A synthetic rubber plant in a majority-Black Louisiana community has spewed a chemical into the air for decades that is likely to cause cancer, federal regulators say.
RESERVE, La. — The fond memories often give way to an intense sadness whenever Patrick Sanders thinks about the friends and neighbors he grew up with here on East 31st Street.
The Environmental Protection Agency first warned of the dangers of the plant seven years ago. Yet, it has been allowed to continue to operate even though it sits about 450 feet from the Fifth Ward Elementary School. The story of the plant is also a story of an 85-mile corridor between New Orleans and Baton Rouge now known as Cancer Alley. This town, like many others in this industrial corridor, was once home to slave plantations before scores of petrochemical companies moved in, polluting the air that fills the lungs of the mostly-Black residents.
“There is a strong feeling of regret,” said Sanders, 56, who owns a funeral home. “We were making sure kids were educated, but we weren’t making sure kids were safe.”The 8,500-person town of Reserve sits along the Mississippi River, about 30 miles west of New Orleans. St. John the Baptist Parish residents long worried that the emissions from the plant might be sickening the community, but they had no proof. They also didn’t have the kind of resources needed to fight a multimillion-dollar company or backing from the state.
Five years later, Dupont sold the plant to Denka, a Japanese chemical company. It remains the only neoprene production facility in the country.
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