Citizens wont back down in fight
against incinerator
By Arthur
Jones NCR Staff
Neither citizens nor the local Catholic bishop are backing down in
a battle to prevent the reopening in Amelia, La., of the nations largest
toxic waste incinerator.
But immediately before Christmas, Cindy Bailey, a leader in the
local Coalition for a Good Environment, said, It looks like we lost round
one.
On Dec. 22 an appeals court in Baton Rouge refused to hear a
coalition injunction filed against GTX Inc., the latest owners of the Marine
Shales Processors site, closed in 1996 by the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency for illegally operating a hazardous waste facility.
GTX is owned by the Moody family of Lafayette, La., prominent
local Catholics.
St. Mary Parish County (in Louisiana, counties are named after
parishes) is reportedly the second worst county in the state for toxic air
emissions and among the 50 worst in the United States, critics say. The county
is already host to three confirmed hazardous waste sites, say critics, 18
potential hazard waste sites, a permitted landfill, 19 unpermitted dumps, a
commercial oil-field waste disposal facility, 140 closed oil and gas pits, 27
open pits, 48 salt water injection wells and more than 600 oil and gas
wells.
As the local Catholic Social Services explains in a briefing
update, concerned citizens of the Morgan City-Amelia area are appalled at the
prospect of an operation that would pump into the air annually 69 tons of
volatile organic compounds -- known and suspected carcinogens from oils
and heavy metals, releasing benzene, toluene and mercury.
Bishop joins opposition
Among citizens opposing the permit is Bishop Charles Michael
Jarrell of the Houma-Thibodaux diocese.
Robert Gorman, Catholic Social Services executive director,
has said that the diocesan position was based on a report by the Environmental
Technology Council, a hazardous waste industry trade group, which is concerned
with 11 specific areas of the permit. Gorman told the Morgan City Daily
Review that when even the waste industry itself is concerned about the
permit. It makes me feel better about the concerns I have heard expressed
and have read for myself in the [GTX] permit application, said Gorman.
He and Jarrell were briefed on the scientific facts, he said, by
chemist Wilma Subra, a permit opponent. The company was quite upset when
the bishop came out in opposition to granting the permit, said the
diocesan chancellor, Holy Spirit Sr. Miriam Mitchell, and put pressure on
him to retract, which he would not do. There is more to the
complexity.
Decision is states
Louisiana is a delegated state, an EPA spokesperson in
Washington told NCR, meaning it is the state, not the federal
government, that grants permits.
Further, the federal government is pumping $250 million into the
near-pristine Atchafalaya Basin, which Amelia abuts, to conserve, restore
and enhance the natural habitat to create nature-based tourism and
conserve a national wetland treasure.
In New Orleans, Sierra Club spokesperson Sarah Craven said,
Having a hazard waste incinerator at the gateway to this Atchafalaya
tourist destination is really moving us in the wrong direction.
From that point, we want to protect it, said Craven.
But theres also human health issues. The incinerator is on Bayou
Boeuf, which is the drinking water source for Amelia, and GTX wants to use the
bayou as a buffer zone between the incinerator and the basin.
Whats the state of Louisiana like on environmental issues?
Craven said the governor in a number of cases has shown preference for the
businesses. Politically, she said, its in the favor of
GTX.
When the state talks about jobs versus the environment, she said,
the underlying issue rests on the incentive program the state has in place that
encourages companies to locate the waste sites in places like Amelia.
They get a 10-year exemption from property taxes, said
Craven, no taxes on construction costs, and for every new person they
employ, they receive $2,500. But the figures dont balance out, she
said. In the end, the peoples health and the environment are the losers.
GTX denies charges
Company president Kevin Moody and lawyer Hank Perret, also both
Catholics, said that St. Mary Parish County air pollution does not exceed
federal standards, though there are counties that do, and that GTXs 60
million Marine Shales kiln upgrade will meet those same federal standards.
Even if it were to operate 365 days a year, said Moody, the
incinerator would account for only 2 percent of area emissions, whereas
pre-existing incinerators alone already account for 97 percent of
emissions.
He further said there will be no new discharges into Bayou Boeuf
of water that has touched waste. Water will be used only for cooling.
As for the waste industry trade group findings, said Moody,
Our understanding is that it comprises several incinerators and others
whose business will be affected if GTX is granted a permit.
The citizen action is not a lost cause, said Craven, and it will
likely be easier to seek court action once a permit has been granted because so
many exceptions and variances will have been granted and the permit itself
contains discrepancies.
National Catholic Reporter, January 8,
1999
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