Love the smell of naptha in the morning

I mean, you'd better get used it.  Or at least you should probably always assume it's there one way or the other. Nobody's going to tell you until much later if at all. 

When St. John the Baptist Parish residents woke up on Friday, August 25, they saw a plume of black smoke above the Marathon Petroleum refinery between Reserve and Garyville, Louisiana. Marathon told residents and parish officials that the fire started that morning around two tanks storing naphtha — a type of partially refined petroleum used as an ingredient in gasoline.

But the naphtha leak actually began at 6:50 p.m. Thursday, August 24, 15 hours before residents in the area were evacuated, according to a report to the National Response Center, the federal point of contact for reporting all oil and chemical spills. The Louisiana State Police were notified about half an hour later. 

Naphtha is a colorless flammable mixture distilled from crude oil to make solvents and gasoline. Exposure to this kind of hydrocarbon mixture can cause headache, dizziness, nausea, and vomiting, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

No worries, of course. The important thing to remember is that no matter how bad it seems, no matter how many trees fall down or buildings collapse or refineries explode on any given Thursday in Louisiana, rest assured, we're still finding ways to make sure somebody makes money off of the disaster.  

For example,

CTEH, an environmental consulting firm companies hire to perform environmental testing during industrial disasters, was also at the fire that Friday morning. CTEH has been accused of downplaying the danger of chemical and oil spills, including the February train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, the 2010  BP oil spill, the 2005 Murphy oil spill following Hurricane Katrina, and when Texaco (now Chevron) was accused of dumping 18.5 billion gallons of toxic wastewater for years into the Ecuadorian rainforest.

“They called in a company who has made a long practice of never finding any problems,” Rolfes said. “This company has never found a problem and never will. And that is why Marathon called them.”

Louisiana’s air monitoring efforts did not begin until about 1:12 a.m. Friday morning, about six hours after the naphtha leak began, according to Wilma Subra, a Louisiana-based  environmental scientist and toxics expert, who reviewed the LDEQ reports for DeSmog. “They didn’t start the monitoring for a good little while,” she said.

That's the good old resilience economy in action, right there.  Good work if you can get it.

Bad air makes for trouble breathing

We do so many terrible things to ourselves in this state and say it's for "the economy." Is it any wonder the political agitation to open up and just get used to COVID  is so strong here?  Risking our health so the bosses can make their money is just how we do things here. Which is what makes this so perfect. 

Hazardous air pollution may help explain the disproportionate number of COVID-19 deaths in communities like West Baton Rouge Parish, home to Port Allen. With 39 deaths as of Sept. 7, the parish’s per-capita death rate from COVID-19 ranked it among the top 3% of all U.S. counties with at least 30 deaths. Several of its neighbors in Louisiana’s industrial corridor also rank near the top of the list.

There is a sensational story in the news this morning about public officials planning to "crack down" on open air street gatherings they have determined to be an intolerable public health threat.  Their idea is to punish individuals already suffering from unemployment and displacement by taking away their federal and state benefits. 

In addition to simply issuing tickets, Cantrell said she has city officials researching whether the city would be able to strip those found in violation of the restrictions of their unemployment benefits.

"I have asked whether individuals who will be issued a citation, could that put them in jeopardy of losing their unemployment benefits," Cantrell said. "It’s my opinion, you can’t receive public resources but at the same time violate public mandates to keep people safe in the city of New Orleans. These are the things we’re looking at."

The chemical plants that line the Mississippi River and endanger thousands of lives by spewing tons of hazardous pollution into the air receive billions of dollars in public resources every year.  Now that we see their activity directly exacerbates the threat from the pandemic, will anyone demand we take action against them?  Or do we prefer to take it all out on the poorest and most helpless among us?

Oh look, a task force

Do they need someone to tell them?

Gov. John Bel Edwards has launched a new task force to help combat COVID-19 across Louisiana, with an emphasis on helping the state's most vulnerable population.

Earlier this week, it was revealed that COVID-19-related deaths are disproportionately high among the state's — and the country's — African American communities, where pre-existing conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, heart disease and kidney failure are more prevalent and can contribute to fatalities.

Everyone, the governor said, should "have the opportunity to obtain their highest level of health. This [task force] will leverage research capabilities and intellectual brain power in a collective effort to tackle this issue."

I guess it's good that they are acknowledging the fundamental fact of systemic environmental racism and its impact on health outcomes. But it seems like this, "leverage research capabilities" thing is just a directive to send a political problem off into the corner for to be studied rather than acted upon.  Do they really need someone to tell them what the problem is? I think they must know.

