environmental racism

An aerial view of Denka Performance Elastomers, a chemical plant in Reserve, La. located near an elementary school (not pictured) sitting beyond the tree buffer.

Lawyers push to relocate students from an elementary school next to chemical plant in St. John

Halle Parker

The NAACP Legal Defense Fund is asking a federal judge to require St. John the Baptist Parish School Board to relocate students from an elementary school located right next to a chemical plant.

St. James Parish activists and residents Barbara Washington, Gail Lebouef and Shamyra Lavigne (left to right) hold a fist up after their groups filed a lawsuit against their local government on Tuesday, March 21, 2023 outside of the U.S. District Court of Eastern Louisiana in New Orleans.

Coastal Desk

'Cancer Alley' residents sue parish over cramming industrial plants into Black communities

Halle Parker

Residents in one of Louisiana’s most heavily-industrialized parishes sued their local government in federal court on Tuesday, accusing officials of cramming petrochemical plants into Black communities.

Denka Performance Elastomers manufactures neoprene at its chemical plant in Reserve, La. On Feb. 28, 2023, the Department of Justice and Environmental Protection Agency filed a lawsuit against the company, asking a judge to compel Denka to cut its carcinogenic emissions to what the EPA deems safe.

Coastal Desk

St. John's Denka plant sued by DOJ over cancer-causing emissions

Halle Parker

Two federal agencies sued the country’s sole neoprene plant in St. John the Baptist Parish over violations of the Clean Air Act on Tuesday in hopes of forcing the company to cut emissions of a chemical that likely causes cancer.

News

Giveaways Created A Poverty Sinkhole. Then The Virus Hit.

Heather Richards

By Heather Richards, E&E NewsSHREVEPORT, La. — Deloris Dee Lynch has help at home from her daughter, and she does enough online shopping to get by day to…