Marshall Ramsey: Cats & Dogs
At least Francine wasn’t a lie.
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Drax receives another fine for air pollution violations in Gloster
The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality has issued another fine to the United Kingdom-based company Drax for 2022 air emissions violations at its wood pellet plant in Gloster.
The company first announced the penalty on Tuesday. MDEQ’s announcement came a day later.
Drax’s Gloster facility, Amite BioEnergy, released 50% more than its permitted limit of a group of chemicals known as Hazardous Air Pollutants, or HAPs, in 2022. The plant also released 84% more, or almost double, than its permitted limit of methanol, a type of HAP, that same year.
MDEQ fined the facility $225,000, making it the third time the state has fined Drax since its plant opened in 2016. In 2020, MDEQ fined Drax $2.5 million, one of the largest Clean Air Act penalties in state history, for releasing over three times the legal limit for Volatile Organic Compounds, or VOCs, since the plant opened. Drax didn’t come into compliance until 2021, almost five years later.
MDEQ also fined Drax $110,000 in 2019 for recordkeeping and monitoring violations, as well as for excessive use of a fire pump engine.
The plant, one of the largest employers in the area, processes wood into pellets that Drax then sends back to the United Kingdom. Wood pellet companies, including Drax and Enviva, send pellets made in Mississippi and other Southern states back to Europe and Asia, where countries use the biomass as a way of meeting their clean energy goals. However, a large group of scientists and conservationists from around the world have criticized the practice, arguing that using wood pellets for fuel actually increases the amount of carbon in the atmosphere.
Extended exposure of large amounts of HAPs can increase the chances of health effects such as cancer, damage to the immune system, neurological, reproductive, developmental, and respiratory issues among other symptoms, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Since learning of the $2.5 million fine in 2020, a group of Gloster residents have alleged that people living near Amite BioEnergy have experienced health issues, including respiratory symptoms, caused by the plant’s emissions.
This week’s fine requires Drax to pay $150,000 directly to MDEQ, and use the remaining $75,000 to build a dust suppression screen. In addition to their concerns around air and noise pollution, residents living near the plant have said that dust from the facility often blows onto their property. Drax will spend an additional $75,000 to build the screen, the company said. MDEQ’s order requires the screen to be built within the next 300 days.
Mississippi Today released a story in April exploring the arrival of the wood pellet industry in the state, how the industry took advantage of the economic voids in rural communities, and the environmental and health concerns that followed.
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Francine weakens inland, leaving behind flooding and widespread power outages
MORGAN CITY, La. (AP) — Francine weakened Thursday after striking Louisiana as a Category 2 hurricane that knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses, sent storm surge rushing into coastal communities and raised flood fears in New Orleans and beyond as drenching rains spread over the northern Gulf Coast.
New Orleans awoke to widespread power outages and debris-covered streets. Just before sunrise, street lights on some blocks were working but large swaths of the city were without power. The roar of home generators was evident outside some houses.
Some 3 to 6 inches (8 to 15 centimeters) of rain were possible in parts of Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia and the Florida Panhandle, with up to 10 inches (25 centimeters) possible in some spots in parts of Alabama and Florida, forecasters said, warning of the potential threat of scattered flash flooding as farflung as Jackson, Mississippi; Birmingham, Alabama; Memphis, Tennessee; and Atlanta.
Francine slammed the Louisiana coast Wednesday evening with 100 mph (155 kph) winds in coastal Terrebonne Parish, battering a fragile coastal region that hasn’t fully recovered from a series of devastating hurricanes in 2020 and 2021. It then moved at a fast clip toward New Orleans, pounding the city with torrential rains.
In New Orleans, rushing water nearly enveloped a pickup truck in an underpass, trapping the driver inside. A man who lives nearby grabbed a hammer, waded into the waist-high water, smashed the window and pulled the driver out. It was all captured on live TV by a WDSU-TV news crew Wednesday night.
After guiding the man to shore, Miles Crawford said: “I just had to go in there are do it.”
