[One of the negative aspects of resource extraction in an area, such as the Atchafalaya Basin, designed as an outlet for floodwaters is the potential for floodwaters to overwhelm flood controls and widely distribute industrial contaminants used in the extractive process.  In the photos above (taken by the Gulf Restoration Network at the end of May), a containment boom holds oil close to a small, flooded oil waste storage facility, while the rushing Atchafalaya threatens a landfill “containing drilling fluid mud and other contaminants” near Morgan City.]