AUGUST 19, 1998
Page B4
ÿ o rtla n b (©bseruer
Environmental Justice
And Convent
C ontinved F rom E ditorial
chloride manufacturing plant in
Convent. This $700 million plant,
which will be a mile-long in size,
and will receive a ten year industrial
property tax exemption o f some
$94.5 million and a $35 million
sales/use tax rebate, amounting to a
$800,000 tax abatement per job.
The proposed site for the plant is
just a little over a mile away from
the local elementary school, where
many of the children already suffer
from serious cases of asthma and
other respiratory ailments. All roads
in Convent are dead-end and empty
out onto the River Road, running
parallel to the Mississippi. It would
be nearly impossible, then, to evacu
ate either the schools or the homes
if an accident were to occur in that
plant.
The most frightening part of the
decision to locate the Shintech plant
in Convent is the danger of toxic
emissions from the plant. Polyvinyl
chloride manufacturing means diox
ins will be released into the atmo
sphere and dioxins have been proven
to cause cancer. In an area already
besieged by high incidence of cancer
in both the young and the old, it is
difficult to understand how Convent
could have been chosen for yet an
other plant.
As the Environmental Protection
Agency studies whether to allow the
Shintech plant to be built, the poli
tics of Louisiana have taken over.
The Governor, who backs the plant
vocally, held a press conference say
ing that he had asked the residents of
Convent if they wanted the plant and
they had all indicated they did. When
we visited Convent this spring, we
had trouble finding people who had
been questioned by the Governor.
Indeed, the governor has even threat
ened publicly the Tulane University
Law School clinic for its legal as
sistance to the people of Convent
who are fighting the plant. Stories of
state and private contracts going to
those who support the plant abound.
Meanwhile, the people o f Con
vent are the ones suffering. Fami
lies tom apart between those who
support the plant and those who do
not. Children, already sick, facing
even more pollution in the air they
breathe and the water they drink.
Women facing high miscarriage and
cancer rates. Men are also sick and
many are unemployed.
If ever there was a case o f envi
ronmental racism, Convent, LA is
it. While the legal and political
arguments rage, the people en
dure.
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