Environmental Racism: How Minority Communities Are Exposed to "Toxic Soup"

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reprinted from http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/08/30/1354251

Damu Smith, founder of Black Voices for Peace and executive director of the National Black Environmental Justice Network. For more than three decades, Damu has worked tirelessly on the frontlines of the anti-war and environmental justice movements.

AMY GOODMAN: Damu Smith, I want to bring you back into the conversation. I met you some, I don’t know, 15 years ago, I think it was, in Baton Rouge at an Environmental Justice conference. Now it may be that people, a lot of people don't even know that term, "environmental justice," or "environmental racism." Can you talk about it and then apply it to what we're seeing today?

DAMU SMITH: Well, between Baton Rouge, which is north of Louisiana -- north of New Orleans, and New Orleans itself, there are scores of polluting facilities lining the Mississippi River on both sides of the river. You're talking about numerous petrochemical plants, plastic production facilities and other heavy industries that are contributing to the pollution flowing into the Mississippi River. Now, near these facilities, in the shadow of these plants, are scores of African American communities, mostly African American impoverished communities. People, black and white and Latino, who live in these areas, are exposed to a toxic soup of chemicals regularly released into the air, into the soil, into the water.

Now, one of the things I want to add to this discussion, Amy, is that within New Orleans itself, there are a number of superfund toxic sites in neighborhoods. The Agricultural Street Landfill superfund site has been one of the most controversial sites in the city of New Orleans. We have been working with Elodia Blanco and her group, Concerned Citizens of Agriculture Street. I spoke to Ms. Blanco as she was hurriedly trying to get her invalid father and her daughter out of the house on Sunday in preparation for the hit by the storm. It's impossible to reach any of them now because the phone services are down. But I'm just imagining the water, if the water is flooding her neighborhood, and I'm imagining that it is, all of those toxic chemicals below their homes have come up. And the water that we see in the footage coming through the television footage contains all of these toxic chemicals. So we're not just talking about fireflies and ants that we're hearing in the major media. We're talking about serious chemicals that are a threat to human health. And now all of this is in the water and being washed into people's homes and is contaminating the water.

St. Charles parish, just north of New Orleans, has the Shell Norco chemical plant and numerous other polluting facilities. It's not clear what's happening in that parish but I would imagine that St. Charles parish has also been hit. East New Orleans has been hard hit. I've been to East New Orleans, there are a number of toxic sites in that area right near poor and African American communities. So this is a disaster, not only in terms of the flooding that's going on, the long-term economic consequences, but it is also an environmental disaster.

One more thing I would like to add, Amy, is that this issue of climate change is very, very serious, as our other guest has stated. The Gulf waters have been very warm, and the warming of the waters contributes to the power and the force of these hurricanes. So while we know hurricanes are indeed a natural disaster, manmade industrial processes are contributing to the enhancement of the power and destruction of hurricanes because of global warming. So this is a critical issue that we have to face as we move into this century. But we also have to face the fact that the infrastructure deficit in New Orleans has also contributed to this disaster. I believe that had -- we're not just talking about poor planning. We're not just talking about the issues of planning, but we're talking about issues of investment in the infrastructure necessity that are needed to protect the people of New Orleans from this kind of disaster. And that obviously did not occur.

AMY GOODMAN: Damu, the last time we had you on, we were talking about your own battle right now, your battle against fourth stage colon cancer. And I'm wondering how you're doing. We also talked about the issue of health and racism within the medical system.

DAMU SMITH: Well, Amy, I'm feeling fine. I'm still battling stage four colon cancer and liver cancer. And thanks to all of the prayers and support of many, many people, my tumors have reduced significantly. I'm still battling. I’m fighting the good fight. And I'm just happy to be here, alive this morning to be on this program. And thanks for keeping me in mind when you have these topics to discuss.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, thank you very much for joining us. I want to thank Damu Smith for being there and today on the show, founder of Black Voices for Peace. Look forward to having you on again soon on these and other issues. David Helvarg, thank you for joining us. Final comments as you watch this storm from your vantage point in Hawaii?

DAVID HELVARG: Well, flying back here, it was interesting from a distance. The coverage as the storm swamped Louisiana was obviously less intense here. People are isolated. And yet, so many of the same issues, wherever you go. I mean, people are at war here over coastal development and loss of traditional peoples' access to the shoreline. And there's concerns over energy and how to move off their dependence on fossil fuels and the sense of being an island, which is dependent and at risk.

