SoLa: Louisiana Water Stories

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Everywhere you look in Southern Louisiana there's water: rivers, bayous, swamps, the Mississippi River, the Gulf of Mexico. And everyone in Cajun Country has a water story, or two or three or more. Its waterways support the biggest economies in Louisiana - a $70 billion a year oil and gas industry, a $2.4 billion a year fishing business, tourism and recreational sports.

They are also home to some insidious polluters: the same oil and gas industry, 200 petrochemical plants along a 100-mile-long stretch of the Mississippi known 'Cancer Alley,' the world's largest Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico and erosion that is costing the coastline twenty five square miles of wetlands a year. At the same time, SoLa is home to one of America's most vital and unique cultures; if everyone who lives there has a water story they can also most likely play the fiddle, waltz, cook an etoufee and hunt and fish.

SoLa: Louisiana Water Stories is a poignant look back at a way of life that may now be gone forever, and a prescient view at exactly how the gusher in the Gulf was allowed to happen. Thanks to corruption, malfeasance and the Louisiana industrial and political climate, environmental pollution seems to be simply a cost of doing business.

'SoLa is the most comprehensive film on southern Louisiana that I have seen. It is a great crash course that deftly addresses the ecological, economic and social issues facing Louisiana. Not only does the film point out Louisiana's importance to the rest of the nation but every part of our nation faces some manifestation of these issues. It should be a wake up call for us to stop looking to corporations to cease doing the wrong thing or trying to regulate them into doing the right thing. Instead, I hope this film is a piece of what inspires us to start taking back power by creating vibrant local economies. That framework remains in many places and SoLa shows the local economic vibrancy that still exists, although threatened, in coastal Louisiana and the essential cohesive for community and family that it provides. This film should help inspire our youth to 'work' for ecological, economic, and communal health.' David Burley, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Southeastern Louisiana University, Author, Losing Ground: Identity and Land Loss in Coastal Louisiana

'This is a superb treatment of how the oil and gas industry threatens not just a way of life in southern Louisiana but life itself. Water is the centerpiece of cultural and ecological health in and around New Orleans and it is being ruined, slowly, by neglect and greed. SoLa should be a wakeup call for the country.' Lee Clarke, Professor, Department of Sociology, Rutgers University, Author, Worst Cases: Terror and Catastrophe in the Popular Imagination

'For most Americans, Louisiana is a unique place, distinct from the rest of the country in several ways. In this film, Jon Bowermaster has illustrated connections between Louisiana and the Midwestern states that are the source of considerable fertilizer runoff via the northern tributaries of the Mississippi River. Moreover, Jon Bowermaster does not ignore the fact that we all share the need for food, energy, clean water, and jobs. Rather, he asks: How does one estimate the combined economic and environmental price we pay for these necessities? This core environmental question facing Americans is explored in depth in this film. As such, the film is a valuable educational tool in informing scientists and policy makers, present and future.' Dr. Daniel Janies, Associate Professor, School of Biomedical Science, The Ohio State University

'SoLa is a beautifully filmed and moving story about a way of life that is threatened. Its relevance, from an educational perspective, is with the rapidly growing field of environmental studies which, more than many of our traditional disciplines, put humans in the ecosystems and in environmental change...An excellent overview.' Dr. Robert Gramling, Professor of Sociology, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Author, Oil on the Edge: Offshore Development, Conflict, Gridlock, co-Author, Blowout in the Gulf: The BP Oil Spill Disaster and the Future of Energy in America

'SoLa is a powerful documentary that does an excellent job of interweaving economic, political, and environmental issues in pointed and powerful cultural narratives about unrestrained capital destroying the traditions and ecological health of a vitally important region. The lessons should resonate with all of us in the sense that nearly every part of the globe faces some version of these problems. The documentary's attention to the relationships among local cultures, state power, and corporate influence make it ideal for the classroom and for anthropology courses in particular.' Steve Striffler, University of New Orleans, Anthropology of Work Review

'Raise[s] myriad social, economic, and governmental issues...Demand[s] that audiences engage in soul-searching about who we are as a nation...Useful as the starting point for a discussion of what should be valued by society: people over profits, health over short-term wealth, and family business over polluting corporations. It is a superb introduction to the threat posed by the oil and gas industry to life itself.' Dr. Caryn Neumann, Miami University of Ohio, 49th Parallel

'Given the recent flooding of the Mississippi basin, including southern Louisiana, this timely documentary concerns the importance of the Louisiana watershed to both the state and the country...This well-made and comprehensive film is highly recommended.' Library Journal

'As we continue grappling with the escalating and vexing dilemmas surrounding energy policy, the film offers another critical analysis of the uneven distribution of burdens and harms in the networks of energy production, consumption and waste. It shows that these problems are not limited to Louisiana, but implicate the entire nation that depends on the region for shipping ports, seafood and biodiversity in addition to oil and gas.' Jessica Smith Rolston, University of Colorado at Boulder, Anthropology Review Database

'[Sola] is awash in anger and outrage at forces that threaten the ecosystems and livelihood of those who make their living from the waters (including the Gulf of Mexico) of Louisiana. Staggering statistics abound, but the gripping personal profiles put a human face on the ecological devastation and local culture.' Booklist

'An alternatively appealing and appalling view of south Louisiana...Recommended.' Jim Hobbs, Loyola University, Educational Media Reviews Online

'A compelling narrative told by a series of long-time local activists...The issues South Louisiana faces resemble the dilemmas other coastal areas will face with rising sea levels and intensified coastal weather events. This fragile coastline, with established fisheries and intense resource extraction activities, does not represent a sustainable situation...Other coastal locations around the globe will likely see similar, slow retreats--not wholesale and rapid abandonment. So South Louisiana stands as a bell weather for other coastal locations...This engaging documentary should offer satisfying insights.' Craig Colten, H-Environment, H-Net Review

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Main credits

Cavanagh, Chris (screenwriter)
Bowermaster, Jon (screenwriter)
Bowermaster, Jon (film producer)
Bowermaster, Jon (film director)

Other credits

Editor, Chris Cavanagh; camera, Jefferson Miller, Brian C. Miller Richard; music, Roddie Romero and the Hub City All-Stars.

MARC Record See Worldcat record

Keywords

BP oil spill, Louisiana, Gulf of Mexico, Mississippi River, SoLa, water, water pollution, Cajun County, pollution, dead zone, cancer alley, wetlands, BP, fishing, oil spill, economics, Jeff Dauzat, Ivor van Heerden, Tracy Kuhns, Marylee Orr, Michael Roberts, Father Robert Ryan, Paul Templet, Dean Wilson, Wilma Subra,"SoLa: Louisiana Water Stories",Bullfrog Films

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[water splashing and trickling]

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[birds and insects chirping]

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[seagulls screeching]

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[waves crashing]

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[rhythmic banging]

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[haunting wavering tone]

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[lively acoustic music]

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♪ ♪

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♪ ♪

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- All right.

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♪ ♪

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[birds and insects chirping]

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[upbeat accordion music]

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♪ ♪

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♪ ♪

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♪ ♪

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[birds and insects chirping]

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- Louisiana, for me,

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it's, in some ways,
a dream place to live.

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If you have access

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to a little boat or canoe
or whatever,

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within ten minutes,
you can be away from it all.

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You can be in the wilderness.

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[bluesy guitar music]

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♪ ♪

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Go catch some fish for supper.

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You can watch birds
to your heart's content.

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It's the beauty, you know?

00:04:09.617 --> 00:04:11.585
You can own
a little place like this,

00:04:11.619 --> 00:04:15.723
where I can have my own
little swamp and the wildlife.

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It really is a magic place
to live.

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In the space of about
5,000 to 7,000 years,

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we built
all of coastal Louisiana

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through the Mississippi River.

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The Mississippi River
was bringing lots of sediment.

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The river slowly but surely
builds out to the sea,

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and in this way, we created

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this very, very, very
biologically diverse ecosystem.

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The very wide and low
coastal floodplain

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created by the Mississippi

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became an ideal place
for people to settle

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because of the fisheries,
fur animals, and so on,

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and also navigation and trade
because of this big river.

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Well, unfortunately,

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because of the nature
of the land

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and the terrain
being close to sea level,

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flooding is a big issue.

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So the Europeans who came in
from the western part of Europe

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had grown up, if you will,
building levee systems.

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Just think about

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the levee systems
in the Netherlands.

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So we had the birth
of New Orleans

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and a levee system
associated with it,

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and that levee system
continued to expand,

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utilizing the existing
natural banks or levees

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of the river system until 1927.

