Cancer Alley

thumb|280px|A mound of [[drum (container)|oil drums near the Baton Rouge ExxonMobil Refinery along the Mississippi River in December 1972.]]

Cancer Alley is the regional nickname given to an stretch of land along the Mississippi River between the Baton Rouge metropolitan area and the Gulf of Mexico, in the River Parishes of Louisiana, which contains over 350 industrial facilities that emit significant amounts of air pollution. Cancer Alley houses the largest concentration of fossil fuel and petrochemical plants and refineries in the Western Hemisphere.

Environmentalists consider the region a sacrifice zone, which is an area where pollution levels are so significant that they pose considerable dangers to the people who live there, and these people are often marginalized and under-resourced. In Cancer Alley specifically, the pollution caused by the high density of petrochemical companies create a local risk of cancer which is forty-seven times greater than the acceptable threshold set by the U.S. government. Cancer Alley has been the focus of environmental justice advocates dating as far back as the 1990s, and continues to serve as a landmark example of the systemic failings that perpetuate environmental injustices. During the 1950s, many of these facilities relocated from populous areas, such as Baton Rouge and New Orleans, to less densely populated locations.

By the 1970s, the area had a proliferation of plants producing vinyl chloride, nitrogen fertilizers, and chlorine. In 1976, Coast Guard divers retrieving sediment samples from a bayou suffered second-degree burns on their hands. Cancer Alley in a larger sense extends further west along the Gulf Coast into Texas to the area of Freeport, Texas.

Industrial plants emitting toxic waste in Louisiana continued to proliferate in the 21st century.

thumb|330x330px|EPA-estimated cancer risk in the region

In 1969, DuPont opened a plant to manufacture the chemical chloroprene, the main ingredient in neoprene, in Reserve, Louisiana on the border with LaPlace, Louisiana. The plant was sold in 2015 to Japanese chemical company Denka. The area immediately adjacent to the Denka/DuPont neoprene plant in St. John the Baptist Parish has been recognized by the EPA as having a likelihood of its residents getting cancer from air pollution over 700 times the national average. According to EPA, it emits 99% of the nation's chloroprene pollution. EPA opened civil rights investigations over this pollution from Cancer Alley. On March 7, 2025, the Justice Department announced it was dropping the federal case against Denka's Louisiana elastomer plant, which the Biden administration had sued over alleged increased cancer risks in the local, mostly Black community. The DOJ linked the withdrawal to Trump's policy of ending federal Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives.

Community Organizing

In 1996, Shintech Inc. announced that they would be creating three new polyvinyl chloride (PVC) manufacturing plants in Convent, a small majority Black community (2010 population of 711, 65.7% Black) that serves as the parish seat of St. James Parish. The state of Louisiana issued Shintech permits to proceed with the project in 1997, despite their acknowledgement that these locations would be adding 623,000 pounds of pollutants to the air annually. In 1998, after considerable pressure and lobbying, Shintech withdrew its project plans.

In 2018, the Formosa Plastics Corporation proposed the Sunshine Project, a $9.4 billion industrial complex to be located on the west bank of St. James Parish that is estimated to become the petrochemical and plastics project with the single greatest environmental detriment, at an estimated 13,628,086 tons of greenhouse gas emissions yearly. The proposed complex would span 2,500 acres and will be situated one mile from an elementary school, On January 15, 2020, RISE St. James, a faith-based grassroots organization of St. James Parish community members, in conjunction with the nonprofit conservation organization Center for Biological Diversity, the grassroots organization Louisiana Bucket Brigade, and the nonprofit Healthy Gulf, sued the Trump administration for permitting Formosa Plastics' proposed petrochemical complex. The lawsuit sought to invalidate the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' fast-tracked Clean Water Act permits that the Corps issued the prior year. It had come to light that independent archaeologists that Formosa Plastics hired had discovered that enslaved people were buried in unmarked graves beneath the 2,300-acre site that Formosa planned to develop their plastics complex on. Citing violation of federal laws in the approval of destroying wetlands, the region's first and quickly dwindling line of defense against progressively-intensifying natural disasters, as well as the failure to protect the water, air, and health of the surrounding communities, and the violation of the National Historic Preservation Act in failing to protect the burial grounds of enslaved people, the lawsuit demanded the rescinding of the permits issued in September 2019 as well as the conducting of a full environmental impact study. On November 4, 2020, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced its plans to suspend its permit for the Sunshine Project. The promised economic prosperity in these major investments has yet to be delivered, but continues to be a cited reason for the continued approval of petrochemical permits.

Criticism

The EPA, in both 2016 and 2020, reported that those residing in Cancer Alley are exposed to more than 10 times “the level of health risk from hazardous air pollutants” than other residents in the state. Human Rights Watch reviewed data from 12 fossil fuel and petrochemical plants operating in the Cancer Alley area from October 2020 to November 2023. Out of these 12 facilities, only one of them was “reported in compliance with all three federal laws” in the 3-year observational period. Only 2 of these facilities “were in compliance with the Clean Water Act” as well.

On January 27, 2021, President Joe Biden signed an executive order regarding environmental justice and specifically cited Cancer Alley as a hard-hit area. Louisiana Chemical Association President Greg Bowser responded to President Biden's remarks on the region, refuting claims that residents of the industrial corridor have a higher risk of developing cancer in multiple articles. Furthermore, he cited Louisiana Tumor Registry (LTR) data to support his claims. The LTR claims that there has not been an increase in cancer deaths connected to industrial pollution.

