"Prehistoric Technologies" Watercolor NOLA 2018
Channel: Sean Anderson
Date: 2018-04-25

Ruben Sanchez Ramirez was clearly inspired by the massive burns that were just ending when our late March 2018 Service Learning in New Orleans team was arriving in Louisiana.  We captured the tail end of these burns (see here: https://youtu.be/CmIbG_7pSfs) but even these releases were lower in magnitude than the huge fireballs beginning on March 10 (see ) that sparked much worry in the surrounding communities.  The continued flaming we saw was much larger than any we had seen since our travels began in the wake of 2005's Hurricane Katrina.  The driver for the peak of this such massive flaring was reportedly an unintended release (see below).  While that may have been the case, the "new normal" of elevated, persistent flaring we observed is clearly being driven by revised/eliminated air emission standards promulgated by Secretary Pruitt and President Bush's other deregulation appointees within the federal EPA in the preceding months.  Quite simply, large flarings and their associated elevated releases of a stew of airborne combustion products are now more routinely permitted outside of emergency or special dispensation settings.  Prior to this relaxing of air quality standards, this Chalmette Refinery on the banks of the Mississippi River was already the type of legacy industrial site that would never be built or permitted today with an unusually short emissions stack, facilities that are corroding into the Mississippi River, and is located contiguous with sensitive resources such as the Parish Sheriff's EMS facilities and prison.

For more information, see:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wM2MB2qKdU

http://www.theadvocate.com/new_orleans/news/environment/article_38121af8-2633-11e8-8a5c-2f6adc5651b4.html

http://www.nola.com/environment/index.ssf/2018/03/dramatic_pbf_chalmette_refiner.html

http://wwno.org/post/coastal-news-roundup-refinery-flare-edition