Cancer Alley cleanup

Hurricane Laura ripped apart the chemical plants of Lake Charles last week. The possible release of chlorine gas from BioLab, a firm which sits just south of I-10 in Westlake, constituted only the highest profile toxic leak which may have oozed into the Calcasieu Parish water table — and further worsened the environmental conditions in Louisiana’s other “Cancer Alley.”

The question remains whether FEMA possesses either the willpower or financial resources to clean up what could be billions in chemical spills. Throughout the Republican convention, Donald Trump and his surrogates expressed concern about the communities in the target zones of the Category 4 hurricane, especially struggling African-American neighborhoods. Yet Louisiana is far from a swing state. It’s far easier for FEMA just to clean up the wind damage to homes and businesses, than to dig in – literally and figuratively – to the long-term project of removing every instance of toxic leakage from the soil. And it’s not as if the absence of such diligence shall deny him a win Louisiana in November.

Moreover, it’s questionable as to whether FEMA would have the funds for an extended clean up. When the president allocated the $300 per week top-off to unemployment insurance, he did so without any congressional appropriation. So as not to have to negotiate on provisions of the House Democratic bill, Trump simply moved the money out of the FEMA emergency budget, where he has extensive discretionary authority.

Those funds, though, were instituted by Congress to deal with natural disasters, and Hurricane Laura certainly qualifies. Unwilling to engage Congress before the election, the president could easily run through the total FEMA discretionary account in the next month or so. FEMA may end up too broke to fund the cleanup of this Hurricane-created toxic waste dump.

Strangely, this real life situation resembles the plot line of the Netflix show “House of Cards” in its second to last season. The main character, President Francis Underwood, used FEMA money to fund a jobs program without congressional approval. Then a hurricane approached the East Coast. Congress offered him money to replenish the empty coffers, but would remove his discretionary authority as their price. His diversion of money to the unemployed would come to an end. Knowing that thousands of lives were at stake, Underwood knuckled under to congressional pressure.

It remains to be seen if the real U.S. president will allow his authority to be so trumped by Congress, just to get enough money to clean up these new chemical spills in southwestern Louisiana.

This article originally published in the August 31, 2020 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.