Citizens Against Toxic Towns blasts Houma site

A Houma native has spearheaded an environmental group that will attempt to urge the Terrebonne Parish Council tonight to vote against changing an ordinance that would allow the disposal of oil-field wastes into lined wells to be moved from a required distance of one mile to 500 feet from any residential area.

Angela Dupree and Citizens Against Toxic Towns, wants to stop Vanguard, a local company at 725 La. Highway 182, from drilling a new 4,500-foot commercial saltwater injection well on land next to its truck yard.

Dupree is co-founder of the organization and wants a large turnout at the parish council meeting where her group intends to voice to their opinion against the idea. She took her argument to the Jerome Boykin Radio Show on Friday.

“We see problems with these sorts of facilities, and our mission is to educate people about what goes into their operations, what could go wrong, and what they can do about it, to stop it,” she said. “It’s education through activism.”

Citizens Against Toxic Towns has a website at https://toxictowns.wordpress.com, and a Facebook page, which detail their plans, as well as claims and information on what they believe are Vanguard’s intentions.

Dupree said if the parish council does vote to change the ordinance they would be in compliance with state law, which does allow oil field related companies to dispose of drilling waste no closer than 500 feet of a residential area.

“I am very proud of my parish that we’re different, and that our law requires companies to operate [outside] a mile of areas where children play and live. However, if the council changes the ordinance, first and foremost, our children will be in danger,” Dupree said.

“What also concerns me is that if this ordinance is changed, the entire parish will be up for grabs by any oil field waste company, provided they get the proper permits from the state Department of Environmental Quality,” she added.

“These companies choose [to locate near] the poor, because they’re uneducated. They also don’t have any money to fight, so it’s almost like they’re fair game, sitting ducks,” Terrebonne Parish NAACP Chapter President Jerome Boykin said. “With all the rain we have, these trucks can leak chemicals, which could easily enter the Intracoastal Waterway, where we get our drinking water. The issue is this – we all have to hold our elected officials accountable.”

“Companies who handle oil field waste have to be responsible neighbors. We just can’t sit back and let them trample over our people, and ruin our land. They have to be responsible neighbors,” Dupree said.

Angela Dupree, of Citizens Against Toxic Towns, speaks out against a proposed well-injection site in Houma during the Jerome Boykin Radio Show. HOWARD J. CASTAY JR.