A toxic environment

It all started with John Young hoisting up a gas mask. The former Parish President (and current candidate) noted at a public meeting just over a month ago that a chemical company, which had been known for leaks and safety violations since 1953, probably should not be able to build a new cyanide tank facility on the West Bank. Especially one which sits less than two miles from a school, surrounded by a subdivision, and right across the river from Armstrong Airport.

Nevertheless, the fear of a cyanide cloud encompassing Waggaman and proceeding over River Ridge, Harahan, Old Jefferson and Metairie (as well as Uptown and the rest of the metro area) was not enough for the Jefferson Parish Council to revoke a permit for the $100 million facility last Wednesday night, March 20, despite massive public pressure.

What had seemed a sure-majority vote to end the project collapsed after representatives from the Jefferson Chamber, Jefferson Business Council, Kenner Business Council, GNO Inc. and other major financial contributors to the re-election campaigns of nearly all of the Councilmembers, all testified in favor of the cyanide plant – recommending deferral.

Suddenly, a Council that had entered full of righteous indignation grew fearful as the monied interests uttered their warnings. Of course, the prospect of a $14 million lawsuit for breech of promise was Councilwoman Cynthia Lee-Sheng’s official excuse, as she uttered her only comments of the evening 29 minutes into the hearing, expressing worries on how the parish would pay such a judgment.

It was a tragically amusing 360-degree pivot in just under a week. A few days earlier, Lee-Sheng, Young’s main opponent in October’s Parish Presidential election, had loudly attacked Young’s sudden loud opposition to the cyanide tank farm, saying she had long harbored doubts about the chemical plant. Of course, left unmentioned was that the Councilwoman co-sponsored the $100 million permit for the Cornerstone facility in January 2018, and never voiced a concern until Young began to criticize the permit.

From support to opposition to reluctant support. All events, of course, which happened years after Young’s departure from the Parish Presidency, putting the responsibility for the cyanide permit at the feet of the current council and the Yenni Administration. Perhaps Lee-Sheng realized her politically difficult position as she voted to defer the very cancelation that she had implied that she leaned towards backing upon entering the Council Chamber.

Nor did Lee-Sheng or any of her colleagues ask any hard questions when Tom Yura, Cornerstone’s chief operating officer, said that the real issue was “improving safety standards.”

No member of the council pondered whether a plant which has had leaks and environmental violations for over 66 years constituted the right place to construct new hydro-cyanide tanks.

The Cornerstone COO’s assertion that the permit would not allow for an increase in the amount of hydrogen cyanide produced satisfied few in the audience. Nor did his promise that if either Cornerstone (or the on-site user of the chemical) wanted to increase production, they would need to come before the council and request an amendment to the existing permit. Maybe due to the fact that, even without a leak, Yura admitted the plant will still put out 10,000 pounds of carbon monoxide. That’s the equivalent of being in a closed secondhand smoke filled room for hours on end. Outdoors. When public comment commenced, one grandmother testified that her daughter would not allow her grandchildren to come to her house in Harahan because the air quality had deteriorated so much already.

In fact, no member of the public, other then the business lobbyists, testified in favor of the permit. Another East Bank resident pointed out that the plant sat directly across from Armstrong Airport, right below the flight path to landing. What would happen if a plane crash landed into the cyanide tanks, he queried?

The resulting cloud of death would be the equivalent of the explosion of a Weapon of Mass Destruction over Metro New Orleans. Still, the Jefferson Parish Council remains more worried about a $14 million lawsuit. If that’s so, why did Lee-Sheng and her colleagues approve a permit, which promises to create less than 22 jobs (fewer than a large McDonald’s), with so little concern to the litigious implications – not to mention the health and safety ones – just over a year ago?

This article originally published in the March 25, 2019 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.