US court to review civil rights lawsuit alleging environmental racism in a Louisiana parish

NEW ORLEANS– A federal appeals court will hear oral arguments on Monday civil rights lawsuit alleging that a southern Louisiana parish is engaging in racist land use policies to place polluting industries in majority Black communities.

The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans is reviewing a lawsuit filed by community groups alleging that St. James Parish “intentionally discriminated against black residents” by encouraging the construction of industrial facilities in areas with a predominantly black population “while white residents are explicitly spared from the risk of environmental damage.”

The groups, Inclusive Louisiana, Rise St. James and Mt. Triumph Baptist Church, seeking a halt to future industrial development in the parish.

The plaintiffs note that 20 of the 24 industrial facilities were located in two parts of the parish with a predominantly black population when they filed the complaint in March 2023.

The parish is located along a heavily industrialized stretch of the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, known as the Chemical Corridor, often referred to as “Cancer Alley” by environmental groups because of the high levels of suspected cancer-causing pollution emitted there.

The lawsuit comes as the federal government took steps to make this happen during the Biden administration tackle the legacy of environmental racism. Federal officials have written stricter environmental protections and pledged tens of billions of dollars in funding.

In the Louisiana case, U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier of the Eastern District of Louisiana in November 2023 dismissed the lawsuit largely on procedural grounds, finding that the plaintiffs had filed their complaint out of time. But he added: “This Court cannot say that their claims have no basis in fact or are based on a meritless legal theory.”

Barbier said the lawsuit primarily centered on the parish’s 2014 land use plan, which generally protected white neighborhoods from industrial development and left predominantly black neighborhoods, schools and churches without the same protections. The plan also described largely black parts of the parish as “future industrial” locations. The plaintiffs lacked the legal opportunity to sue the parish, the judge ruled.

Yet the parish’s land use plan is just one piece of evidence among many that reveal persistent discrimination against black residents of the parish, said Pamela Spees, an attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights who is representing the plaintiffs. They challenge Barbier’s ruling under the “continuing violations” doctrine on the grounds that discriminatory parochialism persists, allowing industrial expansion in predominantly black areas.

The lawsuit highlights the parish’s decision in August 2022 to impose a moratorium on large solar complexes after a proposed 1,580-acre solar project upset residents of the predominantly white Vacherie neighborhood, who expressed concern about the reduction in property values ​​and storm debris. The parish did not honor the plaintiffs’ request for a moratorium on heavy industrial expansion, the lawsuit said.

These community members “have tried at every opportunity to simply have their humanity and dignity seen and recognized,” Spees said. “That is simply completely ignored by the local government, and has been that way for generations.”

Another part of the complaint states that the parish failed to identify and protect the likely hundreds of burial sites of enslaved people by allowing industrial facilities to be built on the areas and restricting access to the areas , which prevented the descendants of slaves from commemorating the locations. The federal judge dismissed that part of the lawsuit, noting that the sites were on private property not owned by the parish.

At its core, the complaint alleges civil rights violations under the 13th and 14th Amendments, stating that the land use system in the parish that allows industrial development, primarily in predominantly Black communities, continues to be defined by the history of slavery, white supremacy and Jim Crow laws. and governance.

Attorneys for St. James Parish said the lawsuit used exaggerated claims and “inflammatory rhetoric.” St. James Parish did not respond to a request for comment.

“The Civil War has never been over,” said St. James Parish resident Gail LeBoeuf, 72, a plaintiff in the case and co-founder of the local environmental justice organization Inclusive Louisiana. “They are trying to destroy black people in this country in any way they can.”

LeBoeuf, who lives a mile from an alumina plant, was diagnosed with cancer in 2022 and blames her illness on the high levels of industrial pollution she has been exposed to for decades. She acknowledges that the link cannot be proven, but says there is no way to prove that industrial pollution was not the reason.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found in a 2003 report that St. James Parish ranked higher than the national average for certain cancer deaths. A federal judge will appear in August the EPA has ruled out of using the Civil Rights Act to combat industrial pollution that has reportedly disproportionately affected minority communities in Louisiana.

In addition to a moratorium on industrial expansion in the parish, LeBoeuf’s organization is calling for real-time air monitoring of pollution and buffer zones around residential areas.

Community groups have been fighting for years against plans by Taiwanese company Formosa to build a $9.4 billion plastics factory near a predominantly black town in the parish.

LeBoeuf and other prominent local environmental activists met with White House officials in September to discuss the Biden administration’s progress in responding to concerns from United Nations human rights experts about industrial expansion in the Chemical Corridor.

LeBoeuf said she had rescheduled a doctor’s appointment to meet with White House officials. She believes her advocacy for environmental justice is as important a remedy for her community as her ongoing chemotherapy treatment is for her body.

“Both are drugs,” LeBoeuf said. ‘Fighting is medicine.’

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Jack Brook is a staff member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Brook on social platform X: @jack_brook96.