Hazardous emissions from a chlorine plant fire, abruptly shuttered oil and gas refineries, and still-to-be assessed plant damage are seeping into the air …
Hazardous emissions from a chlorine plant fire, abruptly shuttered oil and gas refineries, and still-to-be assessed plant damage are seeping into the air after Hurricane Laura, regulators say, but some key state and federal monitors to alert the public of air dangers remain offline in Louisiana. While the chlorine fire was being monitored as a potential health threat, Louisiana environmental spokesman Greg Langley says he knows of no other major industrial health risks from the storm in the state. He said restoring power and water was a bigger priority. But some Louisiana residents and environmental advocates say the lack of solid government information on the state of the air is typical. With dozens of petroleum, petrochemical, and other industrial sites, Louisiana is home to communities with some of the nation’s highest cancer risks, according to Environmental Protection Agency rankings. In the Lake Charles area, with refineries, a major natural gas project, and other industrial sites, residents “generally don’t get any information except what the industry puts out,” said Carla Chrisco, a Lake Charles lawyer who evacuated the city before Laura. The area was among the hardest hit Thursday. Laura struck parts of the Texas-Louisiana coast with up to 150-mph (240 kph) winds and a storm surge that Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said rose as high as 15 feet (4.5 meters). An electrical outage that deprived hundreds of thousands of people of power and is expected to last weeks has knocked offline the state’s stationary air monitors in the storm-battered communities.
