European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 9, 1981, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Doily m Zine new York times Christopher Harris the Roberts Home in is 500 feet from site a chemical firm plans to use for toxic waste toxic waste and the old plantations new York times the Plantation House appears like a vision along the old River Road West of new Orleans Cool White towering Oak Trees in a Garden of crepe roses and Sweet it is Houmas a Louisiana the Center of a peaceable kingdom much diminished since the Days when the House presided Over a sugar the talk in the Countryside around Houmas House about but not about the sugar Cane crop nor about the soybeans some Farmers have planted instead on ascension Parish Rich Black the talk is about a corporation which has won approval to build the largest toxic chemical waste disposal Plant in the United of the largest i the it would lie on acres of the old Plantation Miles from a Large elementary less than a mile from Houmas House and other close by the huge petrochemical plants along the Mississippi River in an industrialized Rural area with one of the highest cancer rates in the the Crozat which owns Houmas and neighbors in nearby settlements and towns have organized to fight the waste disposal Plant that the California based Industrial tank plans to build with the encouragement of the state of members of the citizens whose members named it save our serves have spent two months attending Stormy hearings conducted by the state environmental control commission in Baton at the conclusion of the hearings on 16 the commission announced its approval of the Plant it granted a permit to handle hazardous a water pollution permit and an air pollution sos Mem Bers said they would go to District court in an Effort to Block construction of the the corporations Alliance with the state department of natural resources says a new Orleans Environ Ross an example of How a local Community is told you have a civic duty to accept the waste but even if you dont Well build it any he contends that there Are political conflicts of inter est at every state officials countered with the argument that Louisiana desperately needs the technology that Industrial tank has to Louisiana has welcomed Many chemical plants into its the officials and there is a great need to dispose of the wastes they in 1979 the state of Louisiana paid Industrial tank to conduct a hazardous waste management although the corporation was not the Low the study recommended a Plant of the Type the Corpora Tion wants to build in ascension Peter a vice president of the corporation and general manager of its Louisiana said in an interview that the million Plant would have an incinerator capacity at least three times As big As any other in the and a total treatment facility five times As the Plant will be Able to handle tons of waste a he and will operate three incinerators with 200foottali smokestacks whose he would be Well within Federal in a report prepared in connection with the Marise a Tulane medical school noted As half the waste would be treated in a Wastewater treatment operation and discharged into the Mississippi the drinking water source for million people can not continue to increase its level of the other half of the substances will be consid ering the lung cancer incidence in the which is currently on the and the highest in the this is also difficult to january 1981 the company offered scientific views that the plants discharge into the Mississippi would not significantly affect existing pollution scientists testifying on the behalf gave other assurances countering the fears of the citizens i have two said Arvin owner of the a restaurant housed in a 145yearold former slave House and a popular eating place among local Resi dents and tourists adjacent to the proposed Plant he is that till probably ruin my Busi i dont care what they there is going to be a smell and no ones going to want to eat at a restaurant with a foul but the main thing is the health of my 3 Robert is president of which has collected signatures of voting age residents on petitions protesting the in an area where people voted in the last presidential Robert and other sos members say they have been suspicious of the technology to be used in the proposed Plant Ever since they took a trip to California and Learned that Industrial tank had had serious odor problems with its California waste disposal Williamson said the company odor problems there had been the citizens group also questions the Wisdom of putting toxic chemical waste in a Lowling area that is often they have questions about political conflicts in the one concerns an environmental control commission member who received a Campaign loan from the landowner Selling 900 acres of the Plant the commission state agriculture commissioner Bob testified at the hearing that the Campaign debt and an outstanding Bank note that the landowner consigned have not influenced his position on the the stars and pole 13