A Plastics Spill on the Mississippi River But No Accountability in Sight

Julie-Dermansky-022
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When I arrived on Sunday, August 9, scores of tiny plastic pellets lined the sandy bank of the Mississippi River downstream from New Orleans,ย Louisiana, where they glistened in the sun, not far from a War of 1812 battlefield.ย These precursors of everyday plastic products, also known as nurdles, spilled fromย a shipping container that fell off a cargo ship at a port in New Orleans the previous Sunday, Augustย 2.ย 

After seeing photographs by New Orleans artist Michael Pajon published onย NOLA.com, I went to see if a cleanup of the spilled plastic was underway. A week after the spill, I saw no signs of a cleanupย when Iย arrived in the early afternoon,ย but I did watch a group of tourists disembark from a riverboat that docked along the plastic-covered riverbank.ย By most accounts, the translucent plastic pellets are considered pollution, but government bureaucracy and regulatory technicalities are making accountability for removing these bits of plastic from the riverโ€™s banks and waters surprisinglyย challenging.

Nurdles on sandy bank of the Mississippi River in Chalmette, Louisiana
Close-up of nurdles on the bank of the Mississippi River in Chalmette,ย Louisiana.ย 

Riverboat Creole Queen at dock in Chalmette, Louisiana
The riverboat Creole Queen docked in Chalmette, Louisianaย ย ย 

Tour group outside the Malus-Beauregard House at the Chalmette Battleground
A group that disembarked a riverboatย touring the grounds of the Malus-Beauregard House, whose last owner was the son of Civil War Confederate General P.GT. Beauregard, on the Chalmette Battlefield, from the War of 1812. In the distance, the Chalmette refinery, one of many that line an 80 mileย stretch along the Mississippi River from Baton Rouge to the New Orleansย area.

โ€œThe petrochemicals present will pollute fish and wildlife for years as they degrade in the sun,โ€ Scott Eustis with Healthy Gulf, an environmental advocacy group, wrote of the pelletsย in anย email. โ€œThis isย ominous for the August 2ndย event,โ€ he added, after learning that the nurdlesย still remain along the river.ย 

Along with the National Transportation Safety Board, the U.S. Coast Guard is conducting a joint investigation of what happened but has yet to determine who is responsible for the incident at the Portsย America facility in New Orleans that knocked four containers off theย CMA CGM Bianca, a container ship, according to Sydney Phoenix, a Coast Guard spokesperson.

As for a cleanup of the plastic pellets,ย Phoenixย explained on a call, that because nurdles are not categorized as a hazardous material, the Coast Guard does not have the authority toย call for a cleanup. Later by email she wrote, โ€œThree of the containers were recovered immediately but one was not, containing the plastic resin pellets. It was recovered earlier this week.โ€ She added that the โ€œLouisiana Department ofย Environmental Quality (LDEQ) has beenย notified.โ€

Plastic resin pellets, or nurdles, by shells and driftwood on a stretch of the Mississippi River in Chalmette, Louisiana
Nurdles on the bank of the Mississippi River in Chalmette, Louisiana.ย 

Next, I asked the LDEQ if the state agency was taking any action due to the spilled plastic.ย โ€œWe were not the lead agency. Coast Guard is. I can’t speak for them,โ€ Greg Langley, spokesperson for LDEQ,ย replied by email.ย When I pressedย Langleyย for information on what LDEQโ€™s role, if any, is in the Coast Guard investigation, he replied:ย โ€œWe are assisting the investigation. Once the responsible party isย determined, they will beย responsible for any cleanup activities,โ€ adding, โ€œIf someone spills something into the environment in Louisiana, we as stewards will usher a positive response.โ€

The lack of action in addressing the spill so far concerns Jane Patton with theย 
Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), a nonprofit environmental law firm. โ€œIt seems like grossย negligenceย of duty,โ€ she said. She believes a cleanup should have been started immediately and pointed outย that by the time the investigation reveals the company or person responsible for the incident, the pea-sized plastic pellets will be widely dispersed along the Mississippi River and Gulf ofย Mexico.ย 

Riverboat on the Mississippi River passing spilled nurdles in Chalmette, Louisiana
Riverboat passing spilled nurdles washing upย inย Chalmette,ย Louisiana.ย 

