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BATON ROUGE, LOUISIANA
S at u r d ay, S e p t e m b e r 6, 2025
Residents eye Smitty’s Supply cleanup
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Landry fined for not disclosing free flights Settlement of ethics charges totals $900
BY ALYSE PFEIL Staff writer
STAFF PHOTOS BY DAVID J. MITCHELL
An orange containment boom and white absorbent boom snake in parallel on Wednesday across the Tangipahoa River at Lees Landing as contractors in an airboat head into the nearby marina. The landing’s marina is next to a now-closed public boat launch on the lower end of the river near Joyce Wildlife Management Area. Booms have been stretched on dozens of miles of the river from La. 10 to its mouth, and oily contaminants from the Smitty’s Supply Inc. fire started on Aug. 22 have made it close to the wildlife area in southern Tangipahoa.
Questions remain over pollution from oil plant fire BY DAVID J. MITCHELL Staff writer
The swirling black oil and the overpowering smell of asphalt began appearing behind Scott Silva’s house on the lower Tangipahoa River the night of Aug. 25, three days after Smitty’s Supply Inc. exploded and began burning for days. Blobs of black oil collecting in the river’s curve by his home have been a near-daily occurrence since then. Contaminants from the burning motor oil and lubricants plant have flowed down nearly the length of the river and past part of the sensitive Joyce Wildlife Management Area, despite miles of containment and absorbent boom. Silva said he and his wife bought the home in the relatively out-of-theway spot east of Ponchatoula 21 years ago to enjoy the water and nature, but the contaminants that have followed Smitty’s explosion have clouded that vision of life. “We got kayaks. I got two boats, you know. We got fish, and now how
Gov. Jeff Landry will pay $900 to settle charges that he broke state ethics laws by failing to disclose free private flights he accepted while he was attorney general. The charges brought against Landry by the Louisiana Board of Ethics stem from flights Landry took in 2021 to Hawaii for a conference held by the Attorney General Alliance. He traveled there free of charge on a plane owned by Greg Mos- Landry ing, a political donor. State ethics laws require public officials to report to the Ethics Board complimentary admission, lodging and transportation they
ä See LANDRY, page 5A
Georgia immigration raid detains 475 people Federal agents swarm Hyundai electric vehicle site BY RUSS BYNUM and KIM TONG-HYUNG Associated Press
A worker with ES&H pulls a vacuum hose toward the holding tank of a Marco oil skimmer boat on Wednesday at Lees Landing after the crew had collected oil and other contaminants from the Tangipahoa River after the Smitty’s Supply Inc. fire last month. long’s it going to be until we can use out the window.” this?” the 53-year-old asked during an The cause of the catastrophic fire interview at his home Wednesday as near Roseland, miles north of the faint oil blobs occasionally floated by. ä See CLEANUP, page 4A “That basically just threw my plan
ELLABELL, Ga. — Immigration authorities said Friday they detained 475 people, most of them South Korean nationals, when hundreds of federal agents raided the sprawling manufacturing site in Georgia where Korean automaker Hyundai makes electric vehicles. Steven Schrank, the lead Georgia agent of Homeland Security Investigations, said during a news conference Friday that the raid resulted from a monthslong investigation
ä See RAID, page 5A
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