After spending most of Friday, May 24, in rural Mississippi, the delegation set off for Baton Rouge, Louisiana. On May 25, we met with the Louisiana Environmental Action Network (LEAN) at their offices in Baton Rouge. We were welcomed by Mary Lee Orr, LEAN's Director, Albertha Hasten, Chair of the LEAN Board, Ivor van Heerden, a South African now active with LEAN, and Willie Fontenot, an environmental activist working with the Louisiana State Attorney General's Office. The morning in Baton Rouge was spent at the LEAN office and in the afternoon Willie Fontenot took us on a very informative toxic tour of the area.
Seipati Mokoka (left) introduces the delegation to LEAN members Mary Lee Orr (standing), Albertha Hasten (seated center) and Ivor van Heerden (right). Ivor later made many connections between the situation in Louisiana and South
Africa.
The South African delegation with Albertha Hasten (far left) and Willie Fontenot (second from left).
Louisiana's Capitol building, the tallest in the country, allowed us to view some of the industries and their proximity to African American and poor communities in Baton Rouge.
Willie Fontenot describes the history of PCB contamination of Capitol Lake from the Westinghouse Plant.
The view from the Capitol viewing balcony showing Exxon's petro-chemical plant along the Mississippi River. The predominantly black Southern Louisiana State University is located on the other side of the plant close to the bridge seen on the far left.
The African American residential area is located to the right of the Exxon plant. Exxon has been engaged in one of the largest buy-outs of homes in this area.
A view of Placid Refinery on the other side (western side) of the Mississippi River. The predominantly African American community of Sunrise was bought out by Placid a few years ago after the community filed a lawsuit against the refinery and protested in front of the plant every week for months. The small community of Sunrise was established after the Civil War and bought out in the 1980s.
The South African delegation discusses the similarities between Baton Rouge and Sasolburg and South Durban in South Africa as an unidentified fire bellows smoke into an already polluted and noxious smelling air.
The ExxonMobil Oil Refinery. Exxon began a buy-out program in 1990 after the Christmas Eve explosion (December 24, 1989) at approximately 10:30am shaking every home in Baton Rouge.
This could be the Engen refinery in South Durban but it is the
ExxonMobil refinery in Baton Rouge.
The delegation made a special trip to Geismar to see the Borden Chemicals plant responsible for shipping thousands of barrels of mercury waste to South Africa in the 1990s.
Borden Chemicals sent mercury waste as a recyclable product to Thor Chemicals in South Africa knowing that Thor was responsible for the mercury poisoning of its workers and of the nearby Mngweni River. Three workers died at Thor and many continue to suffer while thousands of barrels of mercury waste continue to rot at the closed plant in South Africa.
A hazardous waste site in Geismar posts a warning sign
while cows from the nearby farms graze on the premises.
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