♪♪
-Boom.
Boom!
-Boom, boom, boom.
-No one has control over what goes in that air.
-I had these drops to fall on my neck.
It looks like oil.
-First it was itching, and then it turned to a sore,
and I had the sores all over my body.
-They are the only commercial facility in United States
that open burns and open detonates
very toxic hazardous waste.
-They are polluting the waters,
they're polluting the land, they're polluting the crops.
-I was here before they was,
so why did I have to move away from my home because of them?
-Who decides who gets sick?
Who decides who lives and who dies?
-Clean Harbors is located in a wooded area
surrounded by timber ground.
You cannot say the burn pits themselves.
We're gonna get up as close as we can.
Usually the detonation starts about 8:00.
Can you hear it? You see two plumes coming up.
They're black plumes on the horizon over there.
This one sounds like it's almost like fireworks going.
I'm Brenda Vallee. I live in Colfax, Louisiana,
and we're working against open air burning and detonation
to stop at Clean Harbors facility.
Clean Harbors Colfax is an open burn,
open detonation facility
which handles the destruction of explosives and ignitable waste
that is too dangerous to be put in the landfills.
-The military has a lot of ignition material
that's expired. They send that waste here.
Disneyland has expired fireworks.
They send those expired fireworks here.
They are the only commercial facility in United States
that open burns and open detonates.
They put the waste on the tray, they add diesel to it,
they remotely ignite it and the smoke goes wherever.
Open burning here is something like 2,000% cheaper
than in contained burn systems.
So this is a really cheap way of getting rid of it.
-That plume was continuing to go off up into the atmosphere.
It goes onto the ground, it goes onto your vegetation.
You can see the pond that is brought out here.
I would not recommend any fish out of this.
When I get home, I will call in a complaint to DEQ
so that it will be recorded for this event.
Good morning. This is Brenda Vallee.
I wish to file a complaint against Clean Harbors Colfax,
and there are several events that I'm going to give you.
♪♪
-When the smoke goes up into the air,
it comes down and deposited
in a lot of the communities around here.
A whole host of volatile organics,
such as benzene, toluene, and xylene,
which are very, very toxic.
And you can see the sores on their arms where it comes down,
or on their neck.
And so it's in direct contact with their body.
They inhale it and it goes right to their lungs.
And the human health impacts correlate to the toxic chemicals
that are being released when they do the open burn,
open detonation.
When you look at the Cancer Registry,
particularly for Colfax area,
you find excess cancer rates here.
And the Department of Environmental Quality
for the state of Louisiana has allowed those chemicals
to be processed at this facility.
-Colfax is a small, rural town.
Population is predominantly of the African American descent.
The economic level of the people is not very high.
The Rock community is located on this small country road
that ends at the property boundary
of the Clean Harbors Colfax facility.
They are the closest neighbors to what goes on.
-We have this terrible problem
of we're trying to live a natural life.
This is Anna. She's my daughter.
She's been working with me now about three years
and going to take over doing this hopefully one day.
Bees are a lot like people.
Bees are very sensitive to the environment.
I'm concerned about Clean Harbors
polluting the environment.
That's why I keep no bees located close to their facility.
They can say what they want to, but they are polluting.
I'm not a scientist,
but I promise you I observe nature, what goes on.
And you can see the change
in the environment around Clean Harbors.
Never in my life can I understand
how DEQ has allowed a open burn facility in an area
that is almost pristine wilderness still.
We have the largest forest area in Louisiana.
We were known for recreational hunting and fishing
and just relaxed lifestyle up here.
-Clean Harbors has been operating here since 2002.
The facility is not visible.
The only visible signs we see is what comes up into the air.
The open burning situation began as a small facility.
People didn't notice it.
It became a situation for me to be concerned about
when they began transporting material here from Minden.
-A million pounds of explosives --
that's what caused the evacuation
of an entire Louisiana town.
-They had a bad situation in the town of Minden, Louisiana.
-About an hour ago, we confirmed that it was again
an explosion that happened at Camp Minden.
-This was on a federal facility.
-They wanted to open burn in Minden, too.
People told them no.
They actually put up a real good fight against them.
They finally had to build the burn chamber,
but theirs was disposed of safely.
That's what I ask all the time.
What is the difference between the people in Minden
and the people in Colfax?
To me that's environmental discrimination.
They get clean air in Minden.
We get dirty, polluted air in Colfax.
I don't believe that's right.
♪♪
-We began experiencing very loud detonations,
much more black plumes.
The windows in the houses were shaking.
The foundations of the houses would shake.
Pictures would fall off the wall.
No one was making this up.
-This was just on top of his greenhouse here
and this is what you get.
This is actually after we power washed the greenhouse,
trying to clean it up. The way the wind blows,
we predominantly get a lot of the plumes
that come from Clean Harbors this way.
-Father, we thank you for starting us
on another day's journey.
Oh Father, we thank you because you've been so good to us.
Oh Father, you have brought us from a mighty long way.
Oh Father, we are so grateful, that's why we say we thank you.
Oh Father, elevate us, Lord, where we can stand on your word.
-Well, I'm retired, medical retired,
19 years' service.
Did two tours to Iraq.
During my tours, I was on the front line.
So I saw a lot of action,
like more action than I wanted to see.
-Yeah.
-Coming back home, being diagnosed with PTSD,
it was very difficult to try to,
you know, be in the area that I love being in,
you know, the area where I'm from.
-Yes.
-Because of the noise that was made by Clean Harbors.
You know, because of the bombs and sound like,
you know, rattling the trailer.
It's the same feeling, the exact same feeling
when I was in Iraq and them bombs went off.
Certain smells, certain noises, it would trigger the PTSD.
And it's sad that I can't be around my family
because of Clean Harbors. -Right.
-Because, you know -- Because of the noises.
One of the things that I suffer with
after my deployment was drug addiction.
But all that did at the time was numb the pain.
-Yeah.
-But that's what I had to do in order to survive.
I felt like that's what I had to do in order to survive.
I was here before they was,
so why did I have to move away from my home because of them?
-Yeah. -From serving my country?
-The open burn has continued here,
because they have a lot of political connections.
Historically, Clean Harbors has had thousands of violations.
The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality
has one of the lowest rates of enforcement.
In the case of Clean Harbors Colfax,
they have been operating under an expired permit
for about eight years now.
DEQ issued the denial for the open burn renewal permit
in January of 2020.
Even though they were denied the right,
they'll probably open burn for many years
until the issue of the contained burn is permitted,
constructed and evaluated.
-These big corporations only care
about one thing -- profit.
And some of them don't care how they get it.
And if they sacrifice a few people along the way,
they really don't care.
We're not lawyers, we're just common ordinary people
trying to improve our situation, our environment.
-Oh, Lord, we ask you to let our hearts
go out to those who are in the storm, Lord.
The storm of life is raging.
But Father, in the name of Jesus,
wherever that hurricane hits.
-You know, we're supposed to be neighborly in this world.
Until my last breath,
I will be fighting against what they're doing there.
And most probably my last nickel.
I don't plan on moving.
I plan on making this my last place on earth,
with clean air, clean water and clean land.
-People have asked me, have you considered moving?
You have Clean Harbors up there.
The answer really is no. This is where I grew up.
It's like taking somebody and just rip them out like that.
Let's just rip it out and throw it away and move.
-♪ In the name of Jesus ♪
♪ Satan, you have to flee ♪
♪ Tell us who shall stand before us ♪
♪ When we call on that great name? ♪
♪ Jesus, Jesus ♪
♪ Jesus ♪
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