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In 1927, we had a major flood
on the Mississippi River

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where a large number
of these levee systems

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were breached.

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Huge sections of Louisiana
were flooded,

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and thereafter,

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Congress passed
the 1927 Flood Control Act

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that called for control
of the Mississippi River

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and control of the flooding.

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In 1965,
Hurricane Betsy came along,

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a Category 4 storm,

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and it flooded
large parts of New Orleans.

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And from that,

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we started to develop
the hurricane levee system.

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So we had a river levee system,

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and now we were building
a hurricane protection system.

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That immediately started
to interfere

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with the natural
land-building capabilities

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of the Mississippi River.

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Instead of using the sediment
to build new land,

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we shove it all offshore,

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and we started the process

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of starving our wetlands
to death.

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If you put a tourniquet
around your arm,

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you got to release it
every 20 minutes.

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Otherwise, your arm's gonna die.

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But that's what we've done.

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We've cut off the blood supply
to the wetlands,

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and we starved them to death.

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The wetlands
are incredibly beneficial

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in the physical sense.

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They are our number one
protection from surge,

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and we've destroyed them.

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Katrina, to put this all
in perspective,

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was barely a Category 3 storm
at landfall,

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missed New Orleans by 35 miles.

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New Orleans
was on the weak side.

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New Orleans
didn't even experience

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hurricane-force winds.

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And yet we destroyed
a major American city

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in 24 hours.

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[thunder booming]

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[rain pattering]

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[tree cracking and falling]

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[helicopter rotors whirring]

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[peaceful acoustic music]

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♪ ♪

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♪ ♪

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It didn't take me very long
to realize

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that there was one agency
to blame,

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and that was
the Corps of Engineers

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for shoddy, shoddy engineering.

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[helicopter rotors whirring]

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Before we built the levees

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and locked the Mississippi River
into its course,

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before we cut up everything
with oil and gas access canals,

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we used to have
very extensive cypress swamps

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all the way along the coast.

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Cities like New Orleans

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used to have
almost 30 miles of marsh.

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Those swamps are gone.

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Coastal wetlands
have a very important role

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in reducing
the impacts of hurricanes.

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The more wetlands,
the healthier the wetlands,

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the greater that you diminish
or lower the surge.

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You can knock the surge down
maybe as much as six feet

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within one mile
of healthy cypress swamp.

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Unfortunately, I don't think
the powers to be

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have actually heard the message.

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You know, I'll bounce back.

00:11:15.843 --> 00:11:18.078
I'm not worried.

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But we're killing

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active scientific involvement
in the program.

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The corruption
that goes on in Louisiana,

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the conniving, the deals,

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we're setting ourselves up
for another catastrophe,

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'cause we're going to get
a major storm

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one of these days,

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a Katrina or bigger.

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It's not Louisiana's problem.

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It's the nation's problem.

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[lively country rock music]

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♪ ♪

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Between Baton Rouge
and the Gulf of Mexico

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is the biggest port
in the world.

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Up to 40% of U.S. exports
leave via Louisiana.

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We've never made
the hard choices

00:12:06.493 --> 00:12:08.095
that need to be made

00:12:08.128 --> 00:12:10.798
as to what we think
the landscape

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or the plan for the future
should be.

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We cannot save
every single community.

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We can't build the Wall of China
across Louisiana.

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The wetlands protect the levees.

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The levees protect us.

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♪ ♪

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♪ ♪

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[birds and insects chirping]

00:15:48.649 --> 00:15:51.619
[mellow guitar music]

00:15:51.652 --> 00:15:59.660
♪ ♪

00:17:12.399 --> 00:17:15.368
[soulful country rock music]

00:17:15.402 --> 00:17:23.410
♪ ♪

00:17:38.391 --> 00:17:41.328
[machinery clanking
and screeching]

00:18:44.525 --> 00:18:52.533
♪ ♪

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[engine whirring]

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[water splashes]

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- You've been drilling
off the coast of Louisiana

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for a number of years.

00:19:48.689 --> 00:19:50.658
Any oil spills to worry about?

00:19:50.691 --> 00:19:52.192
- You know,
that's one of the great

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unwritten success stories.

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After Katrina and Rita,
these awful storms,

00:19:55.462 --> 00:19:56.930
no major spills.

00:19:56.964 --> 00:19:59.967
[wind roaring]

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[typewriter keys clacking]

00:21:04.565 --> 00:21:06.466
- Traffic, Mel Oliver,
come in, Cap.

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You're crossing the bow
of a ship coming at you.

00:21:09.436 --> 00:21:11.471
- Come in, Mel Oliver,
back on that son of a bitch.

00:21:11.505 --> 00:21:13.807
I'm gonna run right over
the tow, Cap!

00:21:13.841 --> 00:21:15.408
Got to admit,
this ain't good, man.

00:21:15.442 --> 00:21:17.645
Hey, Mel Oliver!

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[indistinct]
We just took his tow out.

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The barge is right
in front of us,

00:21:20.948 --> 00:21:22.750
and we're running it over.

00:21:22.783 --> 00:21:25.653
- They need to get a containment
over here for all the fuel.

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They got fuel all over
the freakin' river now.

00:21:29.690 --> 00:21:33.493
- Yeah, July 23rd,
there was a downbound tanker

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that ran into a wayward barge,

00:21:36.997 --> 00:21:39.800
that the tanker
pierced the barge,

00:21:39.833 --> 00:21:41.869
basically cut it in half.

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Oil was covering the river
from bank to bank for miles.

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This isn't an uncommon
occurrence for us

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with the oil and gas industry
that we have here

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as a predominant
environmental factor.

00:21:56.449 --> 00:21:58.552
The Mississippi River
is used as a drinking source

00:21:58.586 --> 00:22:02.790
for metropolitan New Orleans
and for points south of here,

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so immediately, we shut down
those water intakes

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and started the process
of bringing in drinking water

00:22:08.662 --> 00:22:11.064
for the residents of this area.

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After a couple of days,
we found oil had gotten

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almost all the way
to Venice, Louisiana,

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which is 80 miles from here.

00:22:20.608 --> 00:22:23.577
[solemn percussive music]

00:22:23.611 --> 00:22:28.448
♪ ♪

00:22:30.618 --> 00:22:33.587
[lively Cajun music]

00:22:33.621 --> 00:22:41.629
♪ ♪

00:22:55.643 --> 00:23:03.651
♪ ♪

00:23:08.121 --> 00:23:09.723
- The blessing of the fleet

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is God's blessing on their nets,
on their lives,

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on the resource
that they harvest,

00:23:17.998 --> 00:23:21.134
and we pray that they will have

00:23:21.168 --> 00:23:26.540
a safe and abundant harvest
year after year.

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That goes back to the scripture,
of course,

00:23:30.811 --> 00:23:34.782
and to the Lord's own
association with fishermen

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and choosing fishermen.

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He was around fishermen,
and He chose fishermen -

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hardworking, dedicated,
serious-minded people -

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to be His right-hand men
in His work.

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The fishing is everything.

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Fishing is the way of life.

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You know,
fishing is a source of food.

00:24:06.046 --> 00:24:07.881
Fishing is the industry.

00:24:07.915 --> 00:24:09.650
It was only natural

00:24:09.683 --> 00:24:11.719
that they would have
God's blessing on their work

00:24:11.752 --> 00:24:13.521
and on the resource

00:24:13.554 --> 00:24:17.558
and on the men who do the work
and harvest the resource.

00:24:21.629 --> 00:24:24.598
[peaceful Cajun music]

00:24:24.632 --> 00:24:32.640
♪ ♪

00:24:33.240 --> 00:24:37.511
We're in the twilight
of an industry here.

00:24:37.545 --> 00:24:42.516
Between all the different
conflicting interests -

00:24:42.550 --> 00:24:44.885
the oil interest,
the natural gas interest -

00:24:44.918 --> 00:24:48.221
there are
so many conflicting groups.

00:24:52.726 --> 00:24:55.028
Traditionally, you have
the big boat fishermen.

00:24:55.062 --> 00:24:56.530
They're more interested

00:24:56.564 --> 00:24:59.032
in the fish that are out
in the open gulf.

00:24:59.066 --> 00:25:01.935
The smaller fisherman
is interested in the bayous,

00:25:01.969 --> 00:25:07.808
the wetlands, small lakes
where small craft can function.

