25 Environmental Racism and State Negligence: The Case of Cancer Alley

Introduction: 

Environmental Justice is the equitable treatment and effective involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect and full enforcement of environmental law. Unfortunately, in America, environmental racism— the unequal exposure of communities of color to hazardous environmental risks— continues to be a contingent injustice in the United States (Bullard, 2000).

One of the most prominent examples is found in “Cancer Alley”, an 85-mile stretch along the Mississippi River in the state of Louisiana. This place is home to over 150 petrochemical plants and refineries (Lerner, 2005). This region consists of predominantly Black, low-income communities, who experience some of the most extreme cancer rates in the country. This is due to the outcome of negligence to environmental policies and failure from the state level to execute legislative order across diverse populations in a fair manner (Mohai et al., 2009).

This chapter will study how environmental racism in Louisiana has allowed industrial development to persist without legislative checks. It will address the unfortunate results of the lack of industrial supervision by the state governments and the health risks local residents experience as a result of negligence in the federal level. Grassroots movements will be highlighted due to notable initiatives to address environmental justice. In assessing these topics, this chapter will deliver a comprehensive understanding of repeated patterns of environmental injustice in the United States while demonstrating how marginalized regions across the United States, including those in the prison system, are unequally susceptible to environmental harm.

Background on Cancer Alley: 

Cancer Alley is an 85-mile corridor located on the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Louisiana, highly known as a hotspot for the petrochemical industries. Over 150 petrochemical plants and refineries run on this stretch of land, making it one of the most prevalent industrialized places in the United States. Referring back to U.S. environmental history, this region was home to plantations between the 18th and 19th centuries. Once the abolition of slavery took place, many former African American slaves resided in those areas. Today, the residents that live in Cancer Alley consist mostly of Black residents who are low-income. This unfortunate pattern of environmental injustice ties to the racial and economic marginalization on a national and regional scale.

The immediate industrial development of Cancer Alley started in the mid-20th century, when chemical companies began orchestrating plans to take advantage of the lax environmental regulations. Lax environmental regulations are rules or laws that address the protection of the environment in ways that are ineffective, weak, or have too many loopholes. Along with the enforcement of lax environmental regulations, cheap land prices, and the political marginalization of the local populations, gave big name corporations a green light to financially benefit from vulnerable communities. There is ample evidence to support the link between industrial pollution and its harmful health outcomes. Data shows that since industrial expansion has began, high rates of cancer, respiratory diseases, and reproductive health problems have increased dramatically. This becomes an environmental crisis because despite ample evidence that signals a need for environmental justice reform, there has been minimal state and federal intervention.

The name “Cancer Alley” became popular in the 1980s as environmental activists and local residents began raising awareness about the critical health impacts these communities experience as a result of the close proximity to industrial facilities. Several studies have affirmed that people living in Cancer Alley experience much higher cancer risks than the national average, specifically from pollutants like benzene, chloroprene, and formaldehyde—chemicals that petrochemical plants often release into the atmosphere.

The sad history of Cancer Alley paints a complicated portrait of how complex topics like race, socioeconomic status, and environmental health, present a valid case study in evaluating environmental racism in the United States.

State-Level Failures and Legislative Injustice: 

The environmental concern in Cancer Alley addresses a broader matter in question: the failure from the state government to execute environmental protection regulations in an equitable manner. Unfortunately, even with federal environmental laws like the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, enforcement usually ends up in the hands of state regulators. In Louisiana, agencies have a historical demonstration of environmental leniency when dealing with major industrial polluters. This repeated action is a clear message to residents that economic growth is favored over the health of communities and environmental justice.

The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ), were tasked with the regulation of industrial emissions and the initiation of public health protections. This department has been criticized for helping petrochemical corporations meet their interests over environmental priorities. Studies have shown that permits to build new plants are generally approved even in regions that are already environmentally burdened with high pollutions rates that heavily exceed safe limits (ProPublica, 2019). This pattern of regulatory violation shows the evident loophole in environmental law that allows the harmful impacts to occur amongst vulnerable populations.

Legislative plans and the way these laws are engineered have a history leading marginalized communities astray. Even environmental regulations that are meant to protect residents are usually poorly enforced and weak. For instance, zoning laws do not have any limits or restrictions on where hazardous facilities can be built. This means that hazardous facilities can operate in close proximity to Black low-income communities, schools, and residential buildings (e.g. apartments in Black neighborhoods). Public health researchers have labeled areas like Cancer Alley, Louisiana as “sacrifice zones,” where corporations and politically-centered economic interests label treatment to specific neighborhoods as collateral damage.

These systemic failures mirror national patterns of environmental health problems, including within the incarceration system, where imprisoned individuals are usually housed in institutions that are located in close proximity to heavily polluted environments and toxic waste facilities. In these cases, marginalized communities are unfairly exposed to environmental harm as a result of legislative neglect and systemic discrimination.

