Louisiana has richly deserved its nickname, "Sportsman's Paradise." At its best, the state's bayous, teeming with wildlife, and the once-bountiful marine environment of the Gulf of Mexico truly have made the state a natural treasure. But Louisiana is also a state of contradiction. The landscape here is also dotted with a higher concentration of oil facilities and chemical plants than just about anywhere in the world. And so it's a thin line between paradise and environmental disaster -- as the world learned with the Deepwater Horizon fiasco offshore. But the sad reality is that residents on land often face danger on a routine basis from less publicized spills and leaks of hazardous substances from this cluster of chemical factories. Given that, you might think that the state agency that regulates these facilities -- the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, or DEQ -- would be at the very top of its game. Unfortunately, folks who live here know better. The DEQ has long been a toothless tiger when it comes to safeguarding Louisiana from toxic chemicals. At best, the agency has been underfunded and overwhelmed, and at its worst the DEQ has been in the back pocket of the industry it's supposed to ...
↧