00:25:07.841 --> 00:25:09.510
And then, of course,

00:25:09.543 --> 00:25:13.113
the economic factors
that have taken their toll:

00:25:13.146 --> 00:25:14.782
the globalization of the economy

00:25:14.815 --> 00:25:17.250
and the import
of practically everything

00:25:17.284 --> 00:25:19.286
from overseas countries.

00:25:24.725 --> 00:25:27.695
[man singing in Cajun French]

00:25:27.728 --> 00:25:35.736
♪ ♪

00:25:41.208 --> 00:25:42.843
The price is down.

00:25:42.876 --> 00:25:45.646
20 years ago, it was $1 a pound
or a little less.

00:25:45.679 --> 00:25:47.548
Now it's half of that.

00:25:47.581 --> 00:25:50.217
But the cost of delivering
the harvest is way up,

00:25:50.250 --> 00:25:52.219
just like farming.

00:25:52.252 --> 00:25:54.154
The farmers in the United States

00:25:54.187 --> 00:25:56.724
are no longer counted
for the census purposes

00:25:56.757 --> 00:25:59.727
because the numbers are so low.

00:25:59.760 --> 00:26:04.064
They're not even considered
an entity deserving of count.

00:26:04.097 --> 00:26:06.934
There's no way that the people
here in Louisiana

00:26:06.967 --> 00:26:10.203
can compete, you know,
with wages

00:26:10.237 --> 00:26:14.074
against such
mega-sized competition.

00:26:14.107 --> 00:26:18.879
The cost of running
a simple family business

00:26:18.912 --> 00:26:20.814
involves a family business:

00:26:20.848 --> 00:26:23.817
the small fisherman,
his wife, and his children.

00:26:23.851 --> 00:26:26.654
They can't compete against
these giant corporations

00:26:26.687 --> 00:26:29.657
that, you know,
can produce phenomenal amounts,

00:26:29.690 --> 00:26:31.358
pay almost no wages.

00:26:33.360 --> 00:26:34.928
It's a hard life,

00:26:34.962 --> 00:26:37.798
and it's taken its toll
on the family life here.

00:26:37.831 --> 00:26:39.767
It's often romanticized.

00:26:39.800 --> 00:26:43.336
It's a harsh way
to make a living.

00:26:43.370 --> 00:26:45.105
You're fighting the elements,

00:26:45.138 --> 00:26:47.340
the seas, the waves, the winds.

00:26:47.374 --> 00:26:49.677
That's why we have
a blessing of the fleet,

00:26:49.710 --> 00:26:51.612
to invoke God's help

00:26:51.645 --> 00:26:53.647
to carry them
through the hard times

00:26:53.681 --> 00:26:55.616
and the challenging times.

00:26:58.819 --> 00:27:01.154
- Hey, Father.
- Thank you.

00:27:07.294 --> 00:27:10.898
[seagulls screeching]

00:27:10.931 --> 00:27:13.200
- When the shrimp season
starts, son,

00:27:13.233 --> 00:27:15.769
no Saturday
to go honky-tonking.

00:27:15.803 --> 00:27:19.072
There's no more Sunday,
and every day is Monday.

00:27:27.981 --> 00:27:30.283
- I bought this boat in April,

00:27:30.317 --> 00:27:32.019
and I said,
"I'm going down with the ship."

00:27:32.052 --> 00:27:33.333
'Cause this
is what I love to do.

00:27:38.191 --> 00:27:40.894
When I first started fishing,
I started on a boat

00:27:40.928 --> 00:27:44.732
with my father-in-law's brother
in 1977,

00:27:44.765 --> 00:27:46.834
and I was 18 years old,

00:27:46.867 --> 00:27:49.402
went out on a boat 18 days,
come in.

00:27:49.436 --> 00:27:51.404
He gave me a check of $4,800.

00:27:51.438 --> 00:27:53.073
I thought I was rich.

00:27:53.106 --> 00:27:56.009
18 years old,
got a check for 18 days

00:27:56.043 --> 00:27:57.811
and get $4,800,

00:27:57.845 --> 00:27:59.446
you didn't know
what to do with that, you know?

00:27:59.680 --> 00:28:00.848
Man, that was all kind of money.

00:28:00.881 --> 00:28:02.349
And I stuck with it.
I love it.

00:28:02.382 --> 00:28:04.952
It was like a challenge
every time we left to go out.

00:28:04.985 --> 00:28:07.020
It was a challenge to see
who could catch more shrimp

00:28:07.054 --> 00:28:08.355
than the other boat.

00:28:08.388 --> 00:28:11.391
[seagulls screeching]

00:28:11.424 --> 00:28:13.060
We don't want no handouts.

00:28:13.093 --> 00:28:15.829
We just want to make
an honest living.

00:28:20.467 --> 00:28:22.469
- I like knowing
that whenever I come in,

00:28:22.703 --> 00:28:25.005
somebody's gonna eat
the best protein in the world.

00:28:25.038 --> 00:28:26.239
That's a beautiful thing,

00:28:26.273 --> 00:28:27.975
to know what you actually do.

00:28:28.008 --> 00:28:30.778
You know, I don't make
ammunition to kill people.

00:28:30.811 --> 00:28:32.379
I just make food to feed them.

00:28:32.412 --> 00:28:34.081
- We're just hooked on fishing,
I guess.

00:28:34.114 --> 00:28:35.716
It's in the blood.

00:28:35.749 --> 00:28:37.417
It's like I tell people,
sitting in the boat,

00:28:37.450 --> 00:28:39.753
it's like a disease.

00:28:39.787 --> 00:28:42.756
[rousing accordion music]

00:28:42.790 --> 00:28:47.761
♪ ♪

00:28:47.795 --> 00:28:50.798
[man singing in Cajun French]

00:28:57.738 --> 00:29:00.508
[solemn acoustic music]

00:29:00.741 --> 00:29:08.749
♪ ♪

00:29:09.517 --> 00:29:12.052
- I was born here,
raised in Morgan City,

00:29:12.085 --> 00:29:13.987
and when my husband and I
were married,

00:29:14.021 --> 00:29:16.323
we moved to New Iberia.

00:29:21.228 --> 00:29:24.765
This is just the kind of people
there are in Louisiana.

00:29:24.798 --> 00:29:27.434
They live for the life
they have here.

00:29:27.467 --> 00:29:29.269
They are very happy living here.

00:29:29.302 --> 00:29:31.939
They've lived here
for generations.

00:29:31.972 --> 00:29:33.774
Whatever's negative,
they deal with it,

00:29:33.807 --> 00:29:35.275
and they just move forward.

00:29:38.879 --> 00:29:40.347
They live off the land.
They hunt.

00:29:40.380 --> 00:29:43.350
They fish.
They eat the seafood.

00:29:43.383 --> 00:29:46.019
I wouldn't live anywhere else.

00:29:46.053 --> 00:29:47.521
It's a wonderful place to live.

00:29:47.555 --> 00:29:50.858
It's a wonderful place
to raise your family,

00:29:50.891 --> 00:29:52.793
other than getting shot at.

00:29:52.826 --> 00:29:55.796
[rhythmic bluesy music]

00:29:55.829 --> 00:30:03.837
♪ ♪

00:30:06.306 --> 00:30:09.442
Over time, my office
would get broken into,

00:30:09.476 --> 00:30:11.444
and they would
steal the fax machine.

00:30:11.478 --> 00:30:14.948
They would steal food
out of the kitchen,

00:30:14.982 --> 00:30:17.450
and the sheriffs
would tell me, you know,

00:30:17.484 --> 00:30:20.453
"It's just somebody
harassing you."

00:30:20.487 --> 00:30:23.323
Well, summer of 2006,

00:30:23.356 --> 00:30:25.325
my husband was working
out in the flower bed.

00:30:25.358 --> 00:30:27.027
My house was around the corner,

00:30:27.060 --> 00:30:30.030
and he kept seeing this car
go up and down the road.

00:30:30.063 --> 00:30:31.599
And I was trying
to get out a bunch of things

00:30:31.832 --> 00:30:33.366
because I was getting ready
to go to D.C.

00:30:33.400 --> 00:30:36.036
and give a presentation
on the impacts of the hurricane.

00:30:36.069 --> 00:30:37.871
And he saw them come back,

00:30:37.905 --> 00:30:41.542
and the guy put a gun out
the window on the passenger side

00:30:41.575 --> 00:30:43.110
and shoot at my office.

00:30:43.143 --> 00:30:44.344
[gunshot, glass shattering]

00:30:44.377 --> 00:30:46.146
[police siren wailing]

00:30:46.179 --> 00:30:49.950
The sheriff stopped the car
before they even came to us.