โ€œSpills from plastic transport are not uncommon โ€” plastic nurdles are one of the most common plastic pollutants in the environment,โ€ Patton said. โ€œThis is something that communities aroundย the globe have experienced wherever plastics are moved, as nurdles or as consumer products. โ€œ

Patton and Eustis are both opposed to the state of Louisianaโ€™s decision to permit the petrochemical giant Formosa to construct a $9.4 billion plastics manufacturing complex, which will produce nurdles up river from New Orleans.ย If the plastics plant is built, they worry that it will release many more nurdles into the Mississippi River โ€” not to mention the additional air pollution that would come to a majority Black area already known as โ€œCancer Alley.โ€

โ€œThe Mississippi River is already lined with several of these massive plastic plants, and our elected leadership is actively recruiting more of these facilities to build in Louisiana communities,โ€ Patton said. โ€œWhether plastic resins are deemed โ€˜hazardousโ€™ under the law does not detractย from their irrevocably devastating effects on lives, livelihoods, and fisheries anywhere they are made and moved.โ€ To her,ย the photos of nurdles on the Mississippi River are eerily familiar, recallingย images from Lavaca Bay in Texas, where longtime social justice activist Diane Wilson has been documenting similar plasticย pollution.ย 

Nurdles washed up on the Mississippi River banks, by the photographer's shoes
Nurdlesย washed up on the bank of the Mississippi River in Chalmette, after a lost shipping container spilled them in the river on August 2.ย 

Wilson, who is executive director ofย the San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper, last year won a lawsuit againstย Formosa Plastics Corp.ย USA for releasing plastic pellets and powder from its Point Comfort, Texas, manufacturing plant into nearby waters. The lawsuit resulted inย a $50-million-dollarย settlementย and a range of conditions in an agreement known as a consent decree. The company agreed to no longer release nurdles into the regionโ€™s waterways โ€” not even one โ€” as of January 15, 2020, but Wilson and other waterkeepers continue to find nurdles coming from the plantโ€™s outfall pipes.ย Leading up to this settlement and agreement, the waterkeepers collected large numbers of nurdles that the company released into Texas waterways and presented them as evidence in court. This evidence led U.S.ย District Judge Kenneth Hoytย to rule that Formosaย had violatedย the Clean Water Act by discharging plastic pellets andย powder into Lavaca Bay and Cox Creek.

Yet, according to a statement from the U.S. Coast Guard about the nurdles recently spilled into the Mississippi River,ย โ€œThe plastic resin pellets that were released are not regulated under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (Clean Water Act)ย and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) for which the Coast Guard has authority or jurisdiction.โ€

Sharon Lavigne, founder ofย RISEย St. James, a community group fighting petrochemical plant construction in St. James Parish, Louisiana,ย finds the federal and state governmentsโ€™ lack of movement in cleaning up this nurdle spill chilling, but not surprising. โ€œThe state lets industry pollute our air, water, and soil and often doesn’t bother to enforce itsย own regulations,โ€ she told me, which is one of the reasons she is determined to stop Formosa from building a new plastics plant in her community along the Mississippi River.ย 

Lavigne finds it ironic that Anne Rolfes and Kate McIntosh, environmental activists with the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, were recently charged with terrorism after leaving boxes of nurdles that Diane Wilson pulled from Texasย waters and used as evidence in her successful case against Formosa, at the homes of a coupleย fossil fuel lobbyists in Baton Rouge.ย  ย 

Wilson gave the Louisiana activists the nurdles to help them convince local authorities not to permit the St. James Parish plastics plant.ย Wilson told me that though the nurdles are bad for the environment, delivering themย in a box would present no danger toย humans.

โ€œNot bothering to clean up the nurdles shows that the State has a double standard,โ€ Lavigne said. If Formosa is allowed to build its planned petrochemical complex, she says she expects to find the same kinds of plastic pellets allย along the Mississippi Riverโ€™s banks downstream of St. James in theย future.ย 

Main image: Nurdles on the bank of the Mississippi River in Chalmette, Louisiana, on August 9, 2020. Credit: All photos and videos by Julieย Dermansky

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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