Damage, questions linger a year after Smitty’s Supply disaster as company plans comeback

ROSELAND — A year after the Smitty’s Supply explosion dispersed millions of gallons of oil and chemicals in Tangipahoa Parish, environmental officials are still investigating the disaster as the company continues cleanup efforts and seeks permission to rebuild and restart its operations.

The facility caught fire and exploded Aug. 22, 2025. The fire burned for nearly two weeks, causing aerosolized oil and soot to rain down on neighbors, animals and property for miles. Residents within a mile of the facility, as well as an elementary school, were ordered to evacuate while millions of gallons of petroleum products spilled into nearby waters. 

The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sued Smitty’s alleging a long list of environmental violations, but are working to settle the case even as their investigation continues. And the EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division and FBI executed a search warrant at the facility in November. LDEQ and federal authorities have disclosed little about investigations.

An inside look at what EPA inspectors found at Smitty’s Supply

With roughly 450 workers on its payroll at the time of the explosion, Smitty’s was one of Tangipahoa Parish’s largest employers. The sudden job losses, combined with two months of road closures, choked off customers from the few small stores in Roseland along U.S. Highway 51, the main thoroughfare that’s known as Commercial Street in the town of about 1,100 residents.

Parvinder Singh manages the Sky’s Pantry convenience store in Roseland. His home is adjacent to the store, which he said has seen a significant drop in customers since the disaster.

“It affected the business a lot,” Singh said. “But you can’t do anything.”

In December, the EPA estimated cleanup crews had recovered over 11 million gallons of petroleum products that overflowed containment areas at the plant and poured into the Tangipahoa River. Since then, the company has removed an additional 2 million gallons, according to LDEQ records. The agency ended its operations Dec. 8, returning the site to Smitty’s. 

In an email to the Illuminator last week, The Ehrhardt Group, the company’s public relations firm, said Smitty’s Supply has completed all cleanup tasks that the EPA required of it in an agreement the company signed under the federal Superfund law. The firm would not answer more specific followup questions about the cleanup efforts, and Smitty’s Supply executives have never directly responded to the Illuminator’s requests since the incident. 

Millions of gallons of motor oil, lubricants, fuels and other chemicals stored at the plant overflowed containment areas and poured into the Tangipahoa River. The contamination reached nearly 47 miles downstream, according to LDEQ and EPA records.

Roseland Mayor Van Showers said he’s angry over what he described as slow and incomplete cleanup efforts. He said oil sheens still repeatedly show up in the waters near the facility and blames the state and federal government for a lack of oversight.

“The citizens have been left with a pile of crap,” Showers said. ”I think there needs to be a third party doing the inspections. You gotta have somebody watching the watchers.”

‘It’s gonna take a long time’

Tangipahoa Parish President Robby Miller said he regularly checks in with LDEQ officials about the cleanup. The agency told him oil sheens that continue to appear in nearby waterways and swamps are likely difficult-to-remove oil remnants. Smitty’s keeps absorbent booms in the ponds to prevent oil from entering the Tangipahoa River.

Miller said environmental experts warned him after the August explosion about the challenges of removing oil from an area with blended terrain. Compared with the ocean, oil spilled across rivers, woods, wetlands and roadways can be hard to find, and some contaminated areas are difficult to reach, the parish president said.

“They explained it’s gonna take a long time to clean this up,” Miller said.

Miller said Smitty’s Supply has cooperated with officials and seems to be making a good faith effort to clean up the spill. For now, he said he’s focused on continuing to pressure state officials to hold the company accountable.

During its immediate response last year, the EPA pointed to initial air and water monitoring and said the pollution from the explosion posed no imminent threat to people. But a month later, the agency stated in federal documents the pollution involved “toxic substances that pose an immediate and substantial endangerment to surrounding communities and ecosystems.”

Marylee Orr, executive director of the Louisiana Environmental Action Network, said many residents have lost trust in what the government says about the explosion. 

