The Biden administration sued a chemical company operating in southeast Louisiana on Tuesday, compelling it to face up to the cancer risk generated by its toxic emissions, a move that activists have been demanding for years. Denka Performance Elastomer, a synthetic rubber manufacturing plant owned by a Japanese company of the same name, is located half a mile from an elementary school in St. John the Baptist Parish, where the air is laced with toxic chemicals emitted by dozens of different industrial facilities and more than 60 percent of residents are Black. The parish sits along the Mississippi River just north of New Orleans in the state's main industrial corridor, a region commonly known as "Cancer Alley."
"This brings us hope," said Mary Hampton, president of the local advocacy group Concerned Citizens of St. John, which was founded in 2016. "It's been a long time coming. We need action now for our children and want this to be put in place immediately."
