St. John the Baptist Parish

Reconnecting the dying swamp to fresh river water is vital for the health of the swamp’s cypress-tupelo forest, which minimizes storm surge damage for communities in St. John the Baptist, St. James, Ascension and Livingston Parishes.

The St. John the Baptist Parish School Board will shutter a predominantly Black elementary school that sits on the fenceline of a chemical plant. The decision came after eight years of pressure from community groups, federal agencies and lawyers.

Greenfield Exports LLC canceled plans to build a grain elevator in St. John the Baptist Parish after a lengthy permit process with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

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.

Community groups in St. John the Baptist Parish partnered with an eco-friendly business to encourage students to pursue environmentally sustainable careers.

Land on the parish’s West Bank intended as the location for the Greenfield Grain Terminal will remain residential until the court orders otherwise.

Three weeks after a state judge struck down a controversial zoning law, St. John the Baptist Parish Council is considering reinstating the same law to allow the construction of a $479 million grain elevator.

Unlike the rest of the state’s chemical corridor, no plants have been built on St. John the Baptist Parish's west bank. But some residents fear that could change as industrial developers eye farmland near the predominantly Black community of Wallace. As part of an effort to slow industrial encroachment and preserve the community’s history, federal officials are now contemplating whether St. John’s west bank could earn one of the country’s most prestigious historic designations: a National Historic Landmark.

An employee for Denka Performance Elastomer died Thursday after they were found unresponsive at the company’s neoprene plant in St. John the Baptist Parish, according to a company spokesman.

Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley” has no shortage of Black communities overburdened by pollution. But years of protest have begun to bear fruit. We travel the Mississippi River to learn what has allowed industry to flourish on its banks, see how the tide might turn in one neighborhood’s fight for clean air, and ask what’s next for a growing environmental justice movement.