“I’m a nurse, so got to save lives, right?” Crawford, an emergency room nurse at University Medical Center, said seconds after the rescue. In an interview later outside his home, Crawford had a large bandage on his hand, cut in the rescue.
“I’m used to high-stress, high-level things on a daily basis,” he said. “We deal with things like that all the time, so it was nothing out of the ordinary.”
There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries. TV news broadcasts from coastal communities showed waves from nearby lakes, rivers and Gulf waters thrashing sea walls. Water poured into city streets amid blinding downpours. Oak and cypress trees leaned in the high winds, and some utility poles swayed back and forth.
Water was receding early Thursday in Jefferson Parish, where streets flooded, but canals were still high, parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng said in a social media post. They pumped through the night, but there were sewer system problems and they couldn’t keep up with the storm, she said.
There had not been any major injuries or deaths, Sheng said.
“Let’s keep that going,” she said, asking residents to give the parish time to clear the streets, noting that the hazards after a storm can sometimes be more dangerous than the storm itself.
As the sun rose Thursday in Morgan City, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) from where the storm’s center made landfall, Jeffrey Beadle, 67, emerged from the hotel room where he had sheltered for the night as the streets flooded and blasts of wind battered town.
Beadle left his home in low-lying Bayou Louis, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) outside town, on Wednesday afternoon as the rain picked up and left almost all his possessions there. He had lived there for 30 years without suffering any major damage but he was worried this time would be different because his home had been right in the hurricane’s path. He had loaded his car and was preparing to return to check on his home.
“There’s nobody over on that end I can call,” he said. “I don’t know what I am going to, bruh. Hope everything’s good.”
The storm was downgraded Thursday from a tropical storm to a tropical depression with maximum sustained winds of 35 mph (56 kph) as it churned north-northeast over Mississippi near 12 mph (19 kph) , the National Hurricane Center said. Francine was expected to continue weakening, becoming a post-tropical cyclone later in the day, and to slow down as it turns to the north over the next day, moving over central and northern Mississippi through early Friday.
Power outages in Louisiana topped 390,000 early Thursday, according to the tracking site poweroutage.us, with an additional 46,000 outages reported in Mississippi.
Lafourche Parish sheriff’s deputies helped evacuate 26 people, including many small children, trapped by rising water in housing units in Thibodaux on Wednesday evening and transported most of them to an emergency shelter, Sheriff Craig Webre said in a news release. Deputies rescued residents from rising waters in other areas in Thibodaux and in the Kraemer community.
The sixth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, Francine drew fuel from exceedingly warm Gulf of Mexico waters, strengthening to a Category 2 storm before landfall. It weakened late Wednesday to a tropical storm.
In addition to torrential rains, there was a lingering threat of spin-off tornadoes from the storm Thursday in Florida and Alabama.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said the National Guard would fan out to parishes impacted by Francine. They have food, water, nearly 400 high-water vehicles, about 100 boats and 50 helicopters to respond to the storm, including for possible search-and-rescue operations.
Since the mid-19th century, some 57 hurricanes have tracked over or made landfall in Louisiana, according to The Weather Channel. Among them are some of the strongest, costliest and deadliest storms in U.S. history.
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This story was originally published by The Associated Press and is distributed through a partnership between Mississippi Today and The AP.
Cline reported from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Associated Press writers Kevin McGill in New Orleans, Curt Anderson in St. Petersburg, Florida, and Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, contributed to this story.
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Hurricane Francine, now a Category 2 storm, will bring destructive winds and flooding to Louisiana and Mississippi
MORGAN CITY, La. (AP) — Hurricane Francine barreled toward Louisiana on Wednesday strengthening to a Category 2 storm that could bring deadly storm surge, widespread flooding and destructive winds to Louisiana and Mississippi.
The hurricane was expected to make landfall in the evening, crashing into a fragile coastal region that hasn’t fully recovered from a series of devastating hurricanes in 2020 and 2021.
Francine drew fuel from exceedingly warm Gulf of Mexico waters, strengthening from a Category 1 to a Category 2 storm, with winds of 96 to 110 mph (155 to 175 kph), the National Hurricane Center.
