[StBernard] Locale hit by Katrina oil spill empty a year later

[Westley Annis]

Locale hit by Katrina oil spill empty a year later
21 Sep 2006 20:08:03 GMT
Source: Reuters
Background
Hurricane Katrina 
By Erwin Seba

CHALMETTE, Louisiana, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Eileen Schwartz stands on the
sidewalk in front of her one-story house with new, blue siding, refurbished
after the biggest environmental disaster created by Hurricane Katrina.

Looking down the street of abandoned houses and overgrown lawns in
Chalmette, Louisiana, she explains what it's like to live where a year ago
crude oil covered pavement, grass, porches, floors and furniture.

"It's like living in the country," Schwartz, 36, said. "You're still in the
city, but it's quiet, like in the country."

Schwartz's home is one of 1,800 estimated by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency to be in the square mile (2.6 sq km) area flooded by
25,110 barrels (3,415 tonnes) of crude oil from Murphy Oil Co.'s <MUR.N>
120,000 barrel-per-day refinery about a mile (1.6 km) to the east.

Floodwaters forced across St. Bernard Parish, about 10 miles (16 km) east of
downtown New Orleans, by Hurricane Katrina on Aug. 29, 2005, floated a
partially filled oil storage tank 33 feet (10 metres) off its base,
releasing about a quarter of the crude inside.

The Murphy oil spill was the worst environmental disaster caused by
hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which demolished offshore platforms in the U.S.
Gulf of Mexico and shut refineries from Houston to Pascagoula, Mississippi.

Much of the oil has been scraped and power-washed away, but conspicuously
absent from the neighborhoods in the spill area are the white travel
trailers the Federal Emergency Management Agency has provided to returning
residents and which abound in St. Bernard Parish front yards that weren't
covered by oil.

A federal class action suit against Murphy involving 2,500 victims of the
spill is set to begin trial in 11 days at the U.S. Courthouse in New
Orleans.

Murphy is facing claims worth tens of millions of dollars.

Murphy spokesman Dory Stiles said the company had no comment about the spill
or the area's recovery because of the pending lawsuit.

WON'T RETURN

For Johnny Lewis, who lived a few blocks from Schwartz, the clean-up hasn't
restored what he lost in the spill. He won't return.

"The neighborhood has disappeared off the face of the earth," Lewis said.
"I'm 70 years old and all I ever had -- my roots -- are gone."

Lewis was part of a Chalmette group fighting against air pollution from
another nearby refinery operated by Chalmette Refining LLC, a joint venture
between Exxon Mobil Corp. <XOM.N> and Venezuela's national oil company,
Petroleos de Venezuela SA. It has a capacity of 188,000 barrels per day, it
is located about a mile (1.6 km) south of the once oil-soaked neighborhood.

"I was already fighting with the refineries before I left," he said. "Why I
should I go back and fight with them some more?"

Schwartz doesn't blame those who aren't returning. She and her husband were
planning to build a house north of Lake Pontchartrain until they realized
they couldn't afford to carry two houses at the same time.

"Murphy did live up to their bargain and cleaned up everything," she said.

"At first, I felt trapped," Schwartz said. "That's not how I feel now. This
is my home. I've lived here all my life. We have Murphy down the street and
Chalmette Refining over there and they put chemicals in the air they
shouldn't and I'm still here."