Case Study 3.
Grand Bois
LEAN Region 5
Home to fertile bayous and prairies, this region is comprised mostly of Acadia - home to the Acadian people who settled here in the late 1700s. This area also covers multiple indigenous Tribal Lands. This region includes:
- Acadia Parish
- Assumption Parish
- Evangeline Parish
- Iberia Parish
- Lafayette Parish
- Lafourche Parish
- St. Landry Parish
- St. Martin Parish
- St. Mary Parish
- Terrebonne Parish
- Vermillion Parish
About Grand Bois
Grand Bois is a predominantly Native American community adjacent to a 140-acre waste treatment facility that received millions of barrels of oil field waste including produced water, drill muds, E & P waste, washout water, crude oil spill clean-up waste. The oil field waste is considered “non-hazardous” due to a federal exemption for certain oil and gas production wastes. Some of this waste is processed in open-air pits that produce intense fumes along HWY 24, which runs through the center of the facility and the community of Grand Bois. Many of the residents have been unsatisfied with the LDEQ’s response to their complaints and feel that this facility and the waste it stores severely impact the health of the residents, as well as anyone who travels the highway on a daily basis.
Standards
Grade 6
CCSS-RI.3.6
Analyze in detail how a key individual, event, or idea is introduced, illustrated, and elaborated in a text (e.g., through examples or anecdotes).
CCSS-RI.6.6
Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and explain how it is conveyed in the text.
Grade 7
CCSS-RI.3.7
Analyze the interactions between individuals, events, and ideas in a text (e.g., how ideas influence individuals or events, or how individuals influence ideas or events).
CCSS-RI.6.7
Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how the author distinguishes his or her position from that of others.
Grade 8
CCSS-RI.3.8
Analyze how a text makes connections among and distinctions between individuals, ideas, or events (e.g., through comparisons, analogies, or categories).
CCSS-RI.6.8
Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how the author acknowledges and responds to conflicting evidence or viewpoints.
Grades 9-10
CCSS-RI.6.9-10
Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how an author uses rhetoric to advance that point of view or purpose.
CCSS-RI.7.9-10
Analyze various accounts of a subject told in different mediums (e.g., a person’s life story in both print and multimedia), determining which details are emphasized in each account.
Grades 11-12
CCSS-RI.6.11-12
Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is considered particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the student interpretation of power, persuasiveness, or beauty of the text.
CCSS-RI.7.11-12
Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve a problem.
Civics
C.9
Analyze the structure, roles, responsibilities, powers, and functions of government in the United States.
C.11
Analyze political processes and the role of public participation in the United States.
World History
WH.6
Evaluate the influence of science, technology, innovations, and explain how these developments have altered societies in the world from 1300 to 2010.
WH.20
Describe the causes of trade, commerce, and industrialization and how they affected governments and societies from 1300 to 2010.
WH.24
Analyze the effect that humans have had on the environment in terms of resources, migration patterns, and global environmental issues.
World Geography
WG.7
Analyze how governments and political boundaries affect people and places.
Grade 8
8-MS-ESS3-3
Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing human impact on the environment.
Earth Science
HS-ESS3-4
Evaluate or refine a technological solution that reduces impacts of human activities on natural systems.
Life Sciences
HS-LS2-7
Design, evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing the impacts of human activities on the environment and biodiversity.
Environmental Science
HS-ESS3-4
Evaluate or refine a technological solution that reduces impacts of human activities on natural systems.
Reading Resources
Louisiana Town Goes to Trial Over Waste Pit
A 1998 article from The New York Times, detailing the health concerns of the residents of Grand Bois.
Excerpt | Source
Guardian of Grand Bois
A 2002 interview with Clarice Friloux, a Grand Bois resident for the Sierra Club magazine.
Excerpt | Source
Grand Bois case changed the landscape of environmental battles
A 2005 article from Houma Today about the impact of the Grand Bois lawsuit on national environmental justice litigation.
Excerpt | Source
60 Minutes - Town Under Siege
A 1997 60 Minutes investigation conducted by Ed Bradley in Grand Bois. Length, 45:58.
Source
Residents of Grand Bois Fighting Hazardous Waste Dumping, LPB
LPB investigation into dumping of oil field waste in Grand Bois. Length, 11:32.
Source
Extended Reading Activity
Read and analyze Guardian of Grand Bois and Grand Bois case changed the landscape of environmental battles. Then discuss and answer the essential questions for this unit. Answers will vary, however, students should be able to grasp the basic power dynamics of the situation.
Expansion
This can be transformed into a larger activity by reading and watching the previously listed texts and video, as well as watching 60 Minutes - Town Under Siege or Residents of Grand Bois fighting Hazardous Waste Dumping, LPB, then discussing and answering the essential questions.
Click here to access a worksheet of the essential questions.