A hurricane warning was in effect along the Louisiana coast from Cameron east to Grand Isle, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of New Orleans, according to the center. A storm surge warning stretched from the Mississippi-Alabama border to the Alabama-Florida border. Such a warning means life-threatening flooding could occur.
The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency said it distributed more than 100,000 sandbags to the southern part of the state and the Department of Education reported a number of school district closures for Wednesday and Thursday.
Francine is the sixth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season. Much of Louisiana and Mississippi could get 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters) of rain, with the possibility of 12 inches (30 centimeters) in some spots, Brad Reinhart, a senior hurricane specialist at the hurricane center.
The hurricane center said parts of Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle were at risk of “considerable” flash and urban flooding starting Wednesday. The lower Mississippi Valley and lower Tennessee Valley could experience flooding later in the week as the soggy remnants of Francine sweep inland.
“I know that we have been through a lot here in Louisiana, but I urge everyone to take the necessary preparations,” said Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, who urged residents to “stay off the roads, stay home and stay put.”
Hurricane season typically peaks around this time of year and Louisiana residents have often faced threats from such storms. Since the mid-19th century 57 hurricanes have tracked over or made landfall in Louisiana, according to The Weather Channel. Among them are some of the strongest, costliest and deadliest storms in U.S. history.
Landry said the Louisiana National Guard was being sent to parishes that could be impacted by Francine. They have with food, water, nearly 400 high-water vehicles, about 100 boats and 50 helicopters to respond to the storm, including possible search-and-rescue operations.
Francine was centered Wednesday evening about 65 miles (105 kilometers) southwest of Morgan City, Louisiana, and was moving northeast at 17 mph (27 kph) with maximum sustained winds of 100 mph (155 kph), the Miami-based hurricane center said.
President Joe Biden granted an emergency declaration that will help Louisiana secure federal money and logistical assistance from partners such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Both Landry and Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves also declared states of emergency, authorizing them to quickly free up resources for disaster assistance.
Bands of heavy rain were hitting New Orleans Wednesday morning. The city’s historic streetcars that roll on South Carrollton Avenue had to ease past cars that motorists parked next to the tracks on the grassy median. The median is a few inches higher than the street and drivers sometimes park there to avoid street flooding.
Francine’s storm surge on the Louisiana coast could reach as much as 10 feet (3 meters) from Cameron to Port Fourchon and into Vermilion Bay, forecasters said.
Cline reported from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Associated Press writers Curt Anderson in St. Petersburg, Florida, and Kevin McGill in New Orleans contributed to this story.
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Ole Miss vice chancellor on leave after animal cruelty indictment
Editor’s note: Descriptions of the conditions of the animals found may be disturbing to some people.
The University of Mississippi’s vice chancellor for student affairs has been placed on leave while she is facing 10 counts of animal cruelty, the same charges that are levied against her husband.
Charlotte Fant Pegues turned herself in to the Lafayette County Sheriff’s Department on Monday after a grand jury indictment against her was unsealed, according to the Oxford Eagle. She was released on a $75,000 bond.
In early August, Fant Pegues’ husband, Terry Pegues, was arrested after deputies observed several malnourished and deceased dogs, some still attached to collars and chains, at a property the couple owns in a rural area south of Oxford.
Pegues previously told Mississippi Today that he was asking for “a federal investigation due to false facts” but did not elaborate, adding, “just print that.”
Fant Pegues was not arrested alongside her husband, but a grand jury ultimately decided to indict her on Aug. 23. The prosecution’s witness was a Lafayette County Sheriff’s Deputy named Joe Quarles.
That’s according to the true bill, which lists 10 counts, each for one dog that was found on the couple’s property, including several bulldog puppies “confined in a cruel manner in a cage behind the residence,” a burned dog, a dog skeleton, and a German Shepard mix that was dead in a kennel.
The sheriff’s department ultimately found 10 deceased dogs and rescued 20. The 10 counts appear to include dogs that were found in various states.
In a statement, Fant Pegues’ attorney, Graham Carner, called the indictment “rushed” and added that her reputation was being unfairly called into question. Since 1993, Fant Pegues has worked at Ole Miss in various roles such as assistant provost and director of admissions.
