This story was originally published by the Louisiana Illuminator.
It’s downright mystifying at times the lengths some officials will go to paint a rosy picture in the most dire circumstances. Sure, there are times when a dose of positivity will help folks through a tough situation, but there comes a point when reality must be confronted.
That’s where Gov. Jeff Landry seemingly found himself last Sunday after new aerial drone video footage from photographer Eric McVicker revealed the sorry state of the cleanup at Smitty’s Supply Inc. in Tangipahoa Parish – more than five weeks after the Aug. 22 explosion and fire. The video showed an adjacent large pond covered in petroleum products that leaked from the plant, and it pans over to show an oily slick extending into the nearby Tangipahoa River.
That petrochemical runoff has flowed some 40 miles downriver toward Lake Pontchartrain, though officials say that body of water has not been affected so far.
The governor was so moved by what he saw on McVicker’s footage that he posted his own video from the Governor’s Mansion to express his dissatisfaction with remediation efforts.
“They’re not going fast enough,” he said about the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-led effort.
Landry said he arranged a call with EPA Regional Administrator Scott Mason, Louisiana Environmental Quality Secretary Courtney Burdette and state Conservation and Energy Secretary Dustin Davidson.
“Starting tomorrow morning, things are getting ready to start changing on the cleaning up of that site,” the governor said Sunday.
But when the governor led a news conference Wednesday in Tangipahoa Parish, his tone had softened considerably. In response to reporters’ questions about the enhanced response measures Landry had promised, he came to the EPA’s defense.
“While I know it’s real easy to throw popcorn from the stands and it’s easy to make criticisms when you’re not on the ground, I will tell you that this incident is a unique incident. It falls between regulatory bodies,” Landry said.
Questions aren’t criticism, governor. It’s what journalists do in situations when officials can’t or won’t provide information the public needs.
Case in point: The EPA withheld information about the hazardous product inventory at Smitty’s Supply for five weeks, saying it needed company clearance first. The agency made the info public a day after the Illuminator published a report revealing why it had been kept secret. So far, there’s been no explanation as to why it took so long to reveal what neighbors of the facility have been desperate to learn for health and safety reasons.
The lack of information from Smitty’s Supply since the explosion is conspicuous. No one from the company has taken part in news conferences, and they’ve not responded to our questions about its role in the cleanup.
The EPA said last month it has $39 million in environmental remediation funds available to respond to the disaster but that it will need more. Smitty’s Supply is not currently paying for the cleanup but will be responsible for the cost, according to federal officials.
Tangipahoa President Robby Miller told AN17 Local News Wednesday it’s been apparent for several weeks that more resources are needed to tackle the cleanup, and he said the EPA responded with more equipment in recent days.
“If I have a real complaint about the EPA, our federal government, it’s how long it takes them to get things done,” Miller said. “We all recognized three weeks ago that we needed more frac (pump) trucks, we needed more vacuum trucks. Then it took about a week to convince people to come see that we really did. Then it took about a week for them to get that all put together, and it all happened to kind of culminate … Monday. ”
“It was just good timing on the governor making that statement at the same time all that work was happening,” the parish president added.
The governor will want to take credit for getting the EPA to bring more forces to bear for Tangipahoa cleanup. That’s fine. It’s what politicians do, regardless of whether they actually deserve it.
But it would also be great if Landry placed just as much emphasis on holding Smitty’s Supply accountable instead of the kid glove treatment they’ve been afforded so far.
