Read time: 8 mins By Julie Dermansky • Wednesday, December 23, 2020 - 03:00
The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season had a record-breaking 30 named storms, so many that the National Hurricane Center ran through the standard list of names and moved on to the Greek alphabet with over two months of the season left. In all, 12 storms made landfall in the continental United States, with five hitting the Gulf Coast. I photographed the aftermath the destroyed homes, damaged oil and gas sites, and contaminated wetlands from four of those Gulf Coast storms, including Hurricanes Laura, Sally, Delta, and Zeta.
This selection of photos shows the devastating impact hurricanes have had primarily in Louisiana but also in Alabama and Florida, in an already difficult year beset by a pandemic and subsequent economic downturn.
Taiwanese giant Formosa Petrochemical Corp. expects its proposed St. James Parish complex could cost more than the $9.4 billion it projected â due to coronavirus pandemic-related delays and construction materials price hikes that a global credit rating agency already says could push the cost toward $12 billion.
If the rating agency s estimate proves correct, that would be a nearly 28% hike in the overall project cost. The estimated cost to build an ethylene project along the U.S. Gulf Coast was projected to increase by 2.7% in 2019 and 3.1% in 2020, according to Compass International. However, that was before the coronavirus pandemic began and impacted construction materials and prompted delays.
Originally published on January 14, 2021 11:24 am
A coalition of conservation groups on Friday announced the formation of the Atchafalaya Basin Coalition and sent a letter to Gov. John Bel Edwards imploring him to consider the Louisiana Nature Conservancy as a landowner, rather than a conservation group, when choosing members of a newly-formed task force.
Led by members of the Atchafalaya Basinkeeper, an environmental advocacy group that has worked in the basin for 16 years and opposes some of the state’s restoration efforts there, the coalition argues that the Nature Conservancy is biased toward defending landowners, in part because it owns land in the basin itself.
Attorney William Goodell filed the lawsuit alleging long-term groundwater pollution by energy companies.
St. Landry Parish and the village of Crankton have filed suit against Exxon Mobil Corp., Chevron U.S.A. and other energy companies, alleging that they’re responsible for groundwater contamination from a former oilfield tank farm.
Environmental attorney William Goodell filed a supplemental petition earlier this month in the 27th Judicial District Court in St. Landry in the case involving the former 80-acre Cankton Tank Farm. The complaint alleges the tank farm is the source of waste materials that contaminated groundwater, drinking water wells and the Chicot Aquifer.
LDEQ creates Nonpoint Source Pollution demonstration to continue outreach efforts during COVID-19
and last updated 2020-12-15 11:53:07-05
PRESS RELEASE
BATON ROUGE â With COVID-19 restrictions limiting outreach efforts, the Louisiana Department of Environmental Qualityâs (LDEQ) Nonpoint Source (NPS) Pollution group created a video demonstrating the EnviroScape model. The EnviroScape model effectively communicates the shared responsibility for the environment, specifically water quality, to people of all ages.
The three-dimensional EnviroScape nonpoint source model focuses on problems caused by nonpoint source pollution and how some of those problems can be mitigated. LDEQâs NPS group usually visits classrooms throughout the year for in-person demonstrations. However, the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in the postponement or cancellation of many outreach events.