An Incomplete Solution: Oil and Water in Louisiana
Craig E. Colten
+ Author Affiliations
Craig E. Colten is the Carl O. Sauer Professor in the Department of Geography and Anthropology at Louisiana State University
A series of major calamities in recent years has placed the national spotlight on the lower Mississippi River industrial complex?a sinuous arrangement of petrochemical plants and working-class communities set amid the sugarcane fields on the alluvial floodplain. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita damaged offshore oil rigs and onshore refineries in 2005, caused oil releases, and increased gasoline prices, thereby exposing the region?s significant position in the energy economy. The 2010 Deepwater Horizon event showcased the environmental costs of extractive activities; and the near-record Mississippi River flood of 2011 disrupted waterborne commerce and raised the specter of levee failures. As those events displayed, this nationally prominent ensemble of industries occupies a location susceptible to a host of environmental forces and a place where industrial activities have produced dramatic consequences. Testing the environment?s capacity to absorb human impacts has been going on for decades and has left enduring traces on the Louisiana landscape...