00:30:49.983 --> 00:30:52.986
The passenger was gone.
The gun was gone.

00:30:53.020 --> 00:30:54.588
And we couldn't find out
who the driver was

00:30:54.622 --> 00:30:57.057
because it would violate
his rights.

00:31:07.535 --> 00:31:10.270
The dead zone
is all-encompassing.

00:31:10.303 --> 00:31:11.939
It's along
the Mississippi River.

00:31:11.972 --> 00:31:14.107
It's in the gulf.

00:31:14.141 --> 00:31:17.277
The dead zone has a huge impact
along the coastal areas

00:31:17.310 --> 00:31:22.449
where you have
the fisheries resources.

00:31:22.482 --> 00:31:27.220
We know that it's being caused
by runoff in the Midwest.

00:31:27.254 --> 00:31:30.390
The Midwest has been
growing more corn,

00:31:30.423 --> 00:31:34.461
and more corn requires
a heavier fertilizer load.

00:31:53.113 --> 00:31:55.916
As the river moves
through Louisiana,

00:31:55.949 --> 00:31:58.251
it brings all those nutrients
down with it,

00:31:58.285 --> 00:32:01.421
and that causes algae blooms
which use up the oxygen

00:32:01.454 --> 00:32:03.223
and cause what's called
the dead zone.

00:32:03.256 --> 00:32:07.928
It's low or no oxygen.

00:32:07.961 --> 00:32:10.497
It extends from the mouth
of the Mississippi

00:32:10.531 --> 00:32:13.333
all the way into Texas.

00:32:13.366 --> 00:32:15.335
No fish, no crabs,

00:32:15.368 --> 00:32:17.337
all the type
of aquatic organisms

00:32:17.370 --> 00:32:19.106
that they normally catch,

00:32:19.139 --> 00:32:21.609
so it's having an impact
on the whole United States,

00:32:21.642 --> 00:32:25.412
but it's only
"impacting the economic base"

00:32:25.445 --> 00:32:28.115
along the coastal areas.

00:32:35.455 --> 00:32:38.458
[waves splashing]

00:32:44.598 --> 00:32:47.568
[upbeat guitar music]

00:32:47.601 --> 00:32:55.609
♪ ♪

00:33:04.051 --> 00:33:07.020
[jazzy instrumental music]

00:33:07.054 --> 00:33:12.025
♪ ♪

00:33:12.059 --> 00:33:15.596
- The Cajun, the Creole,
the food, the music,

00:33:15.629 --> 00:33:18.098
I think we're one of the richest
places in the world.

00:33:18.131 --> 00:33:20.568
But now, our natural resources
are something

00:33:20.601 --> 00:33:22.736
that folks
who have been in power

00:33:22.770 --> 00:33:25.105
have abused and neglected.

00:34:01.108 --> 00:34:04.444
When I brought my son Michael
home from the hospital,

00:34:04.477 --> 00:34:07.781
they told me he might be blind,
deaf, or brain damaged

00:34:07.815 --> 00:34:10.618
but certainly more susceptible
to cerebral palsy

00:34:10.651 --> 00:34:13.120
and more susceptible
to respiratory infections -

00:34:13.153 --> 00:34:15.388
pneumonia, et cetera.

00:34:15.422 --> 00:34:17.390
And then I realized

00:34:17.424 --> 00:34:19.292
that the air
was in nonattainment here,

00:34:19.326 --> 00:34:20.794
meaning that it was
unhealthy to breathe

00:34:20.828 --> 00:34:22.730
17 times that year,

00:34:22.763 --> 00:34:24.364
the year
that I brought him home.

00:34:24.397 --> 00:34:25.833
And I felt, really,

00:34:26.066 --> 00:34:29.537
like our basic civil rights
are being violated,

00:34:29.570 --> 00:34:31.839
that I wasn't certain
when I opened up my window

00:34:32.072 --> 00:34:33.473
that I was getting clean air.

00:34:33.507 --> 00:34:36.243
I wasn't certain
that the earth was clean.

00:34:36.276 --> 00:34:38.311
I wasn't certain that the water

00:34:38.345 --> 00:34:39.713
that I was drinking
was all right,

00:34:39.747 --> 00:34:43.617
and I was terrified
for my children.

00:34:45.853 --> 00:34:48.388
- ♪ Look yonder ♪

00:34:48.421 --> 00:34:50.691
♪ ♪

00:34:50.724 --> 00:34:53.393
♪ At the women ♪

00:34:53.426 --> 00:34:55.228
♪ At the women ♪

00:34:55.262 --> 00:35:03.270
♪ ♪

00:35:08.408 --> 00:35:10.644
- So I think there's nothing
like a mother's instinct.

00:35:10.678 --> 00:35:12.846
I thought, "Somebody's going
to do something about that.

00:35:12.880 --> 00:35:15.215
We already have too much.
Our air quality is bad."

00:35:15.248 --> 00:35:17.350
And then I realized
the basic civic lesson

00:35:17.384 --> 00:35:22.322
that I am that somebody.

00:35:22.355 --> 00:35:23.791
That's when I got involved.

00:35:23.824 --> 00:35:25.392
I said I'd do this
for six months,

00:35:25.425 --> 00:35:27.628
and that was
20-something years ago.

00:35:32.900 --> 00:35:35.669
LEAN is Louisiana
Environmental Action Network,

00:35:35.703 --> 00:35:37.705
and we've been working
on public health

00:35:37.738 --> 00:35:41.408
and protecting natural resources
for 23 years.

00:35:42.676 --> 00:35:44.444
We're on our way to ExxonMobil,

00:35:44.477 --> 00:35:46.814
to the largest
petrochemical facility

00:35:46.847 --> 00:35:48.816
in the United States.

00:36:00.327 --> 00:36:02.630
There's a lot of folks
who are good neighbors,

00:36:02.663 --> 00:36:04.665
but there is
this percentage of folks

00:36:04.698 --> 00:36:06.934
that are really bad neighbors,

00:36:07.167 --> 00:36:09.770
and it really ruins
people's lives, literally,

00:36:09.803 --> 00:36:12.472
because they aren't
obeying the law.

00:36:14.775 --> 00:36:16.409
A chemical worker told me

00:36:16.443 --> 00:36:18.912
when he would come home
and his clothes would smell,

00:36:18.946 --> 00:36:21.549
he'd tell his children
that was the smell of money.

00:36:21.582 --> 00:36:22.883
Yes, it is jobs,

00:36:22.916 --> 00:36:25.385
but we care
about the workers too.

00:36:25.418 --> 00:36:27.621
You need to have a safe job.

00:36:31.358 --> 00:36:33.961
It is hard when people
are worried, you know,

00:36:34.194 --> 00:36:35.963
"Where's my next paycheck
gonna come from

00:36:36.196 --> 00:36:38.331
when my paycheck
is coming from that company?"

00:36:38.365 --> 00:36:40.500
We are very attuned

00:36:40.534 --> 00:36:42.670
and try to help people
who want to do something,

00:36:42.703 --> 00:36:45.238
but they can only do so much.

00:36:45.272 --> 00:36:47.340
And that - and there's
no judgment there.

00:36:47.374 --> 00:36:49.342
I mean, this is supposed to be
about helping people

00:36:49.376 --> 00:36:50.811
and not harming anybody.

00:36:50.844 --> 00:36:52.212
[ship horn blares]

00:36:52.245 --> 00:36:53.514
Is it gonna harm my job?

00:36:53.547 --> 00:36:54.948
Is it gonna harm
my husband's job

00:36:54.982 --> 00:36:56.550
or my wife's job?

00:36:56.584 --> 00:36:59.386
Or, you know,
will my people in the community

00:36:59.419 --> 00:37:01.221
look at me differently?

00:37:01.254 --> 00:37:04.457
Will they think
I'm a crazy environmentalist?

00:37:04.491 --> 00:37:07.861
For a while,
people made a lot of attacks.

00:37:07.895 --> 00:37:09.897
What you really know is,
they're not really talking

00:37:09.930 --> 00:37:11.665
about the substance
of what you're saying.

00:37:11.699 --> 00:37:13.333
They're just trying
to take attention

00:37:13.366 --> 00:37:15.468
off of the facts
of what's really happening here,

00:37:15.503 --> 00:37:17.304
trying to stereotype you,

00:37:17.337 --> 00:37:20.307
and there's no stereotypical
environmentalist anymore.