As community members and grassroots activists in Cancer Alley continue to combat these environmental injustices, their efforts reflect an emergent need for legislative reforms. Impactful environmental justice practices should not only enforce new laws but also guarantee the enforcement of mechanisms that are equitable across diverse populations regardless of race or socioeconomic stability.

Public Health Crisis and Rising Cancer Rates: 

A severe public health crisis has risen due to the weak enforcement of environmental law and the continued industrial expansion in Cancer Alley, Louisiana. In this corridor, Cancer Alley residents face some of the highest cancer risks in the nation, with specific areas—like St. John the Baptist Parish—reporting cancer rates that greatly exceed the U.S. average (U.S. EPA, 2017). The Louisiana Tumor Registry and independent health agencies have identified links between long-term pollutant exposure to petrochemical plants and rising cases of respiratory diseases, birth defects, and chronic illnesses.

One of the most impactful pollutants to be noted in research is chloroprene, a prevalent carcinogen released by industries such as Denka Performance Elastomer plant in Reserve, Louisiana. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released studies suggesting that the alarming levels of chloroprene in this area are over 700 times the safety threshold recommended by the United States Federal Government. Despite these recent findings, the petrochemical plants continues to operate with very little intervention from Louisiana’s state authorities. This exemplifies how normalized legal neglect plays a role in the life threatening health outcomes Louisiana residents continue to face.

This crisis does not just call for medical and environmental protection—it raises a civil rights crisis. When communities who have populations that largely consist of people of color, who are publicly subjected to destructive environmental conditions without effective health protections or legal support, it further frames U.S. environmental law as unequal. Many residents lack access to proper medical care, environmental examinations, or legal resources to challenge the larger industrial corporations. This further supports the cycle where the most vulnerable communities are both disempowered and exposed.

This ongoing cycle of environmental harm and lack of legal action from state leaders is a direct result of experiences people from incarcerated populations have. In future chapters of this project, ample research will be conducted to further investigate the complex elements of environmental damage. Prisons have a tendency to lack adequate healthcare resources are are often located in or near highly polluted environments, encouraging existing health disparities. Just like the communities in Cancer Alley, these incarcerated people are systematically denied proper protection from environmental hazards, amplifying the deep causal links between race, class, and environmental justice.

A critical element to the advancement of environmental justice in Cancer Alley is an empowering narrative for youth and generations to come. Environmental racism is not just a public health crisis but also a crucial civic problem that requires engagement, informed residents who are proactive when it comes to organization, advocacy, and accountability. Social justice initiatives that are aimed to mobilize youth, empowerment groups, advancement of environmental education in public school districts, and leadership programs for younger activists should expand in the state of Louisiana. These consistent efforts can assist in cultivating a future generation of environmental advocates who will commit to the fight for justice long after the status quo headlines fade away.

Reader’s Intake from a Criminological Perspective

From a criminological perspective, the situation happening in the Cancer Alley can be assessed through the view of state and corporate crime. This is where corporate and government-based entities work together (either intentionally or otherwise), resulting in socially harmful injustices. The systemic negligence and regulatory failures contributing to the abandonment of social environmental order for marginalized communities raises great concern about the accountability of governmental justice nationally.

The environmental crisis in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley sets an example of the causal links between systemic racism, environmental degradation, and legal obstacles. For pre-law and criminology scholars, this case provides an in-depth study of how marginalized communities manage in the midst of challenges perpetuated by environmental injustice. Understanding these elements of environmental justice and reform is key to developing legal policy frameworks that adequately promote equity and protection to fragile populations.

To dive into an in-depth scale of communities harmed in Cancer Alley, Louisiana, it is very important to properly assess the ample health data emerging from this specific region. According to the Louisiana Tumor Registry (2021), St. James and St. John the Baptist Parishes which are two prominent locations in Cancer Alley – obtain some of the highest cancer rates in the country, with very alarming rates of respiratory and reproductive system related cancers. To further emphasize the importance of this life-threatening trend, a 2021 ProPublica analysis, with the help of EPA models, discovered that residents in parts of Cancer Alley face critical cancer risks rooting from toxic air contaminants that are 50 times higher that the national average (Lustgarten et al., 2021).

The trend of these findings are not separate and indeed correlate with one another. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has stated that chemical exposure levels in Cancer Alley disproportionately impact communities of color (POC communities), especially Black people. In 2022, the EPA announced the launch of an investigation into the Louisiana state agencies that oversee environmental and climate protocol. The EPA announced that these agencies allegedly violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, arguing that local policy decision making exercises racial discrimination (EPA, 2022). Although the EPA eventually refuted the complaint in the following year (2023), many claim the withdrawal from the launched investigation was due to political and legal pushback from Louisiana state officials. This incident underscores how environmental racism continues to be legally tampered with yet politically contested.

