Gert Town contamination case moves forward in Eastern Louisiana District Court
22nd July 2019 · 0 Comments
By Ryan Whirty
Contributing Writer
With a lawsuit pending in federal court over the discovery of radioactive materials in the Gert Town neighborhood and residents of the area waiting for any news on the health hazards they may have faced – or still may be facing – details of the six-year-plus saga continue to come out.
Legal action filed by Gert Town residents and business owners Eric and Patricia Lassair against the City of New Orleans and ARS Aleut Remediation was transferred from Orleans Parish Civil District Court to Eastern Louisiana District of U.S. District Court earlier this month.
Both defendants in the case – the City and ARS Aleut, the company the city hired to clean up the Radium-226 that was discovered near the intersection of Coolidge Court and Lowerline Avenue way back in early 2013 – filed for and received from Judge Janis van Meerveld an extension of time to file their responses to the lawsuit. The City has until Aug. 1, while ARS was given a deadline of Aug. 7.
Attorney Madro Bandaries, one of the local attorneys representing Eric and Patricia Lassair in the legal action, said the plaintiffs and their representation are hoping to turn the Lassairs’ lawsuit into a civil action with multiple plaintiffs joining together to allege that the City bungled its response to the discovery of the potentially hazardous Radium and then dragged its feet addressing the situation.
The lawsuit alleges that such errors led to the exposure of Gert Town residents to health risks and other negative consequences of the radioactive material. Bandaries said dozens of other interested parties have approached him and the plaintiffs about joining the class action, giving them hope that with more possible victims banding together, justice will be served and the City and those responsible for the clean-up process will be held accountable.
Bandaries said representatives from the City and from state government haven’t reached out to Gert Town residents to allay the residents’ fears of radioactive contamination and health risks. He asserted governmental officials have failed to offer help and empathy for the citizens’ situation.
“It’s so awful that people are being treated this way,” Bandaries said, “people who are from New Orleans, people who want to raise their families, people who work and pay taxes, people who have caused no trouble, and no one from the City has been there.”
City officials, including Mayor LaToya Cantrell and City Council President Helena Moreno, did not respond to inquiries for comment from The Louisiana Weekly. Councilman Jay Banks, whose district includes the Gert Town neighborhood, attempted to provide statements but was unable to because of a health emergency.
ARS Aleut Remediation did not respond to requests for comment from this newspaper.
The case has been followed by environmental activists and grass-roots organizations concerned for the welfare of the residents of Gert Town, a neighborhood marked by poverty and a large African-American population.
Monique Harden, the assistant director for public policy at the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, said the situation represents the type of unfair challenges faced by underserved and overlooked communities. She compared it to Gordon Plaza in New Orleans, a subdivision sitting atop a retired landfill where residents have protested and filed legal action regarding toxic waste at the site.
“Human rights are being denied in Gert Town and neighborhoods like Gordon Plaza, where residents are exposed to environmental hazards and are fighting for their health and the health of future generations,” she said.
Federal Department of Energy staffers first discovered the Radium-226 in Gert Town in early 2013 as part of a security sweep in preparation for the Super Bowl XLVII, which was held in New Orleans at the Superdome that February.
However, it wasn’t until more than six years later that the radioactive material – which was found near the site of a massive Harcros chemical plant and warehouse that had been shuttered and demolished years before – was removed and cleaned up. In late May of this year, an EPA-led crew fenced of the street, dug up the radium, placed it into containers and removed it from the site.
It remains unclear exactly why it took so long – six years – for the situation to be addressed, and how serious the problem actually was at the Gert Town location.
Documents and emails from the City, the state, the EPA, the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, ARS Aleut Remediation and other involved parties from the past six years show that once the City learned about the radioactive material, officials weren’t completely sure what to do with the situation, partially because no one knew for sure the extent of the radioactive material.
The chain of communications and documents reveals that city, state and federal officials seemingly did little to address the situation once the DOE uncovered the contamination in January 2013 until 2017, when concerns picked up and the gears of bureaucracy started moving in earnest.
(The role of the DOE in the subsequent excavation and clean-up remains vague, and a copy of the DOE’s original 2013 triage report and site assessment hasn’t been found or presented to the public.)
One particular area of concern among the agencies was about how the situation would appear to the community and how it could affect the government’s public image. Officials discussed at length how to present to the public the discovery and removal of the Radium-226 in a sensitive but adequate way.
A May 10, 2019, email from Shannon Soileau, the environmental health sciences manager for the Louisiana Department of Health, to multiple recipients notes that residents of the Gert Town neighborhood have always remained concerned about the lingering health effects of the Harcros plant and that those citizens need to be looped in on the clean-up process.
“Gert Town has an active community organization and concerns still linger about the Thompson Hayward superfund site (on Earhart and Pine) a former superfund site,” Soileau wrote. “EPA should be aware that this group may become concerned about a radiological hazard in their neighborhood if not included in the communications.”
An even more revealing comment from Louisiana State epidemiologist Raoult Ratard reflects how acutely officials involved were aware that the Gert Town situation could be a public relations nightmare.
In an Q&A regarding the clean up process, when Ratard is asked whether the street at the site should be closed off, he bluntly states that reality.
“EPA states that as recently as 2017, the Department of Energy (DOE) performed radiological sweeps of the area and identified a hot spot on Lowerline Street,” Ratard said. “Closing the street after two years of leaving it open looks strange.”
And public concern remains. For example, Louisiana DEQ files show that, less than a month ago, an unknown resident of the Gert Town neighborhood placed an after-hours DEQ hotline call “to place a complaint about radioactive materials being left on a street from a contractor,” according to a June 28 DEQ memo.
The incident concerned post-clean-up containers being left behind after the excavation and remediation. According to the memo, DEQ officials “have been having inspectors go to the site every morning and afternoon before and after the call.”
Jennah Durant, a spokesperson for EPA Region 6, told The Louisiana Weekly that the excavation and remediation of the Gert Town site went smoothly and properly.
“The removal area was consistent with the information provided to EPA by the contractor from the city of New Orleans,” Durant said. Durant also said that federal and city officials also strove to make sure the public was well informed and involved in the process.
“EPA and the city of New Orleans worked to inform the community by speaking with residents directly, going door-to-door, speaking to community members before and after at church services, and having community relations coordinators onsite,” Durant said.
This article originally published in the July 22, 2019 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
