Cancer Alley: A Sacrifice Zone

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"Cancer Alley" is the nickname given to an 85-mile stretch of the Mississippi river shore from Baton Rouge to New Orleans, Louisiana. Here, around 200 petrochemical plants standing on former plantation land contribute to the highest air pollution rates in the U.S. Residents and their children in the areas bordering these chemical plants are subject to an increased risk of cancer and respiratory illnesses as well as birth complications and miscarriages. The majority Black residents of Cancer Alley are in the immediate danger of explosions and leakages of the surrounding plants, and the perpetual danger of of local and federal legislative complacency.

Residents of Cancer Alley in Parishes like St. John and St. James have established community collectives like RISE St. James, that work with Human Rights Watch and Tulane University to report on conditions and protest the further construction of plants. Their push back, along with calls for action coming from the United Nations and Amnesty International are only beginning to turn a corner that would allow safer climates on Cancer Alley. To donate, or sign a legislative petition visit stopformosa.org

The smell of rotten eggs, or a hazy yellow evening mist falling from plants, are air pollutions symptoms that make them selves visible in places like St. James Parish along the Mississippi River. The town is bordered by CF industries' Donaldson Complex, the largest Nitrogen fertilizer plant in North America, and Mosaic Co's Uncle Sam Plant. (1) In 2018, residents began to notice a growing, and leaning two-hundred foot tall, three-hundred acre gypsum waste pile accumulating on the perimeter of the Uncle Sam Plant. Gypsum is a mineral that is used in the production of drywall, chalk and fertilizer, and contains high levels of sulfuric acid – acid which was dangerously close to leaking into the Parish's primary drinking water. Though this particular example was an extremely immediate case, situations like these are common along the river through Cancer Valley, and residents are often the last to be informed of the dangers. (2)

In St. John's Parish, its chloroprene, used in the production of the plastic neoprene, that has been polluting the air at unprecedented rates since 1969. The plant producing it, owned by Denka Co., sits on the other side of an elementary school fence, polluting a rate that is up to 180 times the safe inhalation standard. In January 2024, Amnesty International published a report addressing the toxic pollution of the petrochemical companies in the US. The report focuses on the Houston Ship Canal in Texas, where, like Cancer Alley, a similar 'sacrifice zone' has been established. (3)

There is legal framework already in place to prevent overly polluted residential situations like these from happening on a federal and local level, but these policies have already proved unable to protect the inhabitants of Cancer Alley. The Environmental Protection Agency hold federal power to enforce state compliance with policies through Clean Air operating permits, the ability to shut down plant operation if they don't meet emission standards. In 2022, the EPA launched an investigation focusing on the discrimination against the majority Black population in St. James and St. John, specifically promising the founders of their respective citizen groups that they would bring long-awaited justice to their cause. (4)

Smoke stacks, storage tanks, raised pipelines and mounds of chemical waste envelop the the banks of the Great River road. Companies like CF and Denka allow their equipment to crawl over the historic sites on these banks, surrounding and suffocating communities that pre-dated their facilities by almost a hundred years. Sometimes, because of their lack of compliance to environmental standards, these are the last standing plants these companies have, and as a result, they are willing to fight tooth and nail to keep them running. In 2023, the EPA announced that they would be dropping the case against Louisiana. After excruciating back and forth with the state and their lawyers – who dually represented the state and the companies involved – those lawyers began a lawsuit to counter their investigation, stating that new policy would cause discrimination against non-Black residents. An empty claim, and last ditch effort to protect these industrial giants.

Although policy on a federal level has failed St. James Parish, in September 2022, their collective RISE St. James successfully stopped the move-in of ten new Formosa Plastic's plants. It came through District Judge Judy White, who revoked air permits that had been previously granted to them, making it impossible for them to start construction. While the community recognizes the jobs that these companies provide, the same families benefiting from the income are the ones suffering the severe environmental health effects.

While it’s easy for outsiders to point to obesity rates, poverty, smoking and minimal access to health care as causes, it has become increasingly clear that the severity of cancers and respiratory illness appearing on Cancer Alley exist nowhere else in the United States. What does it mean when governments start to choose industry over people? What does our country say by turning a blind eye to suffering communities in order to protect the production of fertilizer; neoprene, or single use plastic?

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