As of 2019 activists and locals have disputed the conclusions of the Louisiana Tumor Registry asserting the tracts used cover large areas and the data does not allow for specific locations adjacent to chemical plants to be analyzed individually. They also posited that the data may be incomplete as those who died during the COVID-19 pandemic who also had cancer might not be included. In 2008, Louisiana health officials were unable to release the specific cases and data because of medical privacy laws.

Government Action, 2011-Present

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's National Air Toxic Assessment looked at toxic emissions around the nation in 2011 and released the findings in 2015. The study found that the air in LaPlace, Louisiana, which is an area in Cancer Alley, had a higher-than-expected level of chloroprene. This subsequently caused the EPA to begin working closely with the owner of the neoprene plant in the area, Denka Performance Elastomer, and the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality to lower chloroprene emissions. The overall goal was to lower chloroprene emissions by 85%. The probe specifically examined the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and the Louisiana Department of Health regarding the permitting of a Denka Performance Elastomers plant, as well as a proposed Formosa Plastics Sunshine plant and a proposed Greenfield Exports grain terminal. The complaint asserted that the company's LaPlace, Louisiana, plant posed an imminent danger to public health based on its emissions of cancer-causing chloroprene. Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry sued the EPA, challenging the government's use of the disparate impact standard of the Civil Rights Act, which says policies cannot cause disproportionate harm to people of color and continue greenlighting industrial activities in an area already overburdened by pollution. Five weeks later, the EPA dropped its Cancer Alley investigation. In February 2024, the EPA requested a delay in an impending federal trial against Denka until after the agency finalized a rule expected to tighten emission limits for chloroprene. The new rule requires plants to locate the source of toxic contamination and make repairs when emissions exceed standards. The plants are also required to install air monitors at their fence lines. as leading positions in the EPA were filled with former representatives or lobbyists of the oil and chemical industry.

In April of 2026, the Supreme Court of the United States handed down an opinion regarding Chevron USA Inc. v. Plaquemines Parish. The removal jurisdiction case sought to determine if oil companies, such as Chevron, were liable for their deleterious impacts on the Louisiana environment. This effort by Plaquemines Parish, which is situated along cancer alley, is a response to Louisiana's rapidly receding coastline, which has seen a loss of about 2,000 square miles of costal land since the mid-19th century. According to the EPA, Louisiana is particularly vulnerable to the compounding impact of climate change on factors such as sea level, extreme weather events, and flooding, as reflected in this legal battle to hold oil companies accountable. This case sets a precedent that similar climate liability cases fit under federal jurisdiction rather than state jurisdiction.

Environmental Impacts

The location of Cancer Alley also poses more environmental impacts other than air pollution. Since Cancer Alley is located closer to the Gulf of Mexico, hurricanes pose a great risk and have caused large amounts of damage in past years. These severe weather events in the area have resulted in the additional release of environmental contaminants into nearby communities. For example, in 2005, Hurricane Katrina caused almost 11 million gallons of oil to spill into the water near New Orleans. Hurricane Harvey in 2017 caused power outages that led to unrefrigerated chemicals in a plant in Houston decomposing and igniting into a large fireball. The EPA suggests that these risks posed by rising sea levels will have monumental impacts on local economies due to the prevalence of sea-level cities, oil and gas industries, and other important infrastructure. Environmental racism can be defined as the institutional rules, regulations, policies, or government/corporate decisions that deliberately target certain communities for locally undesirable land uses and lax enforcement of zoning and environmental laws, resulting in communities being disproportionately exposed to toxic and hazardous waste based on race. Environmental racism can also be caused by several factors. These factors include intentional neglect, the alleged need for a receptacle for pollutants in urban areas, and a lack of institutional power and low land values of people of color.

Another reason for the disproportionate siting of industrial facilities in poor and Black communities is the “Not In My Backyard Movement” (NIMBY). Primarily White neighborhoods rallied together against the petrochemical companies that were being placed in their communities. As a result, these companies shifted their sights and locations towards poor communities of color. NIMBY’s growth occurred in the 1970’s at the same time public awareness about health risks related to pollution from these waste facilities grew. These White communities had social power and “clout” that low-income communities of color did not have.

In 2023, the Environmental Protection Agency found significant evidence that Louisiana regulators’ actions and/or inactions have resulted and continue to result in a range of adverse impacts on African American residents in Cancer Alley.

Activism and Environmental Justice

The environmental justice movement seeks to address the disproportionate impacts of environmental degradation suffered by low-income and minority communities across the world. Many communities that face the largest burdens of environmental degradation, such as pollution, tend to be made up of low-income and minority populations State District Court Judge Trudy White released a decision that reversed and vacated 14 air regulations permits that the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) had issued for the proposed Formosa Plastics Group complex in the town of Welcome. Rise St. James is also committed to educating the community and those outside of the community about the chemicals they breathe in every day. The organization's website includes a "Chemical of the Month" page and provides information on a specific chemical and how much it is found in certain areas of Cancer Alley.

References

External links

DOJ sues Louisiana chemical maker over 'cancer alley' risk
Cancer Alley: Myth or Fact?, Unwelcome Neighbors: How the poor bear the burdens of America's pollution. New Orleans Times-Picayune.
Cancer Alley. BBC.