer Alley: a collapse of a nearly 200-foot-tall wall ofย mineral waste and the subsequent release of acidic wastewater into nearby waterways andย wetlands.ย 

He fears that the company could use Tropical Storm Barry as an excuse to start an emergency option scenario of dumping that wastewater into the Mississippi River. State regulators have downplayed the health risk to those who get their water fromย the river should that scenario play out, butย even ifย potentialย wastewater gets released into the river and quickly dissipates, it hasย both radioactive and carcinogenic substances inย it.

Will this stormโ€™s impact on Cancer Alley help decide the outcome for the proposed plastic and chemical plants? While impossible to predict, these days living in southern Louisiana increasingly feels like playing a game of Russianย Roulette.

*7/15/19: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of the St. Louis Cathedral in Newย Orleans.

Main image: Storm clouds over the St. Louis* Cathedral in New Orleansโ€™ French Quarter on July 11. Credit: All photos by Julie Dermansky forย DeSmog

Julie-Dermansky-022
Julie Dermansky is a multimedia reporter and artist based in New Orleans. She is an affiliate scholar at Rutgers Universityโ€™s Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights. Visit her website at www.jsdart.com.

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