00:37:20.340 --> 00:37:22.976
It used to be a yogurt,
backpacking,

00:37:23.010 --> 00:37:24.845
crunchy kind of people,
which I love,

00:37:24.878 --> 00:37:27.480
which you obviously can see
I'm not.

00:37:27.515 --> 00:37:28.749
Now it's everybody.

00:37:28.782 --> 00:37:30.518
It's moms and dads and grandmas

00:37:30.551 --> 00:37:31.992
and people who have
become more aware

00:37:32.019 --> 00:37:34.988
about the environment.

00:37:35.022 --> 00:37:38.358
The more people
that I've lost in my life

00:37:38.391 --> 00:37:40.528
in this work...

00:37:40.561 --> 00:37:42.530
The woman who started
this work with me, Ramona,

00:37:42.563 --> 00:37:45.533
was like my partner
in this work.

00:37:45.566 --> 00:37:47.000
She was another mother.

00:37:47.034 --> 00:37:48.669
Actually, her husband
was a worker

00:37:48.702 --> 00:37:50.771
at one
of the chemical facilities.

00:37:50.804 --> 00:37:53.774
She just wanted
to live to be 40,

00:37:53.807 --> 00:37:57.778
and she died at 39 of cancer.

00:37:57.811 --> 00:38:00.581
When someone asks me,
when they're dying,

00:38:00.614 --> 00:38:06.854
that I not forget
that they were here

00:38:06.887 --> 00:38:10.691
and they were important,

00:38:10.724 --> 00:38:15.596
and so the least I can do
is try to help.

00:38:32.012 --> 00:38:34.615
You have to bring yourself back
to why you're doing this,

00:38:34.648 --> 00:38:36.850
and for me, it's helping people

00:38:36.884 --> 00:38:39.386
and believing that service
is the rent I pay

00:38:39.419 --> 00:38:41.088
for the space
I take up on Earth.

00:38:41.321 --> 00:38:44.625
I believe
that I owe something back,

00:38:44.658 --> 00:38:46.794
and as long
as I can talk and walk,

00:38:46.827 --> 00:38:48.061
I want to help.

00:38:48.095 --> 00:38:49.630
I mean, this is life.

00:38:49.663 --> 00:38:51.999
It's just about
getting through life.

00:39:04.712 --> 00:39:07.681
[gentle fiddle music]

00:39:07.715 --> 00:39:15.723
♪ ♪

00:39:30.403 --> 00:39:31.772
- I'm not pessimistic,

00:39:31.805 --> 00:39:34.041
because if I got pessimistic,

00:39:34.074 --> 00:39:35.509
I would quit doing
what I'm doing

00:39:35.543 --> 00:39:36.877
and just give up,

00:39:36.910 --> 00:39:38.679
and I don't think
that we can do that,

00:39:38.712 --> 00:39:42.850
and these things
aren't just happening here.

00:39:42.883 --> 00:39:45.853
Moving somewhere else,
that's not how it works.

00:39:45.886 --> 00:39:47.955
It's everywhere.

00:39:50.390 --> 00:39:52.159
I lived in Texas for a while,

00:39:52.392 --> 00:39:54.695
and it happened to be
how I got involved

00:39:54.728 --> 00:39:57.064
in environmental issues is,
my home was built

00:39:57.097 --> 00:40:00.133
on top of and adjacent to
two superfund sites.

00:40:03.837 --> 00:40:06.740
They had mixed chemicals
into it at the site

00:40:06.774 --> 00:40:11.879
that affected
the autonomic nervous system.

00:40:11.912 --> 00:40:13.413
I got sick from it

00:40:13.446 --> 00:40:16.784
and lost
all of my muscle strength.

00:40:16.817 --> 00:40:18.819
I developed hypoglycemia.

00:40:18.852 --> 00:40:20.420
I was in college at the time.

00:40:20.453 --> 00:40:21.622
I was on the dean's list,

00:40:21.655 --> 00:40:22.923
and all of a sudden,

00:40:22.956 --> 00:40:24.792
I couldn't remember anything
anymore.

00:40:24.825 --> 00:40:26.894
My children were exposed to it

00:40:26.927 --> 00:40:30.130
because their elementary school
was 200 yards away

00:40:30.163 --> 00:40:31.965
from pits full of vinyl chloride

00:40:31.999 --> 00:40:33.634
that they would open up,

00:40:33.667 --> 00:40:35.736
and it would just
blow into the subdivision.

00:40:35.769 --> 00:40:40.173
We had children being born
with reproductive birth defects,

00:40:40.207 --> 00:40:43.577
no ovaries or testes.

00:40:43.611 --> 00:40:46.647
There were significant increases
in that community,

00:40:46.680 --> 00:40:50.718
and ultimately, after six years
of fighting this,

00:40:50.751 --> 00:40:52.653
they closed the subdivision down

00:40:52.686 --> 00:40:54.187
and razed all the houses.

00:40:54.221 --> 00:40:57.224
[machinery clanking]

00:41:16.243 --> 00:41:20.213
Because of this mentality

00:41:20.247 --> 00:41:24.552
of better living with chemistry
that we have been sold,

00:41:24.585 --> 00:41:25.886
it's everywhere.

00:41:25.919 --> 00:41:27.688
It's pervasive.

00:41:45.005 --> 00:41:48.742
My father was military.

00:41:48.776 --> 00:41:50.243
When you grow up, I think,

00:41:50.277 --> 00:41:52.746
in a household
in that environment,

00:41:52.780 --> 00:41:55.248
you learn that you have
a responsibility

00:41:55.282 --> 00:42:00.253
to do the right thing
for other people, not just...

00:42:00.287 --> 00:42:02.790
You know, they're companies.

00:42:02.823 --> 00:42:04.057
They're not even people.

00:42:04.091 --> 00:42:05.726
They're corporations.

00:42:05.759 --> 00:42:07.595
They're legal entities,

00:42:07.628 --> 00:42:11.799
and I don't think you can
let somebody intimidate you.

00:42:34.688 --> 00:42:37.991
Not only are the canals
that they built

00:42:38.025 --> 00:42:40.260
to access the oil
in the first place

00:42:40.293 --> 00:42:42.796
destroying all the wetlands.

00:42:42.830 --> 00:42:45.332
There are constantly oil spills,

00:42:45.566 --> 00:42:47.835
something, oil leaks out here,

00:42:47.868 --> 00:42:49.336
and when they get done with it,

00:42:49.570 --> 00:42:52.973
it's just there,
and it's all on the bottom.

00:42:53.006 --> 00:42:55.108
They have old pipes
on the bottom.

00:42:55.142 --> 00:42:57.978
Whatever they aren't using,
they throw overboard.

00:42:58.011 --> 00:42:59.647
The only people
that ever see that

00:42:59.680 --> 00:43:01.815
is our fishermen
who work the bottom -

00:43:01.849 --> 00:43:03.951
our shrimpers,
the skimmer boats -

00:43:03.984 --> 00:43:05.352
because they run into it,

00:43:05.586 --> 00:43:06.887
and they skim it up
in their nets,

00:43:06.920 --> 00:43:09.022
or it shreds their nets all up.

00:43:13.861 --> 00:43:16.296
Every bit of the species
that are in that water

00:43:16.329 --> 00:43:18.999
that these guys
have traditionally fished -

00:43:19.032 --> 00:43:22.670
crab and finfish
and shrimp out here -

00:43:22.703 --> 00:43:25.338
there's less of it
for them to catch.

00:43:25.372 --> 00:43:28.175
The habitat destruction
that is occurring,

00:43:28.208 --> 00:43:30.678
if you took every fisherman
out of the water

00:43:30.711 --> 00:43:32.212
and you don't do something

00:43:32.245 --> 00:43:35.683
about that water quality
and the habitat,

00:43:35.716 --> 00:43:38.251
protecting the habitat
that the fisheries needs,

00:43:38.285 --> 00:43:40.754
it's gonna collapse.

00:43:45.726 --> 00:43:47.728
The people who work

00:43:47.761 --> 00:43:50.063
and live off
of these natural resources,

00:43:50.097 --> 00:43:51.398
it's hard work,

00:43:51.632 --> 00:43:54.935
but it also keeps you connected,

00:43:54.968 --> 00:43:56.403
and it's real
family-oriented.

00:43:56.637 --> 00:43:58.205
You take your kids along
when they're young,

00:43:58.238 --> 00:43:59.740
when you're working,

00:43:59.773 --> 00:44:01.742
and you keep them with you
on the boats.

