by marykmusic » Tue Mar 28, 2006 11:16 pm
Huey Long was in the process of cleaning up his section of the Gulf Coast when he was assassinated (and he might have made a run at the presidency, too.)<br><br>Here's a contemporary Gulf activist that I have only heard of now, reading this interview. Excerpt:<br><br><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em> KW: What has been the effect of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita on the Gulf environment and the shrimpers and other fishermen? <br><br> Diane Wilson: When Hurricane Katrina rolled in, the immediate impact was the Gulf of Mexico fisheries, and in fact the entire Gulf of Mexico was declared an official disaster. The Gulf of Mexico fisheries, especially the bays, were in dire straights before the hurricane, and now many are totally decimated. Another issue that will probably not be understood for a long time is the toll that pollution has taken on our gulf waters. Many, many chemical sites and waste sites were flooded. A man from my home town was working on a dredge boat that was doing salvage work near Beaumont and he dredged something up that triggered a heart attack. That's local knowledge but nothing the media knew about. <br><br> KW: Do you think the EPA is covering up the true extent of toxic contamination after the hurricanes? <br><br> Diane Wilson: I have been involved in environmental issues for 17 years and in my opinion, the EPA and the chemical industry have been co-conspirators in their attempt to keep the extent of the pollution unknown. I had two investigators from the Texas state environmental agency give me internal documents about contamination, asking me to do something with it because they couldn't do anything with it. There was a political bottleneck and nothing went higher up, they said.</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--> <br><br>The whole thing is at <br><!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/032806R.shtml" target="top">An Unreasonable Woman </a><!--EZCODE LINK END-->, on Truthout.<br><br>Be warned that if you read this whole interview, you will become outraged. --MaryK <p></p><i></i>
