Ascension Parish, Louisiana, located between Baton Rouge and New Orleans along I-10, would look like a typical affluent, growing suburb, if it weren't for the toxic pollution emitted from nearby petrochemical facilities.
Joan Meiners writes on the spread of toxic industries beyond the Black neighborhoods surrounding the Mississippi River: "Louisiana’s love affair with oil and gas, while disproportionately affecting black communities, has hardly spared white communities."
Ascension Parish provides the clearest example.
"According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s annual Toxics Release Inventory, plants in Ascension Parish emit greater quantities of toxic chemicals from industrial stacks than anywhere else in the country," according to Meiners. "Unlike most industrial parishes, Ascension is among Louisiana’s whitest and most affluent. It’s also the third-fastest growing parish in Louisiana. Families flock here for affordable new housing, low crime rates, a booming business climate and some of the state’s best schools. In all conventional measures, Ascension Parish is thriving."
Ascension Parish is similar to may suburban communities around the country in other ways, according to the article: built by whites fleeing the larger city nearby (Baton Rouge, in this case) in the search for quality schools. In this case, however, they fled right into an environmental and public health risk.
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