From a public health perspective, the burdening responsibility these marginalized communities have to hold has several harmful impacts. Not only does it increase cancer risks for low-income community members that may not qualify for effective medical care, but it also elevates the rates of asthma, premature death, and possible birth defects. According to the Louisiana Department of Health (2020), residents that live near the petrochemical infrastructures report heavy exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOCs), benzen, and particulate matter, that is directly affiliated with causes of respiratory illnesses and gradual developmental harm to one’s overall health. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) continues to make efforts to advocate that these communities suffer from extensive chronic disease risks, which is an effect of limited access to appropriate healthcare and economic disenfranchisement (CDC, 2021).

From a criminology perspective, the constant failure to address and regulate industries that pose a harm to the health of Cancer Alley residents, shows a perfect example of state-corporate crime, where both the public corporations and private companies are complicit in maintaining these harmful societal structures as long as there is financial compensation for people running those entities. This is an example of regulatory oversight—it is a system that has been normalized with consistent patterns resulting in exploitation. This cycle, enabled by loopholes in the nation’s environmental laws, serves to provide business owners ample opportunity to take advantage of sustained lobbying from the petrochemical industrial chains. Scholars such as Kramer and Michalowski (2005) define state-corporate crime as the “intersection of institutional interests where harm becomes an unintended yet accepted outcome,” which is very evident in the Cancer Alley case. Unfortunately, environmental harm in the case of Cancer Alley, Louisiana is not accidental, but systemic.

Additionally, loopholes in national environmental law and weaker regulatory standards have a role in the perpetuated issue. The Clean Air Act, although a key element of environmental law, has faced undercuts during the process of its enforcement, specifically in weaker communities like Cancer Alley. Through these legal loopholes it is evident that politicians and state representatives are continuing to make Cancer Alley a useful industrial zone at the cost of people’s lives. A 2023 report by the Union of Concerned Scientists finalized that the EPA disproportionately fails to enforce emissions limits in predominantly Black communities, which allows high-rate polluters such as Denka Performance Elastomer and Formosa Plastics to continue regular operations with outdated or expired permits (UCS, 2023). This reflects the lack of inspection on these air pollutant infrastructures in low-income and marginalized areas in comparison to predominantly white higher income suburban neighborhoods. The permitting process within itself is legally engineered in a way that puts economic and financial outcomes over the safety of the public, often fast-tracking approvals for proposals on industrialized expansion without appropriate environmental protection assessments.

Grassroots activism, led by Black women and groups founded for the environmental justice initiative, play a contingent role in mobilizing public resistance. Sharon Lavigne who is the founder of RISE St. James has taken notable legal and public action to put a stop to construction of new petrochemical plants in Cancer Alley. In response to these efforts, other environmental justice leaders have teamed up with community figures like Lavigne to contest these harmful environmental practices. In 2021, after several years of environmental legal advocacy, RISE St. James Parish, celebrated a success in putting a stop to the development of a very large Formosa Plant in St. James Parish, which would have gone down in the books for becoming one of the largest plastic facilities in the globe. Lavigne received the Goldman Environmental Prize for her good work, exemplifying the power of resistance from local communities even in the midst of war against economic dominance from higher corporations.

However, although data notes that activism has resulted in some form of resistance, it cannot stand alone to dismantle systemic injustice and enable environmental justice reform. Legal scholars state that environmental law lacks the incorporation of the human rights frameworks, noting that there is a need for the environmental law to evolve in order to see powerful changes to racial corruption. The American Public Health Association (APHA) has advocated in favor of this stance, proposing a redefinition of environmental health standards to most importantly address racial and income class-based disparities (APHA, 2022).

In order to make effective changes to racially involved environmental disparities, federal agencies must come together to achieve environmental equity audits, and states must be incorporated into the conversation to be held accountable for permitting and executing harmful environmental decisions on the basis of racially-motivated means. Loopholes in environmental law should be addressed in order to narrow the legal gap that gives state representatives leeway to pass state orders to open up environmentally harmful proposals. The Justice40 Initiative, launched under the Biden Administration, promises to dedicate 40% of federal environmental funding to communities that fall under the disadvantaged scope (whether financially, criminally, etc.). Although notable efforts for environmental reform have been made by administrations in the White House (such as the Biden and Obama Administration), activists and scholars question whether this funding will actually reach marginalized communities like Cancer Alley in a meaningful manner. Several reasons that cause environmental experts and researchers to believe so is due to the lack of environmental prioritization from the Trump administration and the attempt to halt funding and reallocate federal money to other things in the USFG that the Trump Administration prioritizes more ( for example, militarization, proposed tariff increases, percentage shifts on tax rates for U.S. citizens, etc.). Scholars and environmental experts believe that in order for funding to reach the Cancer Alley community, environmental enforcement strategies must be strengthened and input from community members on infrastructure development must be engraved in policy development (White House EJ Council, 2023).