00:44:01.775 --> 00:44:03.644
And they go to work,
and they learn a trade,

00:44:03.677 --> 00:44:05.045
and they can take care
of a family

00:44:05.078 --> 00:44:08.315
or have been able to
in the past.

00:44:08.348 --> 00:44:10.818
You know,
so it's real tight-knit.

00:44:10.851 --> 00:44:13.153
And all the money that they earn

00:44:13.186 --> 00:44:15.022
stays within the community.

00:44:15.055 --> 00:44:17.190
The money goes to the docks,
in their boats,

00:44:17.224 --> 00:44:18.992
for their motors,
for their nets,

00:44:19.026 --> 00:44:20.828
the boatbuilders, you know?

00:44:20.861 --> 00:44:24.364
And it sustains the community
as a whole.

00:44:33.140 --> 00:44:35.042
- This is a national treasure.

00:44:35.075 --> 00:44:36.276
It really is.

00:44:36.309 --> 00:44:38.111
People need to wake up
in this country

00:44:38.145 --> 00:44:39.747
and realize what they're losing

00:44:39.780 --> 00:44:42.049
when they lose
this estuary system

00:44:42.082 --> 00:44:43.784
here in coastal Louisiana.

00:44:50.758 --> 00:44:52.726
- When we lose this estuary,

00:44:52.760 --> 00:44:55.395
the Gulf of Mexico fisheries
are gonna collapse,

00:44:55.428 --> 00:45:00.934
because this is where
those species grow.

00:45:11.144 --> 00:45:12.312
- When I started,

00:45:12.345 --> 00:45:14.347
I had the optimism of the young,

00:45:14.381 --> 00:45:16.950
and I thought that
if you pointed out a problem,

00:45:16.984 --> 00:45:18.218
things would change.

00:45:18.251 --> 00:45:19.987
Well, it doesn't work that way.

00:45:20.020 --> 00:45:22.990
You've got to really work at it
to make things change.

00:45:27.394 --> 00:45:30.397
[machinery chugging
and grinding]

00:45:42.743 --> 00:45:45.345
As you look around Louisiana,
you say,

00:45:45.378 --> 00:45:47.147
"Well, they had
all this oil and gas.

00:45:47.180 --> 00:45:49.449
"Obviously, everybody here
must be well off.

00:45:49.482 --> 00:45:51.284
"And incomes must be high.

00:45:51.318 --> 00:45:53.053
And the road system
must be great."

00:45:53.086 --> 00:45:54.187
None of that is true.

00:45:54.221 --> 00:45:55.523
We have terrible road systems.

00:45:55.756 --> 00:45:57.424
Schools are in trouble
all the time.

00:45:57.457 --> 00:45:59.492
There's no money
for any public services.

00:45:59.527 --> 00:46:04.064
The state's
always in a fiscal problem.

00:46:04.097 --> 00:46:06.199
And yet billions of dollars
of oil and gas

00:46:06.233 --> 00:46:07.801
were removed from the state,

00:46:07.835 --> 00:46:09.870
and our per capita income

00:46:09.903 --> 00:46:11.438
is among the lowest
in the country.

00:46:11.471 --> 00:46:13.240
Our poverty rate's highest,

00:46:13.273 --> 00:46:14.441
next to Mississippi.

00:46:14.474 --> 00:46:16.076
Thank God for Mississippi,

00:46:16.109 --> 00:46:18.145
so we don't have to be last
in everything.

00:46:18.178 --> 00:46:20.981
And so we don't have much
to show for it

00:46:21.014 --> 00:46:22.816
except the waste that they left.

00:46:22.850 --> 00:46:24.818
And to me,
that's the real crime here

00:46:24.852 --> 00:46:27.487
is that you had
all this wonderful -

00:46:27.521 --> 00:46:29.156
all these wonderful resources,

00:46:29.189 --> 00:46:31.925
and the people
got very little of it.

00:46:53.413 --> 00:46:56.183
They used to provide,
like, 40% of our tax base.

00:46:56.216 --> 00:46:59.319
Now they provide maybe 15%,
10% or 15%.

00:46:59.352 --> 00:47:00.521
So it's much less.

00:47:00.554 --> 00:47:02.022
So the benefits coming in

00:47:02.055 --> 00:47:03.356
have gone down over the year,

00:47:03.390 --> 00:47:05.192
and the impacts have gone up.

00:47:05.225 --> 00:47:08.095
So at some point,
those lines cross,

00:47:08.128 --> 00:47:09.863
and Louisiana is a net loser

00:47:09.897 --> 00:47:12.099
because of having
oil and gas development.

00:47:12.132 --> 00:47:13.466
They still provide some jobs,

00:47:13.500 --> 00:47:16.403
but the oil industry
is about 3% of our jobs.

00:47:16.436 --> 00:47:21.074
It's just not that big
a part of our job base anymore.

00:47:21.108 --> 00:47:25.078
It became a problem, say,
in the 1920s, 1930s.

00:47:25.112 --> 00:47:26.346
People began to notice

00:47:26.379 --> 00:47:28.248
that the wastes
from the oil industry -

00:47:28.281 --> 00:47:31.084
which is wherever they drilled
a well in Louisiana,

00:47:31.118 --> 00:47:33.921
and they've probably
drilled 100,000 of them.

00:47:33.954 --> 00:47:37.024
They would also dredge out pits,

00:47:37.057 --> 00:47:38.458
just a hole in the ground.

00:47:38.491 --> 00:47:40.928
And in these pits,
they would put these wastes:

00:47:40.961 --> 00:47:43.096
salt water, muds, barytes,

00:47:43.130 --> 00:47:46.099
all these things they use
in the oil and gas industry.

00:47:46.133 --> 00:47:47.935
It's got hydrocarbons in it,
like oil.

00:47:47.968 --> 00:47:49.369
It's got heavy metals.

00:47:49.402 --> 00:47:52.272
We find arsenic
around these wells a lot.

00:47:52.305 --> 00:47:54.274
And it's got what's called
"produced water."

00:47:54.307 --> 00:47:55.909
It comes up with the oil,

00:47:55.943 --> 00:47:58.078
three, four times
the salinity of seawater.

00:47:58.111 --> 00:47:59.279
If you dump it on the ground,

00:47:59.312 --> 00:48:00.614
it kills everything it touches.

00:48:00.648 --> 00:48:02.516
So it would kill off
all these little valleys

00:48:02.550 --> 00:48:04.417
and creek beds and streams.

00:48:04.451 --> 00:48:06.419
And so when they left the lease,

00:48:06.453 --> 00:48:08.656
they would just
push the little pit in,

00:48:08.889 --> 00:48:10.624
a little dirt over it,

00:48:10.658 --> 00:48:12.593
but the landowner is left
with this mass of waste,

00:48:12.626 --> 00:48:14.461
which then seeps down
into the groundwater.

00:48:14.494 --> 00:48:16.229
And there's 100,000 of these
out there,

00:48:16.263 --> 00:48:17.898
and many of them
are still leaking.

00:48:17.931 --> 00:48:20.601
Landowners are just finally
learning about them.

00:48:20.634 --> 00:48:22.269
So it's another one
of those legacies.

00:48:22.302 --> 00:48:25.438
And they knew that these pits
were gonna leak.

00:48:25.472 --> 00:48:29.109
I've seen reports
from the '30s that say,

00:48:29.142 --> 00:48:31.278
"If you put salt water
in these unlined pits,

00:48:31.311 --> 00:48:33.280
it's gonna leak
down into the groundwater."

00:48:33.313 --> 00:48:34.648
They continued
to do it in Louisiana

00:48:34.682 --> 00:48:36.950
until the late '80s.

00:48:36.984 --> 00:48:39.119
Finally now, they are supposed
to line their pits,

00:48:39.152 --> 00:48:41.955
but we were the last state
in the nation to do it,

00:48:41.989 --> 00:48:44.457
and it's really too late
in many cases.

00:49:11.619 --> 00:49:14.087
Corruption is probably
the biggest problem,

00:49:14.121 --> 00:49:15.589
money and politics.

00:49:15.623 --> 00:49:17.457
Corruption,
people think of in terms,

00:49:17.490 --> 00:49:18.992
"Oh, somebody's
getting a payoff."

00:49:19.026 --> 00:49:20.193
Well, that's part of it,

00:49:20.227 --> 00:49:21.695
but it goes much deeper
than that.

