LEONARD GRAY / L’Observateur / August 18, 1999

HAHNVILLE – District Two Councilman Brian Champagne unleashed the findings of his own investigation into an illegal pollution situation on the Mississippi River batture, upriver from Hahnville.

The St. Charles Parish Council, in response, unanimously approved a callfor a comprehensive remedial investigation by the U.S. EnvironmentalProtection Agency and the state Department of Environmental Quality while at the same time notifying the Louisiana Congressional delegation, St. Charles Paris’s legislative delegation, Louisiana Attorney GeneralRichard Ieyoub and U.S. Attorney Eddie Jordan.”It seems like a no-brainer to me,” commented Steve Wilson of Destrehan.

Champagne cited waste fires which demanded the Hahnville Volunteer Fire Department’s attention on numerous occasions, illegal discharges of waste, soil and sediment contamination, inappropriate site cleanup activities, waste materials on site not stored or handled properly, improper waste disposal activities, asbestos not handled properly and site flooding resulting in waste being submerged in the river.

The matter came to light when the company filed for a B-2 zoning application to permit their barge salvage operation.

“I was quite shocked,” Champagne said.

Oil Transport Co., a subsidiary of American Marine Corp., operated a bargefleeting operation called Bayou Fleet on the batture upriver from Hahnville.

They began operations, having inherited the sludge-filled barges from a previous property owner when it bought the 21-acre site in 1983. On July10, 1990, DEQ got a complaint from the U.S. Coast Guard about a partially-sunken barge on the site leaking a heavy oily residue into the river.

Inspectors found eight barges onsite, apparently left behind by Villerie Marine, which operated a barge cleaning operation there in the 1960s.

By Sept. 4, 1990, inspectors discovered company employees pumpingwater from a trench dug around the steam plant barge to a sandy area on the batture. The next day, the Hahnville fire department complained ofburning barges at the site, as the barges were being cut up for scrap.

DEQ inspected the operation numerous times for the remainder of 1990 and into 1991 and, on Nov. 21, 1991, the Coast Guard determined thatthere was no approved cleanup plan for the site. A plan submitted by thecompany on July 5, 1991 was incomplete.

DEQ issued compliance orders on Aug. 23, 1991, citing 10 instances ofillegal waste discharges, two instances of open burning, one instance of asbestos mishandling and three unauthorized solid waste impoundments.

The company was fined $32,000 that same day. Later, the Louisiana StatePolice shut down all activity after firefighters doused the fifth fire there in a month. At that time, six rusted barges were embedded in the batture.By October, Oil Transporter Co. filed for bankruptcy. Later, a newly-reorganized company, Bayou Fleet Inc., with the same leadership boughtthe site back in a sheriff’s sale. Valued at over $11 million, they paid$3,900.

As they attempted to re-start their barge salvage operation, they were opposed by neighboring Home Place Batture Leasing Inc. and N/C MaterialsInc., owned by Neal and Mary Clulee, who objected to Bayou Fleet dredgingin front of their property.

Clulee earlier had his rounds with Councilman Ellis Alexander over operation of his sand operation, demanding special zoning, asphalt parking and roadway behind the levee, and more.

In spring 1997, Ronald Adams, leasing the site from Bayou Fleet, applied for a corps permit. In July 1997, Bayou Fleet sued Clulee and Alexander infederal court for conspiracy and restraint of trade. A final verdict has yetto be issued, Clulee added.

Clulee said Monday that in August 1997, a certificate of zoning compliance was applied for by Adams to operate a sand pit on the Bayou Fleet property. A non-conforming use was granted by Parish PresidentChris Tregre’s administration, saying they did not get to be rezoned.

“Nobody was stopped from doing anything,” Mary Clulee said. “Nobodylocked their gate. There was no restraint of trade.”She continued, “We used to find these tar balls all along the bank, but we didn’t know where it was coming from.””A couple of years ago, I tried to tell you these people were lying,” Alexander said of Bayou Fleet. “We dropped the ball, too.”In May 1999, DEQ’s Inactive and Abandoned Sites Division gathered soil and water samples at the site. By June 7, they found excavated bargeremnants had bee moved since the May inspection. Small piles of cut-upiron, piles of oil and tar-stained soil and pieces of asbestos-containing insulation material were found in the soil piles.

DEQ told Bayou Fleet to stop all activity at the site. However, according toChampagne and Wilma Subra of the Louisiana Environmental Action Network (LEAN), activity has continued to the present day.

Meanwhile, Champagne was corresponding with the Louisiana Congressional delegation, asking, “Is our drinking water taken from the Mississippi River safe?” A June 9, 1999 letter to U.S. Sen. John Breaux from EPA RegionalAdministrator Gregg A. Cooke responded to Champagne’s question: “TheEPA has no involvement in this cleanup,” and added, “although EPA was not involved in the cleanup, I have directed my staff to review the videotape and any other records, visit the site, meet with Hahnville officials, coordinate with the U.S. Coast Guard and evaluate if further actions areneeded.”He continued, “With regard to the safety of Hahnville’s drinking water, the St. Charles Waterworks No. 2 supplies drinking water from the MississippiRiver to the citizens of Hahnville.” A records search “indicates that thereare no chemical violations or detections of any chemicals regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act for this water system.”

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