'St. James is full': New Cancer Alley plant may double toxic pollutants, EPA data shows
Beneath a vast expanse of blue sky, Myrtle Felton looks at a sprawling plain of farmland bent along the bank of America’s most well-traveled waterway.
None of that changes how trapped she feels.
Gone are the days she’d spend in the sun tending begonias and daylilies, air filled with gospel music and the sweet smell of a sugarcane harvest.
In the 40 years Felton has lived on the eastbank of the Mississippi River in Louisiana’s St. James Parish, more than a dozen petrochemical plants have set up shop in the parish’s predominantly poor, predominantly black districts.
Billowing industrial facilities now occupy her horizons. The air has turned acrid. And she’s seen firsthand it’s safer to stay inside.
Read more: https://www.clarionledger.com/in-depth/news/american-south/2020/03/19/st-james-parish-louisiana-cancer-alley-formosa-plant-pollution/4809422002/