Residents say dust on their street is making them sick, and they want to know what it is

Mysterious dust particles are raining down on River Ridge.

Kelly Knowles lives on Rex Drive, about a block from the Mississippi River. Monday night, he shot video the particles that blanketed his street like snow.

"Oct. 29 was by far the worst amount of dust particles I ever seen in my life," Knowles said. "I actually physically got sick that morning, and the next day I had congestion. My nose was running, eyes burning, my eyes were puffy."

Knowles has been shooting videos of the particles since May.

He points to a midstream barge operation on the river not for from his house as a possible source of the airborne debris.

You can see cranes on the river at the end of his street. They're used to load and unload barges in the middle of the night.

"We don't know what kind of cargo they're loading," Knowles said. "We don't know what we're breathing in because nobody will tell us."

Ana Scully lives a few doors down from Knowles on Rex Drive. She called the mystery dust very scary.

"My husband is not well," Scully said. "I don't need this aggravation and danger in my backyard. We're very, very concerned."

Concern over the barge activity comes at a time when Jefferson Parish is already under fire for foul-smelling fumes escaping from the parish landfill in Waggaman.

Parish Councilman Paul Johnston has pushed state and federal authorities to investigate neighbors’ concerns.

"When you have snow-like objects in the air coming from somewhere in the river, I'm not sure it's coming from the barges or boats or whatever. But something's going on in the area," Johnston said. "We have problems, and we're not happy with it."

Meanwhile, neighbors want the parish to take this problem as seriously as the landfill issue.

"My concern is, what is going on," Ana Scully said. "What's happening to our neighborhood?"

"The landfill issue affects us only when the wind blows in a certain direction," Knowles said. "This midstream loading operation is with us 24-7 now."

Neighbors claim the flying dust particles appear to be worse when the wind is blowing out of the west.

They also said they have to dust the stuff off their cars in the morning.