[StBernard] Refineries in Wetlands and Buffer Zones

[Westley Annis]

Refineries in Wetlands
excerpt from 

THE SCHOOL OF BIG STORMS

The High Cost of Compromising Our Natural Defenses and the Benefits of
Protecting Them 

http://www.sierraclub.org/gulfcoast/downloads/bigstorm.pdf


"The lesson from this case is that industrial developments
need to have good hurricane response
plans that involve getting the plant properly
secured and shut down. Furthermore, building
refineries in wetlands close to a residential area in a
hurricane zone is not good planning. We must
consider future consequences when siting new
businesses. As communities rebuild, we need to
make good social and economic decisions to
ensure both prosperity and safety."

Refineries in Wetlands (page6/7)
The Gulf Restoration Network (GRN)
The Sierra Club

With the replacement of tankage at the Murphy Oil Meraux refinery Judge
Perez tankfarm, so too should be the implementation of foundation and berm
design improvements. ""Just think how different District C may have been if
the tanks' foundations had not settled over time, the berm (or burm) had not
failed or if the tank had not lifted. Shouldnt we now have better designed
berms and tank foundations with anchoring?""

Big Oil -  little neighborhood
http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/stbernard/20080701/018399.html

As St Bernard Parish Planning Commissioners begin discussions of changing
our code of ordinances they are considering what would be a new concept for
St Bernard Parish :    a required "buffer zone" around heavy industry.
There are discussions towards defining this "buffer zone" landusage as a
commercial district and not a true protective greenspace. This would be out
of the norm.  Other heavily industrialized parishes require any where from
600 feet to 2,500 feet of a nonutilized landscaped greenbelt to protect
their residents from the known risks of explosions and fires.

Most residents are adamantly opposed to this concept of commercial usage of
the buyout properties and disagree that a petrochemical refinery's
facilities would serve as a buffer for their protection or benefit.

We have the opportunity to create and to preserve a true protective green
zone belt on the most hazardous side of the Meraux refinery. To allow
anything else in not only bad planning, it is irresponsible and makes the
parish further liable. 

Just my unsolicited opinion - SJK