In recent months, I've joined with the Louisiana Bucket Brigade and others in calling for the state's Department of Environmental Quality, or DEQ, to be stripped of its powers and for the federal Environmental Protection Administration, or EPA, to take over. This is not an idea that I toss around lightly. Time and time again, Louisiana's DEQ has shown that it's simply unable or unwilling to do its job: Keeping the state's residents safe from pollution. Now, a new, harrowing tale of DEQ bungling has emerged amid the floodwaters of Hurricane Isaac. As the deadly storm lashed Louisiana --the state with a higher concentration of chemical plants and oil refineries than anywhere else -- the agency failed to act and once again failed to warn residents of a toxic catastrophe in the downriver town of Braithwaite, the community that was ravaged by Isaac's floodwaters.
More than 191,000 gallons of toxic chemicals may have been released from the Stolthaven New Orleans petroleum and chemical storage and transfer terminal in Braithwaite during Hurricane Isaac, according to a company report filed Tuesday with the U.S. Coast Guard National Response Center. That's just one day after the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality assured the public that monitoring at the ...