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Oil Spill Attorney Stuart Smith’s Blog:
They’ll be home for Christmas in Bayou Corne —
but only in their dreams
There can be something magical about Christmas in the Louisiana
bayou. But not this year — not in the small community of Bayou Corne,
some 70 miles west of New Orleans. Here. some 150 families have been
forced out of their homes since the brutally hot dog days of summer, back
in August — and they still don’t know when they’re coming back. Efforts
to fix the environmental crisis that’s caused a massive sinkhole in the town
are now revealing major problems with methane and other pollution, and
people are getting frustrated.
Earlier in the meeting, one resident shouted at Bruce
Martin, Texas Brine vice president of operations — first from
afar and then in his face — challenging Martin’s statement that
he, Martin, had been in the community since shortly after the
sinkhole was found on Aug. 3.
Tapping the shoulders of other residents sitting in the
audience, Gary Metrejean, 47, a Bayou Corne evacuee now
living in Belle Chasse, asked Martin, one-by-one, if he knew
those people.
“If you have been involved since day one, why don’t you
know these people? I’m serious. Why you don’t know these
people? Does Texas Brine have any compassion for the people
that they affect?” Metrejean wanted to know.
Martin assured Metrejean he did know the residents.
Metrejean disagreed.
“I don’t believe you do. I don’t believe you do. I believe
it’s the bottom line. It’s the money,” Metrejean said.
It’s little surprise that residents of Bayou Corne aren’t filled with
Christmas cheer. They had filed into a community meeting on Tuesday
night to get an update from the Texas Brine Co. and government officials
on the ongoing effort to stabilize the massive collapsing salt cavern — that
not only caused the sinkhole but led to earth tremors and has polluted