00:49:21.729 --> 00:49:24.698
Once you begin to change

00:49:24.732 --> 00:49:26.967
the way an agency
does its business,

00:49:27.000 --> 00:49:28.301
once that happens,

00:49:28.335 --> 00:49:30.470
then the whole agency
begins to change,

00:49:30.504 --> 00:49:32.673
and it no longer
works for the people.

00:49:32.706 --> 00:49:36.276
It's what political scientists
call client capture.

00:49:36.309 --> 00:49:37.745
The agency becomes captured

00:49:37.978 --> 00:49:40.514
by the group
it's supposed to be regulating.

00:49:40.548 --> 00:49:42.516
And then the agency
serves that group,

00:49:42.550 --> 00:49:44.217
and it doesn't
serve the public anymore.

00:49:44.251 --> 00:49:46.086
The good people leave

00:49:46.119 --> 00:49:48.556
because they don't want to work
in that kind of environment,

00:49:48.589 --> 00:49:51.759
and you're left with a sort of
dead-in-the-water agency.

00:49:51.992 --> 00:49:54.662
And we have a number of those
in Louisiana.

00:49:54.695 --> 00:49:56.496
Even if you got the law
in place,

00:49:56.530 --> 00:49:58.666
industry has had a big say
in writing those rules.

00:49:58.699 --> 00:50:00.233
They would want
to take the first look

00:50:00.267 --> 00:50:01.468
at the regulations,

00:50:01.501 --> 00:50:02.736
and then they would edit them.

00:50:02.770 --> 00:50:04.371
And I resigned
from that program -

00:50:04.404 --> 00:50:06.540
the coastal management program -
over that.

00:50:12.780 --> 00:50:14.281
[lure plunks]

00:50:14.314 --> 00:50:17.751
[reel clicking]

00:50:17.785 --> 00:50:20.754
[vibrant piano music]

00:50:20.788 --> 00:50:28.796
♪ ♪

00:50:50.050 --> 00:50:52.052
- Every now and then,
you win one,

00:50:52.085 --> 00:50:53.253
so that's what keeps you going

00:50:53.286 --> 00:50:54.822
is that the work you're doing,

00:50:55.055 --> 00:50:57.758
in the long run,
is going to pay off.

00:50:57.791 --> 00:50:59.259
- Yee-haw!

00:50:59.292 --> 00:51:01.795
[lively music]

00:51:01.829 --> 00:51:05.498
- When I first started,
it was business and industry

00:51:05.533 --> 00:51:07.200
or government and industry
at the table.

00:51:07.234 --> 00:51:08.802
There was no place
for the communities.

00:51:08.836 --> 00:51:10.370
There was no voice.

00:51:10.403 --> 00:51:12.172
Now communities do have a voice.

00:51:12.205 --> 00:51:14.307
They have a place at the table
where they make decisions,

00:51:14.341 --> 00:51:15.509
and it makes changes

00:51:15.543 --> 00:51:17.244
and better water quality
in their areas.

00:51:17.277 --> 00:51:19.112
They're no longer
able to be dismissed.

00:51:19.146 --> 00:51:21.448
And I'd say,
probably 22 years ago,

00:51:21.481 --> 00:51:23.717
that wasn't the case at all.

00:51:26.086 --> 00:51:27.420
- It is my place.

00:51:27.454 --> 00:51:28.722
This is where I was born
and raised,

00:51:28.756 --> 00:51:30.123
and I want to do what I can
for it.

00:51:30.157 --> 00:51:31.391
I'd like it to be said

00:51:31.424 --> 00:51:32.793
that it's better
because I was here.

00:51:32.826 --> 00:51:36.329
I mean, that's why I did
what I did.

00:51:36.363 --> 00:51:38.298
I grew up in south Louisiana.

00:51:38.331 --> 00:51:40.834
You don't get rich doing -
serving in state government

00:51:40.868 --> 00:51:42.636
and bucking the oil industry

00:51:42.670 --> 00:51:45.338
or any other industry
in Louisiana.

00:51:48.275 --> 00:51:50.678
- You know, it's not just
the way you make your living.

00:51:50.711 --> 00:51:53.113
It's not just
that you live by the water.

00:51:53.146 --> 00:51:55.849
There's a connection
to the cycles of the Earth,

00:51:55.883 --> 00:51:58.218
because your life
revolves around that.

00:51:58.251 --> 00:52:00.220
And when you can't fish anymore,

00:52:00.253 --> 00:52:03.290
you start to lose
that connection to the Earth,

00:52:03.323 --> 00:52:07.127
and you lose the connection
to community and family.

00:52:07.160 --> 00:52:09.797
My grandbabies, some of them
are just a year old,

00:52:09.830 --> 00:52:11.799
and they're gonna be here
a long time.

00:52:11.832 --> 00:52:13.867
I want this to be there
for them.

00:52:13.901 --> 00:52:15.869
I want this life
to be there for them,

00:52:15.903 --> 00:52:18.338
if that's what they choose.

00:52:19.840 --> 00:52:21.474
If the fisheries isn't there,

00:52:21.509 --> 00:52:23.310
if we don't have clean water,

00:52:23.343 --> 00:52:25.478
I mean, they won't have that.

00:52:25.513 --> 00:52:27.848
And really, that's why I do it.

00:52:46.867 --> 00:52:49.837
[man singing in Cajun French]

00:52:49.870 --> 00:52:57.177
♪ ♪

00:53:00.347 --> 00:53:02.182
- Drill, baby, drill.

00:53:02.215 --> 00:53:03.684
Drill, baby, drill.

00:53:03.717 --> 00:53:04.952
Right there.

00:53:05.185 --> 00:53:06.486
[cheers and applause]

00:53:06.520 --> 00:53:08.589
There it is, yes.

00:53:08.622 --> 00:53:10.658
We must drill offshore.

00:53:10.691 --> 00:53:12.359
- Well, yes,
we need conservation,

00:53:12.392 --> 00:53:14.862
alternative fuels,
nuclear and many other things.

00:53:14.895 --> 00:53:16.564
We also need
more domestic production.

00:53:16.597 --> 00:53:18.465
You can come
off the coast of Louisiana,

00:53:18.498 --> 00:53:20.868
see how we're doing
with the most modern technology.

00:53:20.901 --> 00:53:23.604
- So today we're announcing
the expansion

00:53:23.637 --> 00:53:26.473
of offshore
oil and gas exploration.

00:53:26.507 --> 00:53:27.748
My administration will consider

00:53:27.775 --> 00:53:29.276
potential areas for development

00:53:29.309 --> 00:53:30.978
in the mid-
and south Atlantic

00:53:31.211 --> 00:53:33.647
and the Gulf of Mexico.

00:53:33.681 --> 00:53:34.682
[explosion]

00:53:34.715 --> 00:53:37.718
[flames roaring]

00:53:39.620 --> 00:53:42.623
[helicopter rotors whirring]

00:53:59.940 --> 00:54:01.809
- Everything
we can see at the moment

00:54:01.842 --> 00:54:04.978
suggests that the overall
environmental impacts of this

00:54:05.012 --> 00:54:06.547
will be very, very modest.

00:54:06.580 --> 00:54:09.249
We're sorry
for the massive disruption

00:54:09.282 --> 00:54:10.718
it's caused to their lives.

00:54:10.751 --> 00:54:12.653
And, you know, we're -
there's no one

00:54:12.686 --> 00:54:14.555
who wants this thing over
more than I do.

00:54:14.588 --> 00:54:15.889
You know, I'd like my life back.

00:54:33.440 --> 00:54:35.976
- We used to identify Louisiana
pre-Katrina and Rita

00:54:36.009 --> 00:54:37.778
and post-Katrina and Rita.

00:54:37.811 --> 00:54:40.848
And now it's pre-spill
and post-spill.

00:54:40.881 --> 00:54:44.752
We feel like life as we know it
is changed forever.

00:54:46.453 --> 00:54:51.058
- It's just unbelievably bad.

00:54:51.291 --> 00:54:52.926
When they wanted
to start burning

00:54:52.960 --> 00:54:54.928
the heavy portion of it,

00:54:54.962 --> 00:54:57.397
we had to insist
that it only be burned

00:54:57.430 --> 00:55:00.300
when the winds
were moving offshore.

00:55:00.333 --> 00:55:03.470
It was making an aerosol
of the hydrocarbons.

00:55:03.504 --> 00:55:06.339
It was moving onshore
way ahead of the spill

00:55:06.373 --> 00:55:08.542
and making people
very, very sick,

00:55:08.576 --> 00:55:10.711
giving them headaches, vomiting,

00:55:10.744 --> 00:55:12.846
rashes, burning eyes,

00:55:12.880 --> 00:55:16.750
and just disrupting life
all along the coastal areas.