We're all on an island. And it's a planetary island, and we're putting it at tremendous risk. We aren't, actually; very specific and identifiable special interests are. And I think, you know, we the people have to organize to be able to live with the natural world and deal with its consequences in more sensible and productive ways. And in the next months it's just a question of paying attention, I think after, pay attention to what the E.P.A. tells us in what’s really happening in those waters, and with the kind of support that the victims of this receive and the relative support of well-to-do beach homeowners versus poorer communities that are impacted. It's an ongoing struggle. And hopefully we learn some lessons from disasters like this and just don’t let them keep repeating themselves.

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Flashback: Bush Held Back Funding On Hurricane Defense
New Orleans City Business
reprinted from  http://prisonplanet.com/articles/august2005/300805martiallaw.htm

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has identified millions of dollars in flood and hurricane protection projects in the New Orleans district.

Chances are, though, most projects will not be funded in the president's 2006 fiscal year budget to be released today.

In general, funding for construction has been on a downward trend for the past several years, said Marcia Demma, chief of the New Orleans Corps' programs management branch.

In 2001, the New Orleans district spent $147 million on construction projects. When fiscal year 2005 wraps up Sept. 30, the Corps expects to have spent $82 million, a 44.2 percent reduction from 2001 expenditures.

Demma said NOC expects its construction budget to be slashed again this year, which means local construction companies won't receive work from the Corps and residents won't see any new hurricane protection projects.

Demma said she couldn't say exactly how much construction funding will be cut until the president's budget is released today. But it's down, she said.

The New Orleans district has at least $65 million in projects in need of fiscal year 2005 funding. In fiscal year 2006, the need more than doubles to at least $150 million.

Unfunded projects include widening drainage canals, flood- proofing bridges and building pumping stations in Orleans and Jefferson parishes. The Corps also wants to build levees in unprotected areas on the West Bank.

Demma does not expect the Corps to award many more projects before fiscal year 2005 ends.

The New Orleans district already owed about $11 million to construction companies after funding dried up last July, well before the end of the fiscal year. By paying its debt, the Corps lost money it could have spent on other projects in 2005.

Boh Bros. Construction Co. LLC of New Orleans waited until November for the Corps to pay off a nearly $2 million debt, said Robert S. Boh, company president.

When the Corps doesn't pay its bills, companies like Boh Bros. either use internal funds or borrow money to continue work.

That is a tough burden that is placed on us, Boh said.

Boh said his situation was not as bad as construction companies working the Corps' Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, which was created to improve drainage in Jefferson, Orleans and St. Tammany parishes.

The burden that reduced funding puts on us is that funds are not necessarily available in each fiscal year to pay for the construction work that we might be able to do, Boh said. They're running out of funds and presenting the contractor with a real dilemma.

The most urgent work being delayed by funding shortfalls involves levee construction on the West Bank.

The West Bank doesn't have the first level of protection completed. So, that's the really critical one, Demma said.

On the bright side, the West Bank work has been receiving higher funding than usual in the past few years to get this work done, she said.

Still, $3.5 million in West Bank construction contracts have not been funded in fiscal year 2005.

SELA has a backlog of $35 million, according to the Corps' 2005 budget.

Our progress is definitely beginning to slow, said Stan Green, SELA project manager.

Green said SELA has 14 project plans that could be awarded if funds were available. SELA's highest priority, he said, is completing an intake culvert for Dwyer Road in eastern New Orleans. The culvert, an underground concrete box that carries water to a pumping station, would improve the flow of water to the Dwyer Road pumping station, where construction should be completed by October, he said. A roughly $18 million contract for the culvert has been not awarded due to lack of money, he said.

Fourteen SELA projects worth $114 million could be awarded, he said. But SELA's 2005 budget is only $28.5 million, he said.

The last time a SELA contract was awarded was early in fiscal year 2004, he said.

We're just continuing work that's been under way for some time, he said.

Green said the 14 projects consist of widening canals and replacing bridges, such as the West Esplanade Avenue bridge at Elmwood Canal, which restricts water flow in area canals.

I think the projects are of critical importance in reducing rainfall flooding, Green said. I'd say in the last two or three years, the work that we've already done under SELA has made a significant difference. We have a lot of benefits yet to be realized from this work we haven't built yet.

The 2006 SELA budget has also been cut, Green said.

Corps projects are important to companies such as Boh Bros., which is in the middle of a $36 million contract to install floodgates for the Harvey Canal.

Boh said the unpredictable pay pattern will make him scrutinize Corps contracts more closely before applying for work.

Well, we're going to have to look at each one now, he said. We'll have to make a judgment about the likelihood of funding being adequate to pay for the work.