By Kimberly Hopson
L’Observateur

LAPLACE – Last week’s refinery explosions in Donaldsonville and Geismar claimed three lives and injured at least 84 others collectively, causing many residents who were not directly affected by the accident to wonder if their safety may be in jeopardy as well.
Grassroots organizations such as the Louisiana Bucket Brigade formed because of the same concerns, and make it their mission to address these issues head on. The group even conducted a door-to-door survery in the Geismar area the Friday after the incident.
“We’re concerned about the disconnect between the public statements/ public assurances of safety and what is actually going on. Of course, the biggest concern are the workers that are still recovering from their injuries,” said Anne Rolfes, founding director of the Bucket Brigade.
“In the vacuum of information about what people are really experiencing, you have government officials saying ‘Everything is fine.’ No, everything isn’t fine, and certainly isn’t fine for the workers. And everything isn’t fine in the neighborhoods where people live.”
Rolfes said 36 percent of the 67 residents they interviewed reported various adverse effects becasue of the accident, such as eye irritation, nausea and headaches.
The Bucket Bridgade website includes a database of recorded accidents for each refinery in the state. The accidents do not necessarily include more serious incidents such as explosions. According to this database, Marathon’s Garyville refinery recorded a total of accidents 13 last year; Motiva Enterprises in Norco recorded nine, while the Convent location noted six. Valero in Norco totaled nine.
In comparison to the 13 other refineries in the state, each of the local plants have recorded relatively low numbers of incidents over the years, but Rolfes said there is still cause for worry.
“In general, there’s just no oversight. I think that in a situation of no oversight and no real enforcement when problems happen, even a company that seems like they may be in a better performing gear can have complete catastrophes. During hurricane season is also when you see problems. What they want to say is ‘Oh, acts of God, nothing we can do about it.’ But really, most of the time it’s a real failure to prepare,” she said.
Jobe’ Boucvalt, the director of public safety for St. John the Baptist Parish, said the parish is prepared in the event that a serious incident should occur.
“All disasters and emergencies are different. You handle them differently. We have our plans in place, and industry has their emergency plans. So, if we get a call from them, we’ll work with them closely to make sure that we handle the emergency properly,” said Boucvalt.
Boucvalt declined to elaborate on the plans specifically.
Representatives from Marathon Petroleum also declined to comment, but said that the company has numerous contingency plans in place.
All in all, Rolfes suggests that refineries in the region would benefit from hiring more full-time maintenance staff and do a more thorough job of preparing for storm season in order to avoid more disasters that would put the lives of their workers and the surrounding communities at risk.
Waterford Steam Electric Station Unit 3, a nuclear power plant in Killona, distributes a detailed map of evacuation routes and zones for the areas that surround it. Other large industries also have similar contingency plans in place in the event of an emergency.
For more information on other campaigns initiated by the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, visit their website at labucketbrigade.org.