St. James Parish, Louisiana: Resisting the Formosa Plastics Plant

Environmental racism is alive and well in America. Black and Brown people have been struggling with the disastrous health effects of toxic waste sites, garbage dumps, and chemical plants in their communities for generations. Despite the incalculable damage done to lives and livelihoods, despite evidence that exposure to pollution leads to higher COVID death rates, little has been done to prevent companies from continuing to pollute—and our throwaway culture and addiction to single-use plastics is only making this problem worse. In fact, right now, in St. James Parish, Louisiana, Formosa Plastics is trying to build a huge, $9.4 billion factory that would wipe that community off the map.

The residents of St. James Parish are fighting back. And so are communities of color all over the country who continue to be hit hard by air pollution, toxic soils, hazardous waste, and the worst effects of climate change.

Read more about their story—then find out how all of us, working together, can advance the fight against environmental racism.

St. James Parish is located between New Orleans and Baton Rouge in one of the most heavily industrialized and polluted areas in the entire country. Things have gotten so bad here that it’s been nicknamed “Cancer Alley.”

Once an agricultural community dominated by sugar plantations, St. James Parish began seeing a lot of industrial development back in the 1960s. But industrial activity—especially in the less-wealthy and less-white parts of the community—ramped up over the past five years as Louisiana linked its economic future to petrochemical expansion across the state. The Formosa factory may be huge (it would be the largest new source of greenhouse gases in the US if built and would represent a huge investment in harmful single-use plastics, even as countries around the world are cutting back on their use), but it is just one of dozens of large-scale industrial projects in the area that are either being planned or have already been constructed. The parish government publicly expresses support for all this development, touting the new jobs and claiming how safe and responsible the factories are.

As it turns out, though, the local government is, for some reason, less enthusiastic about projects proposed for the whiter, wealthier parts of town. The Parish Council barred two companies from building plants in or near the quite white 3rd District. This is very much in keeping with the overall development pattern. A study found “that polluting industries are located in the sections of the parish that have the highest percentages of African Americans, the lowest average household income and the most residents without a high school diploma.” Which is exactly what environmental racism looks like.

An analysis of the air in St. James Parish near the proposed Formosa site showed that it has more toxic cancer-causing chemicals than 99.6% of industrialized areas in the country. If the Formosa plant is approved and built, it’s estimated that those levels could double or even triple, putting residents at grave risk.  

But those same residents are putting up a fight. They are sick of getting sick. They’re sick of breathing toxic air. And they’re sick of the racism that ensures these types of projects are almost always built where Black and Brown—not white—people live.

Organizations like RISE St. James are stepping up to shut down Formosa and other projects that have for so long brought disease and death to their community. But, unsurprisingly, this kind of injustice isn’t limited to southern Louisiana.

Look at any state in the US and you’ll see environmental racism at work. The Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery has been sickening and killing residents since the 19th century. Nuclear waste has been dumped on Native American reservations. Remember the Flint, Michigan, water crisis?

Sadly, the Formosa fight is nothing new:

• Black people are exposed to 38% more air pollution than white people and are 75% more likely to live near toxic pollution than the rest of the American population.
• More than half of the 9 million Americans living near hazardous waste sites are people of color (despite people of color making up less than 40% of the US population)
• People of color have higher exposure rates to air pollution than white people
• Black people are 3 times more likely to die from air pollutants than white people
• Exposure to air pollutants has been linked to increased COVID-19 death rates in communities of color
• As we’ve written elsewhere, communities of color are also being hit first and hardest by the worst effects of the climate crisis

Long before the world heard George Floyd or Eric Garner plead, “I can’t breathe,” Black and Brown communities were gasping for air. Racism, for Black and Brown people, is a matter of life and death. Racism is wondering if you’re going to be shot when you’re stopped by a police officer. Racism is dying from COVID when somebody in a white neighborhood a few blocks away doesn’t. Racism is breathing the air in your own community and hoping it doesn’t give you or your kids cancer.

If we name the problem and get it out in the open and bring awareness to it, then we can beat it. The residents of St. James Parish are showing us the way. Grassroots activists are mobilizing all across the country. We must keep the pressure on local and national leaders, especially as the new Biden administration takes office in January, to treat environmental racism like the crisis it is.

Want to know how to help RISE St. James today and make sure the Formosa Plastics plant never gets built? Submit a comment urging the US Army Corps of Engineers to revoke Formosa’s federal permit. We’re hoping to get 15,000 comments by February 15. Then let’s work together to ensure that all people everywhere get to breathe clean air and live in healthy, safe communities.