By Peyton Gill
I drove to St. James, LA, a slightly rural town 55 miles west of New Orleans along the Mississippi River, to meet up with a local woman born and raised in the town, Ms. Sharon Lavigne. She started RISE St. James, an organization in her living room with 10 people, then increased to dozens. They spend time outside their homes and work life, not getting paid, organizing to fight the oil and gas industry plaguing their parish, polluting the air and causing the citizens to have deadly health issues.
This town was deemed an Industrial Zone in 2014 by Parish Council members without open discussions amongst the townspeople. In September 2017, a couple of local organizations and church groups held a rally and march, ‘Rise for Cancer Alley,” which was a success for the residents. It brought New Orleanians out there to engage in the struggle. We got a firsthand look at these homes, sitting not even a mile from gas plants spewing toxins ‘round the clock.
Burton Lane, also known as Cancer Alley, is currently still waiting for an evacuation route. In the case of an explosion or oil leak, these residents would have no way to escape as the street has only one way in, one way out and is surrounded by oil reservoirs. The latest court hearing for the evacuation route will probably be delayed once again as city officials keep messing with the date, probably to deter angry citizens from being able to attend and demand a route.
Ms. Sharon said the latest news is that a Formosa plastic manufacturing company wants to build a plant two miles from a school! But Formosa does not have a 100% greenlight yet, because residents like RISE St. JAMES are showing up to the meetings between town council members and Formosa board members to state their disgust at the idea of adding another pollution factory to an already over burdened area. The organization put in an appeal to the court opposing the decision to welcome Formosa and are currently awaiting to hear the verdict.
Another resident organizing is Travis London. Travis stated, “The council members say that Formosa is supposed to pay for and build the evacuation route [for Burton Alley residents]. If Formosa wants to build here, Formosa has to agree to fund it. It’s the government getting away with not using their funds, and it makes the citizens think, ‘Ok we need Formosa to put a plant here so we can finally get an evacuation route!’ But residents don’t want any more industry here!” The people organizing in RISE St. James are fighting for their lives, and they have the power to win. They are banding together, and collectively stopping the capitalist oil thieves from coming in any more giving cancer to families and destroying their environment.
Ms. Sharon said, “It was about time someone said NO. HELP (another local group ‘organizing to stop’ the industry) was not doing anything. All they would do is tell us at the meetings when another oil plant would be coming in, and they would say there is nothing we could do about it.” Well, RISE St. James has a separate agenda, to fight the oil and gas industry and keep ‘em out.