In addition to building a foundation for stronger oversight on environmental impacts to economically motivated actions, it is very important for policymakers and federal agencies to enforce transparent tracking systems to make sure dedicated environmental funds are being delivered to the communities that face harmful effects due to systemic harm. As stated by the White House Environmental Justice Council (2023), in order or community investment to be effective, the initial investment must be linked to health outcomes that can be measured statistically. Elements that play a notable role in this step are resources such as data from public reports and direct collaboration with local grassroots organizations that are already heavily involved within these marginalized communities. Without these mechanisms set in stone, initiatives like Justice40 risk becoming a symbolic form of resistance instead of being an ample opportunity for community transformation.

Moreover, institutional accountability must be incorporated into state and local government regulations. Residents have witnessed several instances where states took advantage of lack of strict frameworks that don’t extend beyond the Federal level. The EPA (2022), while capable of initiating investigations and setting national law, often turns to the states to carry out said regulations. In states such as Louisiana, where agencies and their underlying interests dominate over any other concerns is regulatory capture— a condition where figures overseeing enforcement of these regulations have more of a compelling interest to obtain economic gain—depletes progress. As noted by the Union of Concerned Scientists (2023), delays on enforcement, use of expired permits, and minor penalties permit high-risk facilities to continue to pollute residents with exemption from punishment, especially in communities with weaker political representation and racial discrimination.

Similarly, the CDC (2021) highlights that improving environmental health requires financial public health investments, such as access to clean water, preventative screenings for local residents, and access to affordable healthcare in places like Cancer Alley. If these investments are not exercised when looking at emission-based actions, communities will continue to go down the cycle of deadly illnesses, and multi-generational health disparities.

The failure to incorporate environmental justice into the process of regulatory law, federal public health action, and economic development proposals presents a dangerous structural imbalance. This inequity favors profit over human life and in this scenario it seems the quality of a colored person weighs less than otherwise to figures with a say so in environmental law. As the American Public Health Association (2022) has mentioned, protecting public health cannot be achieved without a fundamental approach to restructuring anti-racist standards, and including proposals that will focus on equity and community engagement.

Furthermore, environmental injustice in Cancer Alley cannot be separated from the broader scope of the political economy that allows traditional corporate American interests to dictate the physical and social marginalized landscapes. The massive presence of petrochemical plants in this region is no coincidence, but rather the result of decades of racially motivated policy decisions that have set industrial development as the top priority over the well-being of communities. Zoning law, lax enforcement of environmental protections, and financial incentives for big corporations have all created a geography defining sacrifice. This land geographically impacts Black and low-income families in a very unfair manner. Many of the Cancer Alley residents for generations have lacked financial means to relocate to safer places. As a result, their health and safety have been compromised for the sake of economic gain.

Legal scholars have had debates pertaining to the systemic nature of environmental racism and how it must be taken care of through legislation and litigation in order to be taken care of. Although lawsuits coming from the community have occasionally held companies that cause such pollution accountable, these legal battles almost always end up getting dragged on (time wise), financially burdening, and emotionally damaging for vulnerable residents like people from Cancer Alley.Additionally, quite a few lawsuits tend to get dismissed in court or settled without necessary systemic reform/changes. This defeats the purpose of addressing the root cause. Long-term solutions are pretty much impossible to achieve without legislative reforms that contain environmental justice policy within the set legal standards (at both the state and federal levels). These reforms should include mandatory environmental impact assessments for all industrial development project proposals, especially in historically burdened areas like Cancer Alley, Louisiana. Adequate funding should also be distributed strategically to communities that have endured life-threatening exposures to toxic pollutants.

In regards to enforcement, a key improvement would be to mobilize independent oversight committees that contain public health experts, scientists who specialize in the environment, legal advocates, and members of the community. These committees could potentially have the ability to oversee EPA and state environmental agency enforcement, ensuring the regulation and economic incentives do not interfere or undermine public well-being and justice for all. Research findings could be made available to the public to increase levels of transparency with community members and allow local residents to monitor the government’s commitment to protecting the health of oppressed communities.

It is also worth noting that although Cancer Alley, Louisiana is usually utilized in the context of case study purposes, it is not a rare example. Across the United States—from Flint, Michigan’s water crisis to the Southern Bronx located in New York—communities housed by people of color are continuously forced to face the burden of environmental destruction. Cancer Alley symbolizes a national struggle that requires immediate attention. Solutions need to be weight and cross-state collaboration must be implemented to ensure that a single community’s progress does not result in harm of another’s dormancy.