TagNew Orleans noise

Threat to Bayou Corne grows as tests show elevated levels of radium, butane traces in and near sinkhole

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Elevated levels of radium in the water and tests showing airborne indicators of butane — the highly explosive fuel stored in a nearby cavern — are two alarming signs that the environmental catastrophe in the Louisiana town of Bayou Corne is far from over. The disturbing new information comes from both air and water testing at and near the massive and growing sinkhole in the bayou, 70...

UPDATE: Sinkhole crisis worsens, 2 workers rescued, town braces for possible butane catastrophe

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The nightmare in Bayou Corne — the besieged small town in southeastern Louisiana coping with the effects of a massive sinkhole, compounded by the incompetence of state bureaucrats — keeps getting worse by the day. UPDATE: Breaking news this afternoon: The sinkhole is expanding: NAPOLEONVILLE (AP) — As experts predicted, a sinkhole filled with slurry water and vegetation has been...

Disappearing La. speckled trout another blow to BP’s Big Lie

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You can add speckled trout to the list. Over the last several months, I’ve told you about all kinds of reports about serious problems to both the safety and available of Gulf seafood. Eyeless shrimp. Deformed crabs. Red snappers covered in lesions. Not to mention the days when the Gulf fleet returns to the dock with little catch at all, in waters that were once chock full of some of the...

Incompetent Louisiana regulators knew of risk at sinkhole site since early 2011

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It’s hard to know which is the worst thing about the ongoing environmental nightmare in the southeastern Louisiana community of Bayou Corne, where a massive sinkhole has forced an evacuation after homes shook and residents were assaulted with gas odors. Is it the fact that residents of the small bayou town will be out of their homes for weeks while the Texas company that worked a giant salt...

If another major pipeline spill doesn’t convince them to kill Keystone XL, nothing will

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When will America ever learn? Industry and some government officials — helped sometimes by mixed signals from the Obama administration — continue to push for the Keystone XL pipeline to run across some of the major drinking-water sources of the American Midwest, despite the risk of a catastrophc spill. And they assure us that this Keystone pipeline will be different, that it will come...

Louisiana covers up risk to Bayou town from sinkhole, massive methane leak

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Here we go again. Once again, a  corner of Louisiana is under an environmental assault, threatening both the health and the immediate safety of local residents. Once again, the cause appears to be the careless practices of Big Energy as it races to exploit the rich bounty of natural resources in the Bayou State. And once again, Louisiana state officials in the administration of Gov. Bobby Jindal...

From New York to New Orleans, noise pollution terrorizes the public

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Shhhhhh. Can you hear me? We need to talk again. A couple of times since I started this blog, I’ve told you about another environmental battle that I’ve been waging in my hometown for a long time — a problem that predates the nefarious doings of BP and the fracking boom from coast to coast. It’s a war against noise pollution — an assault on the ears, just as much as...

“Something really disastrous happening in the Gulf”: Research proves BP’s dispersant made things much, much worse

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There’s an old saying in legal circles that the cover-up is always much worse than the initial crime. It’s hard to say if that is exactly true with the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 — after all, the initial explosion killed 11 workers and caused roughly 5 million barrels of oil to spew into the rich marine environment. But the core of the ensuing cover...

Olympics sponsor BP wins both a gold and a silver in environmental recklessness

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As a lifelong resident of the Gulf, I’ve already expressed my outrage and dismay at learning that BP — yes, that BP, British Petroleum, spiller of roughly 5 million barrels of oil into one of the world’s natural treasures — has been named a “sustainability partner” of the 2012 Olympics in London, which finally kicked off this weekend. That selection made a...

Day of the dolphin: BP spill played key role in die-off

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We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: The Gulf was under enormous environmental pressures before April 20, 2011, the date that the Deepwater Horizon rig blew up and killed 11 workers and then spewed so much oil into such a vital body of water. Let’s face it, the reason that environmental protection is so important is because our wonderful ecology is so fragile. Even in a...

Stuart H. Smith is an attorney based in New Orleans fighting major oil companies and other polluters.
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