Citizens Reckon with Industrial Plant Explosion in Rural Louisiana

Maximilian Alvarez: Welcome everyone to Working People, a podcast about the lives, jobs, dreams and struggles of the working class today. Working People is a proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network and is brought to you in partnership with In These Times magazine and The Real News Network. This show is produced by Jules Taylor and made possible by the support of listeners like you.

My name is Maximilian Alvarez, and today we are diving back into our ongoing coverage of the corporate and government pollution that is harming our bodies, disrupting our livelihoods and turning more and more of our homes into so-called sacrifice zones, where poor and working people are being abandoned to live in conditions that threaten life itself. And as we’ve done in East Palestine, Ohio; here in South Baltimore; Conyers, Georgia; and Granbury, Texas, we’re going to take you straight to the front lines and speak directly with the people who are living, working and fighting for justice in America’s sacrifice zones.

Today, we are going to Roseland, Louisiana, a small town in Tangipahoa Parish with a population just over 1,000 people. You may recall hearing about Roseland back in August of last year when a horrifying explosion at the Smitty’s Supply facility, and a fire that burned for days, sent black smoke into the air and oil and chemicals into the nearby land and waterways.

As Wesley Muller reported in October for the Louisiana Illuminator: ​“Large amounts of petrochemicals still blanket nearby bodies of water six weeks after an industrial facility fire and explosion in Tangipahoa Parish, where some affected residents believe the federal and state government have failed in their response and aren’t telling the truth about the health and environmental risks.

Residents across Tangipahoa Parish have reported similar property damage after the August 22 chemical fire at Smitty’s Supply. The incident sent smoke, soot and oily residue into the air and onto nearby homes, businesses and an elementary school. Petroleum products from the plant also spilled into area waterways, including several adjacent ponds and the Tangipahoa River itself. Oily materials have traveled nearly 40 miles down the waterway that leads to Lake Pontchartrain.

“Within days of the explosion, the EPA received an inventory list of the chemicals at the Smitty’s plant at the time of the incident, but the agency withheld the information from the public for five weeks. The EPA finally disclosed it to the Illuminator last week, only after the agency got permission from Smitty’s Supply executives to release it.”

I couldn’t be more grateful to be joined on the show by Arlene Bankston, a resident of Roseland, La., and Allie Ponville, a resident of Amite, which is the town right next to Roseland. Both of them live very close to the Smitty’s Supply facility.

Could you tell us what it was like in your life and what was going through your mind as you were responding to this industrial disaster?

Arlene Bankston: On the day of the explosion, I was mowing my grass. I had my headphones going, and I knew it was supposed to rain that afternoon. I started hearing what I thought was thunder in the distance, and I thought, ​‘Oh well, it’s gonna rain earlier. I’m not gonna get to weeding. Let me hurry up.’ Just about the time I’m finishing mowing — gonna go get my weed eater — I get a text from a friend whose child goes to the elementary school in Roseland. He screenshotted the message that he had gotten from the school that there was an explosion at the Smitty’s plant. They were evacuating the school. And then I realized that’s what I’ve been hearing, instead of thunder.

I immediately text my husband. He called me, and I said, ​‘They’ve evacuated a one-mile zone.’ We’re four miles from the plant.

He said, ​‘Finish, put up the mower and everything. Go feed the cows, and then go in shower, pack a go-bag, just in case.’

So I did all that, still hearing the explosions. I have video. You could see the smoke plume. Just kind of paying attention: Are they going to evacuate further? Or anything like that – which they didn’t.

At the time, we had close to 50 head of cattle on the place. When my husband came home, we were, at that point debating, ​‘What are we going to do? Will it affect us?’ Well, then it starts raining, and we said, ​‘We have several water and troughs. All but one of them are under a covering.’

He said, ​‘We need to go out and empty that watering trough because it’s raining … and I don’t know if there’s anything in the rain,’ because the rain was black.

It literally looked like oil dripping from the bike. And so we went and empty that watering trough, so at least they’re not drinking that.

My husband worked at Smitty’s 14 years ago … When he left there, he ended up going into business for himself. So he knew a lot about the chemicals that were there. He knew it wasn’t just oil.

Allie Ponvelle: We spent a lot of time outside. We have a pond across from us that we usually go fishing in. I have not gone near it, because I don’t know how toxic it is. We spend a lot of time indoors. Instead of enjoying our family time outside, we’re in our homes. Being cooped up, mentally, it will start messing with you. You don’t have the life that you had before.

Bankston: I had a vegetable garden. I couldn’t eat any of those vegetables because they’re covered with black stuff, and I don’t want to plant anything in the ground, because I don’t know what the long-term effects are. 

We have found out that our well water is quite contaminated, so we don’t drink that. We don’t brush our teeth with it. One day, I finally let the grandkids play outside a little bit. They were playing in mud puddles and splashing. I had to stop myself from completely freaking out, because you want to stay calm with your kids. They’ve got this water all over them. I don’t know what’s in the mud. We don’t know the long-term effects.

Life is now just waiting for the other shoe to drop. It’s been hard to get the whole community together, because there are some people fearful of losing their jobs. There are some people, because they’re not technology-savvy, who don’t see what’s going on. It’s like pulling teeth to get people to be involved. We’re trying to work together, bring everybody together. We’re not going to get anywhere until we stand together.

Alvarez: I wanted to just round things out by asking if y’all could keep talking about where things stand now, with Smitty’s, with the government, but also with these grassroots efforts to bring your community and other chemically-impacted communities together, and what folks listening can do to support y’all?

Bankston: I was asked to be a board member for an organization called Chemically Impacted Communities Coalition. It’s an organization that tries to get helpful information out there to other chemically-impacted communities. We have another nonprofit that we’re working with in our group here called Northshore Riverwatch that fights for safe waterways. We’re looking at legislation going forward to try to stop this pollution. Right now, Smitty’s is still dumping into the gravel pit ponds, legally and illegally. We’re trying to bring attention so that the government will pay attention. If you can help us by sharing our posts, the government can’t just be quiet.

Ponvelle: As I mentioned, I started a petition to close down Roseland Montessori School. It is still up virtually.

Bankston: You can also join the Blue Shirt Justice League, which helps with testing. Contact us on Facebook. I’m listed as Arlene Hodges Bankston.

Ponvelle: My name is Allie. On Facebook it’ll be Allie Biscuits Ponvelle. You can follow me and sign the petition. It’d be a great way to help us out.

This episode of the Working People Podcast was published on April 15.