She and others began pushing back in 1993, and the following year, residents voted to turn their corner of unincorporated Iberville Parish into the city of St. They wanted sidewalks and other amenities, but more than that, they wanted some say over the chemical plants popping up in their backyards. While the newly created city was able to keep new plants out, the petrochemical pileup continued unabated beyond St. “I bet you money there are 20 plants right now just around St. Gabriel,” Schexnayder said, nearly twice as many as there were when the incorporation drive began. There are now 30 large petrochemical plants within 10 miles of her house, most of them outside the city limits. Thirteen are within a 3-mile radius of her home. The nearest facility, only a mile away, is the world’s largest manufacturer of polystyrene, commonly known as Styrofoam. Stories of fed-up Louisianans like Schexnayder fighting back against corporate polluters have gotten worldwide media attention over the last year, as a raft of enormous new petrochemical facilities takes shape along the Mississippi River corridor. Much of the focus has been on the potential hazards posed by specific plants, including the $9.4 billion plastics factory that Formosa plans to build in St. James Parish and the long-standing Denka neoprene facility in St. John Parish, whose dangerous emissions were highlighted in an Environmental Protection Agency model that estimates cancer risk around chemical plants. (Brett Duke/The Times-Picayune and The Advocate) Indeed, the stretch of the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge is nicknamed “Cancer Alley” because of its concentration of petrochemical facilities. Though the air quality here has improved significantly since the 1980s, as it has in the rest of the nation, the recent history is less encouraging. Not only is toxic air pollution in Louisiana’s industrial belt rising in absolute terms, the estimated air quality relative to its peers is getting worse, an analysis by ProPublica, The Times-Picayune and The Advocate found.Īnd the burden is not being shared evenly. Many of the new plants planned in Louisiana’s petrochemical heart are being built in or near communities that EPA models estimate already have some of the most dangerous air in America. Our analysis shows the problems are especially acute in predominantly black and poor communities, like St. Gabriel, but whiter and more affluent sections - like neighboring Ascension Parish - are hardly immune.Īll told, seven large new petrochemical facilities and expansions have been approved for places in the river corridor since 2015, according to air-permit files from the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality. Five more major projects - including the Formosa megacomplex in St. Shintech officials said the company has a long history of safe operations at its existing plant. And they said they do not believe the expansion will have “significant adverse impacts” on the environment - while alternative sites the company considered would make less economic sense. As a result, “it is believed that the social and economic benefits of the facility outweigh environmental impacts.”įormosa officials made similar arguments, saying they picked the site on St. James’ rural West Bank in part because of its remoteness.

Ascension parish sheriff patch