“Dr. Pegues is not guilty, and we will aggressively defend against these charges,” Carner wrote. “In order not to be a distraction to the University she loves and that has loved her, Dr. Pegues will be taking a period of personal leave. She asks for privacy as she works to preserve her good name.”
Carner has already filed a motion for discovery. He does not appear to be representing Pegues, according to the court docket.
The university confirmed that Fant Pegues was on leave but had no further comment beyond the following:
“The alleged charges did not result from any actions taken at or for the university, and the university is not among the parties involved in the investigation by the Lafayette County Sheriff’s Department.
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Podcast: The Clevelands pay tribute to native Mississippian James Earl Jones and also discuss a full weekend of football, from high schools to the NFL.
James Earl Jones, from Arkabutla, Mississippi, leaves behind a body of work in film and theater that will be remembered for decades, if not forever. He has been part of the sound track our lives, whether he was Darth Vader, Hamlet, Mussafa or Terence Mann in Field of Dreams. Of course, football is always part of the September discussion in Mississippi. Question: Are the Saints as good as they looked Sunday?
Stream all episodes here.
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Governor declares state of emergency as Mississippi braces for Hurricane Francine
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — As Hurricane Francine barreled toward the Louisiana coast, officials in Mississippi and Louisiana implored people on Tuesday to prepare in the short time left before the storm comes ashore as a hurricane.
Forecasters said Francine’s landfall was expected Wednesday afternoon or evening as a Category 2 hurricane with winds of 96 to 110 mph (155 to 175 kph). Ahead of the storm, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves declared a state of emergency, he announced Tuesday afternoon.
A hurricane warning was in effect along the Louisiana coast from the border with Texas eastward to Grand Isle, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) south of New Orleans, and a tropical storm warning extended eastward from there to the Alabama/Florida state line, according to the National Hurricane Center. Mississippi’s coastal counties were under a tropical storm warning on Tuesday.
A storm surge warning stretched from just east of Houston to the Mississippi/Alabama state line. Such a warning means there’s a chance of life-threatening flooding.
By the middle of Tuesday afternoon, Francine was still a tropical storm with maximum sustained winds of 65 mph (100 kph), according to the National Hurricane Center. The system was located about 380 miles (610 kilometers) southwest of Morgan City, Louisiana, and was moving northeast at 9 mph (14 kph).
The storm is moving over extremely warm Gulf waters that will serve as fuel to strengthen it. Water temperatures are about 87 degrees (31 degrees Celsius) where Francine is located, said Brian McNoldy, senior research associate at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science.
“The ocean heat content averaged over the entire Gulf is the highest it’s been on record for the date,” McNoldy wrote on his blog.
Across much of coastal Louisiana and Mississippi, residents boarded up windows, filled sandbags and made last-minute preparations ahead of Francine’s arrival. In Harrison County, Mississippi Department of Transportation officials removed draw bridge gates.
In downtown New Orleans, cars and trucks were lined up for blocks to collect sandbags from the parking lot of a local YMCA, whose CEO Erika Mann said Tuesday that 1,000 bags of sand had already been distributed by volunteers.
“I love that these are community people that came out,” Mann said. “It’s a beautiful effort to do what we do in New Orleans, we’re resilient and we come together to help in the times we need each other.”
One resident picking up sandbags was Wayne Grant, 33, who moved to New Orleans last year and was nervous for his first potential hurricane in the city. The low-lying rental apartment he shares with his partner had already flooded out in a storm the year before and he was not taking any chances this time around.
“It was like a kick in the face, we’ve been trying to stay up on the weather ever since,” Grant said. “We’re super invested in the place, even though it’s not ours.”
Francine is the sixth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season. There’s a danger of life-threatening storm surge as well as damaging, life-threatening hurricane-force winds, said Brad Reinhart, a senior hurricane specialist at the hurricane center.
There’s also the potential for 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters) of rain with the possibility of 12 inches (30 centimeters) locally across much of Louisiana and Mississippi through Friday morning, Reinhart said. That heavy rainfall could also cause considerable flash and urban flooding.
