On the banks of the Tangipahoa River in South Louisiana, thick oil slicks and chemical odors ripple across the water. Five weeks after an oil and lubricant facility exploded, sending oily soot as far as 40 miles away, Black residents still complain that the chemical smell is so strong that it wakes them up in the middle of the night.
Over the past week, federal cleanup crews and state regulators have scrambled to deploy booms and barriers along the river to contain the oily goop. The hive of urgent activity was partially inspired by Gov. Jeff Landry’s public scolding of the federal Environmental Protection Agency on Sept. 28. The Republican leader called out the EPA for slow progress and demanded faster action. For over a month, residents in Roseland, Louisiana, have made the same calls with little to show for it.
Now, the EPA and Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality say they’re increasing their response to remove millions of gallons of contaminated water and restore the land for nearby residents.
But state documents show that the agency’s response, which has left some residents living with a thick, black, chemical-ladden substance on their homes, plants, and local waters, has faced both internal and external threats. For at least one day in September, cleanup crews did not work because of “funding issues.” And on Sept. 22, work was suspended after workers said a man “in possession of a rifle fired shots in the direction of response personnel.”
The Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office confirmed that someone was arrested after the incident, but their motives were unknown. In recent years, federal workers have faced an uptick in threats.
Last year, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the EPA temporarily suspended field work because of violent threats fueled by disinformation and conspiracy theories. The sheriff’s office also confirmed that workers and officials in South Louisiana received “threats” within five days of the explosion in late August.
On Monday, after Landry’s scolding, the EPA held a town hall in Roseland, where about a dozen residents attended.
The EPA has faced scrutiny for not helping residents clean up the soot on their properties and for being slow to clean up the contaminated river. The agency also declined to test the soil of residents’ properties. An independent tester found that local soil had traces of roughly 30 different toxins and chemicals.
A letter shared with Capital B and sent to the EPA in September by residents and advocates from the Louisiana Environmental Action Network – which plans to sue the agency for its slow response – reflected both the immediate anxieties and the practical frustrations faced by the Roseland community. The letter articulated gaps in federal response and pushed for broader, more urgent EPA action.
“It is time critical, as people are reporting negative health effects every day,” the letter stated.
Sherry Foster, an attendee who said the canal behind her home is contaminated with the toxic substance, said she has barely slept over the past five weeks. “There is anxiety about what you’re breathing in and having these headaches.”
Marvin Vernon, another resident who attended the town hall, said he left with more questions than answers. “One of the questions was, ‘Do you have any idea of what is the long-range effect [of the oily soot contaminating the area]?’ They didn’t have any answer,” he said.
The EPA’s cleanup, which has employed roughly 275 workers, has largely depended on federal Superfund dollars, which are used for cleaning up the country’s most toxic sites. But the program is under serious threat, which might suggest why workers were facing uncertainty around payment last month. The cleanup costs jumped from $6 million in late August to roughly $40 million by last week.
The EPA did not respond to questions surrounding the cleanup process, funding issues, or where and how the 8 million gallons of contaminated water and soil collected by the agency has been disposed of.
The Trump administration has called for halving the EPA’s budget for 2026, bringing it from $9.14 billion to $4.16 billion. That is the steepest reduction in agency funding in decades.
Even before the disaster, legal advocates warned that these staffing and budget reductions would halt cleanups at hundreds of toxic locations nationwide and worsen delays in communities like Roseland where vulnerable Black and low-income residents may be left at higher risk for long-term health impacts from industrial disasters and hazardous waste.
“Extreme cuts to toxic cleanup programs like the Superfund Program would compound exposures to hazardous pollution, and the elimination of environmental justice programs would ensure that the most vulnerable communities are the hardest hit,” a group of more than 50 environmental organizations wrote in a letter to the U.S. House of Representatives in July.
Under President Donald Trump’s budget, the cleanup program will see a $254 million cut in funding, and congressional appropriations for the program are set to be eliminated entirely. The administration claims that new taxes on polluters and funding made available under the Biden administration will help sufficiently finance the program. Experts note this plan is deeply insufficient in addressing urgent needs.
This is because the funding cut is coupled with about one-third of EPA workers losing or leaving their positions and the shuttering of key laboratories, which may greatly diminish technical expertise and slow down the complex, multiyear remediation process required for heavily contaminated sites.
“My soil, my grass is black,” Roseland resident Bernard Dyson told EPA workers on Monday.
Nick Roff, the on-scene coordinator for the EPA, said his team is doing their best. “I can’t really speak to that, but we have a team looking into that. It’s a team of experts looking into that,” Roff said in response to community members’ questions about toxic contamination.
The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences says even small toxic exposures can alter lives, as research shows that low-level contamination from pollutants like benzene, lead, and fine particulate matter can trigger chronic illnesses, developmental problems, and long-term mental health stress in affected communities.