After a chemical leak and fire at the Marathon Oil refinery in Garyville, LA, on August 25, Anne Rolfes, the Executive Director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, released a statement pointing out the decades long systemic failure of industry and the state of Louisiana to protect workers and residents from the petrochemical industry. The fire was caused by a leak of naptha, a toxic form of raw petrol distilled from crude oil that may contain benzene, a known carcinogen. The statement by Rolfes follows:

“I am disgusted to hear of yet another chemical leak and fire at a refinery in our region, this time at Marathon Oil in Garyville. I saw a dark cloud in the sky at 8:30 this morning, and I knew it was the petrochemical industry. This fire comes just a month after Dow sent a mushroom cloud into the skies of Plaquemine.

The petrochemical industry is here in Louisiana for one reason only: to make as much money as possible. As long as the state of Louisiana continues to look away from fires and mushroom clouds, these accidents will continue. I have been dealing with this for nearly a quarter of a century. There are terrible accidents, workers are burned alive, and the state of Louisiana does nothing. Workers and residents are left to bear the brunt of the industry’s negligence and predatory expansion that continue to jeopardize our health and safety.

The black smoke currently bellowing from the Marathon refinery is an alarming sight, and officials don’t yet know how long it will continue to burn. Despite the fact that this large fire forced the parish to order a mandatory evacuation for everyone within a 2-mile radius, St. John the Baptist Parish is parroting Marathon’s talking point that “the release and fire are contained within the refinery’s property…No off-site impacts have been detected.” Anyone looking at the smoke can tell that this release is far from contained. Nearby residents are reporting aggravated asthma and other respiratory symptoms.

St. John the Baptist Parish, the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, and all state officials owe Louisianans much more than simply broadcasting Marathon’s press release.

This fire and the failure to protect the public is more evidence that the state of Louisiana cannot handle oversight of the petrochemical facilities it already has. Governor John Bel Edwards, Congressman Troy Carter, state legislators and local government need to slam on the brakes. Carbon capture is one example. The state is serious about making Louisiana the center of carbon capture. What a disaster this is, and how dangerous for the workers in these plants. They deserve so much more.

The people of Garyville, St. John Parish, and Louisiana will not stand for the continued spread of misinformation and deliberate attempts to obfuscate the truth—that the toxic chemicals in these refineries are hazardous to our health, and that the chemical industry routinely relies on misleading statements to evade accountability after major petrochemical accidents in Louisiana. We cannot permit more facilities that will continue to endanger workers and communities..”