Author of book on Marine Shale will speak here Thursday

The author of a book about the Marine Shale controversy, from which environmental and political ripples are still felt after nearly four decades, is coming Thursday to Morgan City.
Dr. John W. Sutherlin of the University of Louisiana at Monroe, author of “Playing With Fire: The Strange Case of Marine Shale Processors,” will appear 4-7 p.m. Thursday at The Frame Shop and Gallery Coffee, 708 Front St.
Sutherlin, who wrote the book with law student Daniel Elliot Gonzalez, will sign autographs and take part in a question and answer session.
Sutherlin’s view of the Marine Shale saga makes it a strange case indeed.
Businessman Jack Kent Sr. developed a plan to use a 275-foot incinerator at his Amelia site to turn hazardous waste into glass-like pellets that could be used for road-paving and other purposes. Sutherlin said it was part of an ill-fated plan to make Louisiana the nation’s hazardous waste handler.
Marine Shale began incinerating waste in 1984. Kent’s assertion that he ran a recycling operation, rather than a hazardous waste operation, was the rationale for avoiding some of the environmental permits he would have otherwise needed, Sutherlin said in a phone interview.
The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality was new and rapidly developing a reputation for being friendly to business.
But fate began to turn against Marine Shale. The election of Buddy Roemer as governor in 1987 brought a new emphasis on the environment and pollution control. Roemer appointed Paul Templet to head the DEQ, and Templet took a tougher line on pollution generally and on Marine Shale in particular.
Five cases of neuroblastoma, a central nervous system cancer usually found in children, were identified in the Amelia area. No definitive link between the cancers and Marine Shale operations was established. But a group of mothers formed South Louisiana Against Pollution and made their voices felt at public hearings.
In 1990, the state and federal governments sued Kent and Marine Shale, alleging illegal operation of a hazardous waste facility. The cases wore on for 16 years — Marine Shale ceased operations in 1996 — before an agreement among the governments, Kent, Marine Shale and two companies that had disposed of waste in Amelia resulted in a $15 million settlement.
The agreement set aside money for a cleanup at Marine Shale, a process that wasn’t completed until 2013. Kent was prohibited from operating any other hazardous waste businesses.
The outcome looks like a win for pro-environment forces, but the case had other implications, Sutherlin believes.
For one, Kent vigorously fought Roemer’s reelection in 1991, when the incumbent governor finished out of the runoff that developed between former Gov. Edwin Edwards and former Klansman David Duke.
“The reason we had the so-called Runoff from Hell was Marine Shale,” Sutherlin said.
Pro Publica, the online investigative reporting operation, reported that Kent spent $400,000 to defeat Roemer in 1991.