by Maceo Carillo-Martinet
Daily Lobo columnist
Hurricane Katrina brought its destruction in the form of fierce winds that tore open houses. It moved walls of water and weakened levees. This natural disaster is truly one of the worst to hit these shores. But if you learn a little about the history of New Orleans and its people, you realize this region has already experienced many other disasters, although not with the same international attention that a Category 4 hurricane demands.
Many of the rivers, lakes and estuaries in this region are some of the most polluted in the country. According to government data, Louisiana ranks fourth in the nation for having polluted waters, and leads the nation in the number of companies that release chemicals that do not easily degrade in the environment. Many of these same chemicals have been shown to accumulate inside the human body, impairing its natural processes. It is telling that the two major economies developed in this region over the last several hundred years have been slave plantations and industrial plants.
Today, many people call this area "Cancer Alley" because of the environmental pollution caused by a string of industries, including petrochemical plants and toxic waste incinerators. The residents who live in this area, predominantly African-American and poor, are exposed to around 100 times more toxic chemicals per day than the average American. Companies continue to move into the area, and locals continue to resist, as shown by the recent defeat of the construction of an enormous polyvinyl chloride plant by several community organizations. People who live in the community have for years been trying to protect their communities from new surges of pollution and from the legacy of pollution.
One such legacy is the Agriculture Street Landfill, north of the city of New Orleans, which served as the city's trash reservoir for decades. In the 1970s, city and federal officials established a program to help first-time African-American home buyers to purchase property on the landfill at special low-interest rates. The environmental conditions of the site were played down. The enticing real estate package included the construction of a local elementary school. This site was declared a Superfund site, which means federal aid is paying for environmental cleanup efforts. Four years ago, about 35 years after the site's residential use, federal environmental officials replaced the top two feet of contaminated soil, laid down a protective barrier and then covered it over with three feet of earth.
This community was built on top of a toxic landfill about a decade after African-Americans fought and won for their right to vote. Today, the people in this region have a disproportionate rate of environmental illnesses, ranging from cancers to miscarriages. Even before this disaster, African-Americans of this region have been experiencing the scourge of environmental racism for years.
In one of the many lawsuits filed by the community against an industry's impact on health of local residents, the industry's lawyer said in the closing arguments that we all live in a society that has to tolerate "certain inconveniences." The multi-billion dollar industry went on to win the case.
The environmental and social legacy of neglect in this region might speak to why many people bring up racism when discussing why major official response to the hurricane disaster took five to six days.
We could talk about the looting in the flooded streets of New Orleans, but there was already massive looting that has been occurring for decades.
The entire Gulf Coast has been slowly looted of its wetlands - Louisiana has lost more than a million acres of coastal wetlands since 1942. These areas were disappearing at a rate of 25 square miles per year, which means that more cities and towns became more vulnerable to the destruction of hurricane storm surges. Not only do coastal wetlands provide habitat for an amazing diversity of life and add to the food economy, they also provide an excellent buffer against the waves of water stirred up by hurricanes.
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Within the last century, we removed enough coastal wetlands to absorb about 10 feet of water from hurricane storm surges. The looting of coastal wetlands affects a lot of people, but I don't think federal or local officials ever contemplated implementing martial law to stop it, as they did to stop the looting in New Orleans.
If we are to learn anything from disasters, social or environmental, I hope we start learning quick.