00:55:19.853 --> 00:55:22.022
- This is the last thing
we need.

00:55:22.055 --> 00:55:25.893
We've got a hurricane season
approaching.

00:55:25.926 --> 00:55:27.895
This is the time of year
when, you know,

00:55:27.928 --> 00:55:29.597
we've got
a lot of birds breeding

00:55:29.630 --> 00:55:32.933
out on the barrier islands
and in the wetlands.

00:55:32.966 --> 00:55:35.803
The fish larvae
and other marine larvae

00:55:35.836 --> 00:55:38.739
are starting to enter the bays
and estuaries.

00:55:38.772 --> 00:55:41.108
Most marine organisms,

00:55:41.341 --> 00:55:43.711
when they come
into an oil slick,

00:55:43.744 --> 00:55:46.680
their instincts
don't tell them how to react,

00:55:46.714 --> 00:55:50.584
because it's not
a natural phenomenon for them.

00:55:53.053 --> 00:55:54.555
- It's just gonna wipe out

00:55:54.588 --> 00:55:57.024
these coastal communities
as we know it,

00:55:57.057 --> 00:55:59.026
because there will not be
a mechanism

00:55:59.059 --> 00:56:00.561
for them to earn a living

00:56:00.594 --> 00:56:05.065
on the natural resources
in Louisiana.

00:56:05.098 --> 00:56:07.935
- We really believed
that there were enough

00:56:07.968 --> 00:56:11.471
fail-safe measures
in place on those rigs

00:56:11.505 --> 00:56:16.376
that an ecological disaster
of this size couldn't happen.

00:56:17.745 --> 00:56:20.681
- This is something
totally different.

00:56:20.714 --> 00:56:23.851
This is something
that they can't control,

00:56:23.884 --> 00:56:26.119
they don't know how to control.

00:56:26.153 --> 00:56:29.156
It is just heartbreaking
and infuriating

00:56:29.389 --> 00:56:32.893
that our legislators
relaxed the rules

00:56:32.926 --> 00:56:35.028
and allowed them to do this

00:56:35.062 --> 00:56:37.097
when they didn't have
the technology

00:56:37.130 --> 00:56:40.400
to take care of it
if something like this happened.

00:56:40.433 --> 00:56:42.402
What they've done here

00:56:42.435 --> 00:56:45.138
is wiped out
these coastal communities,

00:56:45.172 --> 00:56:47.440
put us all out of business.

00:56:47.474 --> 00:56:49.877
The marinas,
the charter captains,

00:56:49.910 --> 00:56:51.579
the commercial fishermen,

00:56:51.612 --> 00:56:53.647
nobody can do anything.

00:56:53.681 --> 00:56:55.616
Nobody can go to work.

00:56:55.649 --> 00:56:59.452
They're angry,
and they're scared.

00:56:59.486 --> 00:57:02.189
Everybody is, like,
shell-shocked,

00:57:02.422 --> 00:57:06.126
and nobody knows what to do.

00:57:06.159 --> 00:57:10.163
How do you recover
everything that you've lost?

00:57:12.766 --> 00:57:16.737
- Oh, the oil industry
completely drives this state.

00:57:16.770 --> 00:57:19.740
Committees
like Natural Resources

00:57:19.773 --> 00:57:21.174
in our legislature

00:57:21.208 --> 00:57:23.611
are headed up
by Exxon executives

00:57:23.644 --> 00:57:26.213
and people like that.

00:57:26.446 --> 00:57:28.816
It's - the oil industry

00:57:28.849 --> 00:57:31.151
ultimately choose
the ruling elite

00:57:31.184 --> 00:57:33.621
who run Louisiana.

00:57:35.222 --> 00:57:36.890
- It's one of the costs of oil

00:57:36.924 --> 00:57:39.126
that's never figured
into the price of oil,

00:57:39.159 --> 00:57:41.061
which is why gasoline
is so cheap,

00:57:41.094 --> 00:57:42.763
because we don't
put all the costs in,

00:57:42.796 --> 00:57:44.632
which is bad economics.

00:57:44.665 --> 00:57:48.135
Certainly,
it's bad environmentalism.

00:57:48.168 --> 00:57:51.004
- BP's at fault or Transocean,

00:57:51.038 --> 00:57:53.974
because it's their equipment
that failed,

00:57:54.007 --> 00:58:00.514
but we Americans share
a fair amount of the blame.

00:58:00.548 --> 00:58:02.783
Most of us are in denial

00:58:02.816 --> 00:58:05.953
about the whole
energy situation.

00:58:05.986 --> 00:58:08.488
The reason they're out there
getting the oil is,

00:58:08.522 --> 00:58:12.492
we demand it,
and they can still make money.

00:58:12.526 --> 00:58:14.494
BP or Exxon, whoever else,

00:58:14.528 --> 00:58:17.865
is not gonna go drill
in one-mile-deep waters

00:58:17.898 --> 00:58:20.200
if they can't make money.

00:58:20.233 --> 00:58:25.806
But they can make money
because of our energy policy.

00:58:25.839 --> 00:58:28.642
[waves crashing]

00:58:28.676 --> 00:58:30.611
- They're gonna keep drilling,

00:58:30.644 --> 00:58:32.746
and it's gonna happen again.

00:58:32.780 --> 00:58:34.782
- The industry
is not gonna change.

00:58:34.815 --> 00:58:36.950
The federal agencies
might tighten up some.

00:58:36.984 --> 00:58:38.285
I mean, they'd be fools not to,

00:58:38.519 --> 00:58:40.654
but the oil industry
is pretty powerful.

00:58:40.688 --> 00:58:42.590
I'm sure
they're up there lobbying

00:58:42.623 --> 00:58:44.124
in the halls of legislature

00:58:44.157 --> 00:58:46.594
and the halls of the agency
every day, every hour.

00:58:48.295 --> 00:58:49.630
- We don't give up.

00:58:49.663 --> 00:58:50.931
We're very tenacious.

00:58:50.964 --> 00:58:52.299
We love where we live.

00:58:52.533 --> 00:58:53.934
And we think, when we live here,

00:58:53.967 --> 00:58:56.003
it's our duty
to protect that environment,

00:58:56.036 --> 00:58:57.738
protect our communities.

00:58:57.771 --> 00:59:02.710
And so I'm just so sorry
that I lived to see this.

00:59:06.313 --> 00:59:07.915
This should be
a giant wake-up call

00:59:07.948 --> 00:59:09.082
for all of us.

00:59:09.116 --> 00:59:10.317
We're addicted to oil.

00:59:19.126 --> 00:59:23.664
- I saw somebody yesterday
go into a store.

00:59:23.697 --> 00:59:25.933
They were driving
a big, huge SUV.

00:59:25.966 --> 00:59:28.268
It happened to be
quite hot yesterday.

00:59:28.301 --> 00:59:30.070
They left their car running

00:59:30.103 --> 00:59:31.772
while they went
into the store -

00:59:31.805 --> 00:59:34.241
they were in the store
probably 15 to 20 minutes -

00:59:34.274 --> 00:59:35.809
and the reason being

00:59:35.843 --> 00:59:38.812
so as their car interior
wouldn't get hot.

00:59:38.846 --> 00:59:41.682
Well, as long as we have
that sort of attitude,

00:59:41.715 --> 00:59:44.017
we're gonna have to go offshore
to find oil,

00:59:44.051 --> 00:59:49.590
and we're gonna have more
of these sorts of accidents.

00:59:49.623 --> 00:59:51.191
One of our former governors

00:59:51.224 --> 00:59:54.027
felt Louisiana oil
was being sold too cheap

00:59:54.061 --> 00:59:56.063
to the rest of the nation.

00:59:56.096 --> 00:59:59.767
His idea was, "Well,
we'll shut down the pipelines."

00:59:59.800 --> 01:00:03.604
And his slogan was,
"Let them freeze in the dark."

01:00:03.637 --> 01:00:06.106
And until something
like that happens,

01:00:06.139 --> 01:00:09.109
where the U.S.
has to freeze in the dark,

01:00:09.142 --> 01:00:11.679
I don't see a change
in our energy policy

01:00:11.712 --> 01:00:13.981
and, therefore, no real change

01:00:14.014 --> 01:00:18.351
in the desire to go deeper
and deeper for oil.

01:00:25.626 --> 01:00:28.395
[mellow bluesy music]

01:00:28.629 --> 01:00:36.637
♪ ♪