Chemical facilitiesChinese ownership of a methanol plant worries Louisiana parish residents
Roughly 150 petrochemical companies and seventeen refineries operate in a zone between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, an area locals call “Cancer Alley” due to the health concerns that have arisen during the past few decades of industrialization. Residents of St. James Parish have voiced their opposition to a proposed methanol plant in the parish. The plant will be operated by Yuhuang Chemical Inc., a subsidiary of Chinese natural gas giant Shandong Yuhuang. Recently, Shandong Yuhuang, parent company of the proposed plant in St. James, has received bad press in China for reportedly neglecting environmental laws, including releasing toxic emissions in the city of Heze, which environmentalists have connected to rising cancer rates and contaminated water.
Roughly 150 petrochemical companies and seventeen refineries operate in a zone between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, an area locals call “Cancer Alley” due to the health concerns that have arisen during the past few decades of industrialization. In Mossville, a town a few hours west of Baton Rouge in Southern Louisiana, 91 percent of residents claim they are experiencing health complications as a result of the fourteen facilities which manufacture, process, store, or discharge toxic substances in the area.
Al Jazeera reports that many of the residents of communities along Cancer Alley have had little or no say before chemical companies set up new plants in their communities.
Last July, residents of St. James Parish held a town hall meeting at St. James High School, near the site of a proposed methanol plant, to discuss the new facility. The plant will be operated by Yuhuang Chemical Inc., a subsidiary of Chinese natural gas giant Shandong Yuhuang.
“We never had a town hall meeting pretending to get our opinion prior to them doing it,” said Lawrence “Palo” Ambrose, a coordinator at St. James Catholic Church. “They didn’t make us part of the discussion,” he added.
Residents disapprove of the new plant and believe the St. James Parish Council, which approved the project, purposely failed to inform them of the plant until the sale of the property. “I don’t think the way they went about getting the plant was right. They bought the property before they tell people it’s going to happen,” said Edwin Octave, who lives in the area.
Environmentalists say it is not unusual for some rural communities to be excluded from the permit process. Darryl Malek-Wiley, an environmental justice organizer in New Orleans for the Sierra Club, said the state’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) fails to disseminate information clearly. “You have to know to read the legal pages and superfine print,” he said. “We have talked about the need for the community to be noticed right at the beginning (of negotiations),” he added, but it is not a legal requirement. “They don’t know about something until they get a press story saying it’s a done deal.”
DEQ spokeswoman Jean Kelly claims community members are notified when a company applies for a chemical plant permit. “A proposed permit is public noticed, and the community has an opportunity to comment on it,” she said. Information on the proposed methanol plant
