Sprawling industrial complexes line the drive east along the Mississippi River to the majority-Black town of Reserve, Louisiana. In the last seven miles the road passes a massive, rust-colored aluminum-oxide refinery, then the Evonik chemical plant, then rows of white tanks at the Marathon oil refinery.
But it’s the Denka chemical plant that is under scrutiny from federal officials. Less than a half mile from an elementary school in Reserve, it makes synthetic rubber, emitting chloroprene, listed as a carcinogen in California, and a likely one by the Environmental Protection Agency.
