The petrochemical industry is under attack in Louisiana. Many are accusing the petrochemical giants of spreading “cancer alley” to another Black community. This time in St. James, Louisiana. Residents there are fighting new plastics plants.
“St. James sits smack in the middle of Cancer Alley, a series of communities, mostly majority African American, that line the banks of the Mississippi River from New Orleans to Baton Rouge. For decades, oil, gas, chemicals, and plastics have been produced here, and for an equally long time, residents have said they’ve faced significant health issues because of the plants,” The Nation reported.
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With its residents numbering 21,000 (50 percent of them being Black), St. James Parish has a whopping 32 petrochemical plants. That’s one for every 656 residents. And the industry is concentrated in the parish’s Fifth District, which is 86 percent Black. The Fifth District has 2,822 people and 12 petrochemical plants; one for every 235 residents.
Now two new companies were looking to build major industrial facilities in St. James. Taiwanese company Formosa Petrochemical wants to build a $9.4 billion plant to produce polypropylene and other compounds used in plastic products like bottles and grocery bags.
“According to Formosa’s application for an air permit, the facility will become one of the state’s largest emitters of ethylene oxide and benzene, both of which are known carcinogens,” The Nation reported.
Then in the Fourth District, a Chinese company, Wanhua Chemical Group, looks to erect a $1.85 billion plant to produce a different compound mainly used in plastics.
A group called Rise St. James has formed to block the two new plants, even though St. James’s seven-member Parish Council has already green-lit Formosa’s plan.
Environmental groups in New Orleans and across the country have pitched in their support, helping with everything from filing lawsuits against the parish, for public presentations and meetings with members of Congress.
It all comes down to money, despite the major health concerns of the communities.
“The Fourth and Fifth districts provide the majority of the parish’s property tax revenue but haven’t reaped the rewards of the industrial facilities they host. In the 2019 budget, for example, the Fifth District has $105,100 allocated for its recreation budget, plus $10,400 for construction. The First District, meanwhile, has $600,000 allocated for improvement of its ball fields. And the Fifth District will provide even more tax revenue in the coming years,” The Nation reported.
It is a fact that Louisiana is the second largest petrochemical producer in the country, after Texas. Beginning in the 1930s, Louisiana began allowing the petrochemical industry to get around local taxes through the Industrial Tax Exemption Program. Democratic governor John Bel Edwards has reformed the program giving local governments the ability to impose some property taxes on petrochemical facilities. However, the Formosa and Wanhua plants were proposed before that change was made.
Most data shows that sources of industrial pollution are more likely to be located near low-income communities and neighborhoods of color, and because of this Black and Latinx people often the victims of toxic accidents and emissions.
“It’s a shame, all the plants,” St. James resident Milton Cayette told the Truth Out organization. “It’s not getting any better. They are putting all their pollutants out into the air, and in the water, and in the ground. I do worry about my health, with the air, I surely do.”
RISE St. James founder Sharon Lavigne pointed out that it’s no secret that the petrochemical industry is being allowed to environmentally abuse her community because it’s low-income and a majority of residents are Black.
“They don’t think we are human beings, I guess,” Lavigne said.
