Cancer Alley at center of lawsuit claiming environmental health crisis coast1009.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from coast1009.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Bloomberg Creative/Getty Images(NEW YORK) The residents of a Louisiana parish, located in an area that has become known as “Cancer Alley,” filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the local government alleging the petrochemical plants built in the area are tantamount to “environmental racism.”
The lawsuit, which names St. James Parish, St. James Parish Council and St. James Parish Planning Commission as defendants, seeks a moratorium on petrochemical plants in the Black districts of St. James Parish, as well as other relief. The lawsuit was filed by the environmental organizations Inclusive Louisiana and Rise St. James, as well as the Mount Triumph Baptist Church.
“It is one of the most severe and obvious forms of discrimination that people have been living with, and it needs to stop. It’s illegal,” said attorney Pamela Spees, of the Center for Constitutional Rights, at Tuesday’s press conference announcing the lawsuit.
The Center for Constitutional Rights and Tulan