“One year has gone by and residents still don’t trust the water,” Orr said. “Overall I would say the community is frustrated, they have lost trust in agencies and they feel the cleanup has not gone far enough … The loss of livestock, pets and the toll — physically, mentally and spiritually — is huge, and that is not even adding the economic loss they are suffering.”

‘Forever chemicals’ traced downstream

To battle the prolonged blaze at Smitty’s, firefighters used  foams, which have faced growing scrutiny because some contain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. The compounds, known as “forever chemicals,” have been linked to certain cancers, decreased fertility, developmental delays in children and other health risks, according to the EPA. 

A recent study by LSU environmental scientist Bikram Subedi published in Science Direct reported the results of water samples taken from the river and Lake Pontchartrain two days after the explosion through Dec. 30. Neither serve as public drinking water sources.

“Our results show that the petroleum products released after the Smitty’s Supply explosion and the used firefighting substances were found in the Tangipahoa River and the receiving water body, the Lake Pontchartrain estuary,’’ the study said.

The Louisiana Fish Advisory Workgroup, which includes officials from the state Wildlife and Fisheries, Health and Environmental Quality departments, has recommended adding PFAS screening to future seafood tissue sampling from the river.

In previous statements to the Illuminator, speaking through its public relations firm, Smitty’s has acknowledged releasing oil and other chemicals but has disputed responsibility for PFAS contamination. The Ehrhardt Group said in an April statement that sheens on nearby ponds are common as rain flushes out remnants of the spill and not the result of a new leak or spill from its property.

While conditions have improved since the immediate aftermath of the fire, state regulators have found elevated levels of PFAS and petroleum during site visits and through the company’s ongoing water pollution monitoring, according to LDEQ records. In May, inspectors observed rainbow-colored sheens at the facility, including in ditches that drain into the river, state records show.

On June 12, the agency sent Smitty’s a formal demand letter requiring the company to submit a new remediation plan that includes investigation of adjacent properties and nearby state waterways and testing for petroleum hydrocarbons, PFAS, and other contaminants, according to the notice. 

Planning a comeback

Meanwhile, Smitty’s is laying the groundwork to resume operations in Roseland.

Most of the facility was destroyed, but several warehouses and bulk storage tanks remain. In a July 24 LDEQ permit renewal application, the company reported it still has about 4.5 million gallons of petroleum storage capacity.

Smitty’s told the agency it is conducting a drainage assessment and inspecting its surviving tanks to determine whether they can be incorporated into a storage facility it wants to build immediately. The company also plans to construct new warehouses within two to three years, records show. 

“Based on the information currently available, the social and economic benefits associated with continued operation of the Roseland facility outweigh the environmental impact costs, particularly in light of Smitty’s ongoing corrective-action efforts, planned environmental improvements, and commitment to strengthened compliance,” the company wrote in its application.

Meanwhile, Warehouse worker Michael Constant has been documenting the impact of the disaster.

He has spent much of the past year flying a drone over the Smitty’s site and surrounding waterways, documenting cleanup, potential remaining oil and other issues and posting the videos to Facebook. His job is less than a mile from the disaster site, and he lives about 10 miles away.

Constant said he continues to capture images of small oil slicks and sheens near the Smitty’s Supply property just about every time he flies his drone.

Constant said he has shared some of his footage with the LDEQ. Spokesman Greg Langley said he’s unable to say much about the incident because of ongoing lawsuits against Smitty’s.

“I can tell you that LDEQ is doing assessment work there and is testing ditches, ponds, sediment and groundwater,” Langley said.

Constant said watching the disaster and the cleanup unfold has changed his view of government and industry. 

“It seems like they’re just changing the laws and bending the rules to benefit these companies,” he said.

Although he has no background in art, Constant has taken to canvas to express his frustration. He has completed a handful of paintings, including one incorporating imagery from the Louisiana state flag and the Smitty’s disaster: three baby pelicans lay dead in a nest while an oil plant burns in the background. 

“There’s Union, Justice and Confidence — all dead,” Constant said, pointing and naming each of the bird carcasses after the state’s motto.