The Environmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) is investigating two Louisiana agencies for so-called secernment against predominantly dark communities in a part of the Bayou State known as “ Cancer Alley . ”
The EPA is probingtwo complaintsregarding chemical flora permits and melodic line contamination in St. James Parish and St. John the Baptist Parish . One complaint allege neglect from the Louisiana State Department of Health in answer to reports of polluted air . The other accuses the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality ( DEQ ) and the Health Department of racial bias in decisions to grant permits for at least three different plants : a propose Greenfield Exports grain terminal , a planned Formosa Plastics Sunshine industrial plant , and the existingDenka Performance Elastomers plant .
“ We have been dismissed meter and again , ” said Mary Hampton of Concerned Citizens of St. John in an Earthjusticepress release earlier this yr . “ It is unacceptable that we ’ve been ignored for so long , and so now we ’re asking the EPA to step in to protect our civil rights , include to have equal protection from environmental damage , and to ensure that our right to take a breath clean air is finally enforced . ”
The Denka, formerly DuPont, factory in Reserve, Louisiana which is along the state’s “Cancer Alley.”Photo: Emily Kask / AFP) (Getty Images)
Both the DEQ and the Department of Health have claim that the ill are being fill seriously but that their permitting processis unbiased . Parish residents and environmental judge organizations , however , claim that the section have not done enough to inform locals about the health risk of the exist flora in their area . Parish occupier also interest about how much worse their wellness outcome may become once the Modern plants are up and running .
St. John and St. James Parish has been a hotbed of environmental problems for years . Local industries have polluted the area so naughtily as to earn the nicknameCancer Alley . It ’s a reaching of country that goes from Baton Rouge and New Orleans along the Mississippi River that is home tomore than 100 chemical substance plant and oil refineries . Residents in the corridor are diagnosed with cancer at ratesnearly 50 time the internal norm , according to the EPA . During his 2021 Journey for Justice tour , EPA Administrator Michael S. Reganmet with community members of the St. Johns Parish and St. James Parish .
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