Most of what polluted the bayou sank to the bottom of it—mercury, heavy metals, ethylene dichloride (EDC), and chlorinated dioxins. So at first the danger lay mainly there. But when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers twice dredged the nearby ship channel to ease the passage of commercial ships, “they scooped the toxic sludge from the bottom and pasted it on the banks right and left, without marking where they put it,” Harold tells me. So now the Arenos can’t trust the banks either.
