Riding the Mississippi

I knew it was going to be an adventure getting to the second of two Plaquemines Parish open house events this week when I saw that Google maps projected a 2.5 hour drive and ferry ride back and across the Mississippi. The directions simply said “Take Belle Chasse Ferry” and in small print “Check the time table.”

So here I was sitting on the ferry getting paddled across the Mississippi River, my first introduction to the famous river that cuts through our country. That experience was probably the highlight of the trip.

When I got to Phoenix High School in Braithwaite, an empty auditorium met me. Where was the outraged or inquisitive community? The tables and contractors from HHS, Coast Guard, local government, BP and EPA were all set up and waiting to talk with locals and answer their questions. The chairs were all set up in the middle of the gym and the sound guy seemed ready for someone to take the mic, but no one was sitting in the chairs and the officials were about 20 minutes late, I’d driven by a couple of them giving broadcast interviews along the road on the way there.

About 20 locals were seated in the bleachers and eventually another 10-15 people either joined them or took advantage of the prime gym seating real estate, but it was nothing compared to the electric night in Buras on Tuesday. 

As on Tuesday, Billy Nungesser took on the role of trying to straddle the fence between being an advocate for his parish in the face of the oil disaster, but also trying not to paint BP as the enemy of the people. In taking the mike Billy said “It’s been a long 80 days. Hopefully we will get some answers tonight.”

He went on to say that he’s found these forums to be the best way to get the most accurate information to as many people as possible, that too many people are getting inaccurate second-hand information and tonight he wanted to clear up some misconceptions people may have heard about the cleanup operation and who is being hired to do what.

EPA was there and strangely out of the hundreds of tests they had completed since the oil disaster started, they have found nothing out of the ordinary in terms of water or air pollution, nothing that they can attribute to the oil directly.  If this is the kind of air and water quality that isn’t out of the ordinary after a major oil spill, what does that mean for the long-term health exposure this community has been dealing with for years?

As one speaker said at the meeting, this is a catastrophe on top of a catastrophe. Many people are still healing from Katrina, 5 years later. It’s probably helpful to offer these open houses so at least people are getting a chance to get accurate information from the source, but I’m not sure how helpful it is to their livelihood to hear there aren’t any more jobs to be had and there won’t be any for the foreseeable future.