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Why does a plant need to come to Smoke School?
Smoke school opacity violations
I hope you were joking with Jeff, the crappie fisherman when you said you don’t bother with things like smoke school. I remember back when I was a young buck when I first hired on as a Louisiana DEQ inspector back in 1984 after 13 years of environmental work for Uncle Sam in the Air Force. I was just a little gung ho in the early days. The economy down here was rotten because the bottom just fell out over the offshore oil wells. Louisiana derived all of the state income from offshore drilling. The state had a previous hiring freeze which meant that I had to spend a year on unemployment, food stamps, and substitute teaching at Caldwell Parish High School.
When Daddy’s long time friend Governor Edwin Edwards got me a job with the DEQ and I hired on the state still needed the money. We had a pay freeze almost my entire 17 year career with the state. They gave me a clipboard, a check list, and the files for a few plants up and down the Mississippi. I was an inspector and I was dangerous because all I had was a checklist and a clipboard. We all knew the state needed money and we all knew that each violation had a potential for $30,000 quick bucks.
Many mornings just for the lack of experience in inspections, I would put on my dark sunglasses; they make it easier to see smoke from long distances. River road from Baton Rouge to New Orleans was known as cancer alley and it was wall to wall with plants with smokestacks. Anything above 20% opacity stands out like a sore thumb. With the dark sunglasses you can see it for miles and miles.
If I saw a violation, I would park out at the plant gate and I could almost hear the radio conversations between the guard house and the environmental coordinator. The DEQ is here. We would spend the day together link long lost friends. One of the plant managers even asked me if I had any friends. I said I can’t think of a single one. He said no wonder; nobody wants to see your truck come up to the gate.
The violations came out like a turtle falling off a log. Smoke over your permitted 20% average, failure to have certified opacity readers on hand, failure to take required routine opacity readings, failure to document compliance, failure to follow routine maintenance on your control equipment. And that was just a start; I would spend the day looking for more. I actually had a plant manager that said go ahead make my day. We make a million dollars a minute and if you think I am concerned about a $30,000 fine, you are wrong. I said it is not the fines that get you it is the publicity that makes the stock market fall and puts you on the welfare line when the company closes the plant. Then there is the class action lawsuits, I wish I had a dime for every time I had to go to court over these. Read this story if you have a strong stomach.
We have smoke schools at the following locations:
Actually the plant manager hit the nail on the head, I did not have any friends. I quit being an inspector and started smoke school. Now each and every one of you are my friends and I see you all every 6 months, and I love it. I think you will love us too. Here are our locations.
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