Stengle reported from Dallas. Curt Anderson in St. Petersburg, Florida, and Jack Brook in New Orleans contributed to this story.
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USM admin say program cuts are necessary to afford future pay raises for faculty, staff
The University of Southern Mississippi will look at cutting under-enrolled programs even though administrators say it is not facing a financial crisis.
The budget is balanced, despite a four-year period of decreasing revenue and increasing costs, and USM has adequate cash reserves.
The move is necessary, top leaders said at last month’s convocation, so the research institution in Hattiesburg can survive the increasingly competitive future facing higher education in Mississippi by becoming a “unicorn” among its peers, offering programs students want and the state needs.
“Colleagues, this is plain and simply the reality of where we are in higher education today, and progressive institutions all across the landscape are doing the same,” President Joe Paul told faculty on Aug. 19, according to a video the university has since taken off YouTube after faculty and staff had a chance to watch it. “We can no longer simply kick the can down the road and hope things can get better. We will instead take charge of our future and crease a uniquely positioned, distinctive public research universty of which we can all be proud and feel ownership.”
Paul added that cuts are also one of the few ways the university can afford more pay raises for its faculty and staff, some of whom will receive merit raises this fall for the first time in eight years. (After protesting, minimum wage workers at USM won a pay raise two years ago.)
“My goal for us is not to go another eight years before offering raises again, that accomplishes little,” Paul said. “If we are to develop a true salary increase plan that is competitive and sustainable, we simply must continue to do two things with discipline and consistency. One, we must all continue to grow the enrollment through recruitment and retention … while also continuing to find efficiencies and decrease spending as an institution.”
USM was able to afford the raises, which total about $4.4 million, through what Paul described as two years of systematic reductions in administrative spending. The university cut 22 unfilled and six filled positions at its Hattiesburg and Gulf Park campuses.
An increase in state appropriations also helped support the raise, but USM isn’t able to say how much because “the raises come from the university’s operating budget and the amount is not broken down by revenue source,” Nicole Ruhnke, a spokesperson, wrote in an email.
The raises addressed a significant concern for faculty at USM who held a protest for fair pay earlier this year.
Low salaries are an issue across Mississippi’s higher education system, which has struggled to attract and retain talented faculty. In recent years, the governing board of Mississippi’s eight universities has repeatedly heard how Mississippi’s faculty and staff are paid well below the average salary of other Southern states.
In an effort to fix that, the Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees asked the Legislature to provide $53 million in funding this year so that each university could afford a 6.4% raise.
IHL’s spokesperson John Sewell wrote in an email that the system ultimately received $27 million in unrestricted new funding, not enough for 6.4% increase.
That funding also needed to cover other inflationary costs facing the institutions, like PERS and health insurance, Sewell wrote.
Therefore, IHL left the final decision on raises up to the institutions, so Sewell could not say how much each university spent. Plus, the system’s final appropriation bill, which IHL negotiates on behalf of the eight institutions, did not include specific language regarding raises.
“IHL did not prescribe a fixed amount of new funding to be dedicated to raises as the individual institutions needed the flexibility to balance the increased costs for PERS and health insurance along with other inflationary costs before considering the amount for possible raises,” Sewell wrote.
Those costs are also driving USM administrators’ review of under-enrolled programs, which comprise a minority of USM’s programs.
Lance Nail, the provost, is leading that effort. In response to questions from Mississippi Today, Nail and Paul did not participate in an interview but provided statements.
Nail wrote that details about the program review will be worked out in the coming weeks in consultation with faculty, staff and administration.
“We will look at each under-enrolled academic program individually in collaboration with the deans, school directors and faculty, and determine what has led to low enrollment, student and market demand, as well as other contributions the program provides within the academy.” Nail noted. “These include the program’s contributions to the general education core, pre-major requirements, research and service.”
Last fall, USM deleted three degrees after IHL’s academic productivity review, which is triggered when a program is deemed to have too few graduates in a three-year period. Those degrees were a bachelors in international studies, and doctoral degrees in music education and criminal justice.
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