The immediate assignment, Edwards said, is to "make sure communities with health disparities are blanketed with good information on COVID-19 safety and prevention; provide the medical community with best practices and protocols for treating communities with underlying medical conditions and health disparities; and ensure testing availability and ease of access for all communities."

Oh, I see. It's worse than I thought. See, they're gonna "blanket the community with good information."   As if people trapped in hazardous living conditions just need to be made better aware of what's the matter. But what if they're already aware?

NEW ORLEANS, La. (WVUE) - People in St. John Parish before would tell you how cancer affects nearly every family here, but with the threat of the coronavirus, they say the amount of death in their community is shocking. “Blacks as a whole are being victimized by this in disproportionate numbers,” citizen, Bobby Taylor said.

Taylor is accustomed to fighting something he can’t see. He’s long been a part of the concerned citizens of St. John, which protests the nearby rubber plant, Denka-Dupont from emitting chloroprene into the air. An element the EPA has labeled a likely carcinogen. But now, those in St. John Parish, a predominately black community are also dying from coronavirus at an alarming rate.

“The weakest people are going to suffer the most and it’s evident that we are the weakest people in the nation and maybe in the world because of our exposure to the onslaught of these chemicals,” Taylor said.

The LSU tumor registry has found higher cancer rates in St. John parish.

Environmental scientist, Wilma Subra says given the high rate of cancer and other pre-existing conditions, it's no wonder St. John is seeing more coronavirus deaths.

“Those pre-existing conditions are associated with the chemicals that are released in the air by the industrial facility in St. John,” Subra said.

The Governor's task force announcement doesn't say anything about how our burgeoning (and heavily subsidized) petrochemical  industry plagues poor and black communities in South Louisiana with cancer and respiratory illness. Seems like a pretty big oversight for a panel looking at underlying co-morbidity issues with COVID 19.  Wonder how that happned.

Of course they will be directed to look at the "social determinants" of health. John Bel says we need to find out what those are.

On Friday, Edwards said, "We need to answer what are the social determinants of health disparities and how do we ensure health equity for all of our citizens?"

The task force will begin its work immediately to help minimize the spread across the state and in particular communities where members are the most vulnerable. "The work is going to benefit everyone in the state," Edwards said.

I sure hope they find out.

Traditionally this is done to help light Santa's way

Sometimes Christmas comes early, I guess.

A black-stained patch of marsh grass in Cox Bay, just east of Port Sulphur in Plaquemines Parish, will be put to the torch Wednesday to remove about 1,000 gallons of crude oil spilled there last week when a Time Energy oil well flowline sprang a leak, the U.S. Coast Guard announced Tuesday.

The in-situ burn is scheduled to begin at 8 a.m., weather permitting, and is expected to last until 4 p.m. The burn is tentatively scheduled for Thursday if weather conditions don't allow it Wednesday.

One hopes that "weather conditions" involve  taking into account which way the wind is blowing.  Nobody wants to breathe that shit.  Although, at this point, how would we know the difference between a plume of black smoke and a regular day?

Also, it keeps the brand out there

Chinese state media come up with a whole list of the various benefits of smog.

On Monday the website of China's state broadcaster CCTV published a list of five "unexpected benefits" brought by the crippling smog.

It said the haze had unified Chinese people, as they find solidarity in their complaints; equalised them, as both rich and poor people are vulnerable to its effects; enlightened them, as they realise the cost of rapid growth; and "made Chinese people more humorous", as smog-related jokes proliferate on the internet.

Maddening weather this time of year

Every day it's something different.  One day the highs are in the 80s, the next they're in the 60s only to shoot right back up again the day after that.  One day a deluge, the next day it's bright and sunny.

Light fog in the morning Heavy Hydrogen Sulfide cloud in the afternoon.

The smell in NOLA yesterday was likely due to a benzene and hydrogen sulfide release in Chalmette, according to the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality. The culprit, Chalmette Refining, revealed that there was a leak in a pipeline that contained the two toxic chemicals, and there is an ongoing investigation to determine whether there are any other leaks in the facility.

In a few weeks it will be marshfire season.  That comes right after exploding house season is up.

BAYOU CORNE — Explosive concentrations of gas were found this week in soil underneath two homes and a shed built on concrete slabs in the Bayou Corne community near a large swampland sinkhole, officials said Wednesday.

Air quality

Can see checking here pretty often in the future.