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2:34

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2:59

It's connection to God. He

3:02

heard my cry.

3:09

Because I was sitting inside because

3:11

I thought he had to move. don't

3:13

wanna move. My

3:20

last time when I poached and I thought red corners

3:22

corner from the tree, they were

3:25

so beautiful. And

3:27

my thought he said, when you see

3:29

a red cardinal, that means change.

3:33

And I said, dear lord, I wonder what the change

3:35

is gonna be. Meet

3:38

Sharon Levine, a lifelong resident

3:40

of Saint James Parish in Louisiana. About

3:44

an hour's drive from New Orleans, St. James'

3:46

nestled into the curves of the Mississippi

3:48

River. This parish, which

3:50

is a Christian word, most other states in the call

3:53

it County, is home to just under

3:55

twenty thousand people. Driving

3:57

along item between New Orleans and Baton

3:59

Rouge you could easily miss Saint James.

4:02

It's camouflaged by Marshland. It's

4:04

green, it's humid, and there's all that

4:06

water in the Mississippi River, bending

4:09

back and forth as far as the eye can

4:11

see. It was here, Sharon

4:13

said God spoke to her.

4:16

Him if you

4:18

want me to sell my home and he said

4:20

no. And I asked me, he want me

4:22

to sell my land. He said no. And

4:24

that's when he told me to like, that

4:27

was the most powerful day of my life.

4:29

And if a sense that I've been doing this work,

4:32

the statistic, he changed something

4:35

inside of me I don't know

4:37

what it is, but he changed something. He's

4:40

in my inner behaving.

4:48

Sharing comes from generations of people

4:50

who have lived off this land. She raised

4:52

all six of her kids here. She taught special

4:54

ed at the local school for almost forty

4:56

years. And today, she

4:58

is a devoted singer in her

5:00

church choir. Sharon's

5:04

connection to this land and

5:06

this community is strong.

5:08

My grandparents lived on this land. They did.

5:11

They raised Turkish Chegg's with the big

5:13

feathers. But I I was a little girl and

5:15

Chegg's was so big and beautiful feathers.

5:17

Chegg's for Thanksgiving. My grandfather

5:20

used the fish in the river right

5:22

over there across this lake. My grandfather was

5:24

fishing shrimp. He picked pecans doing

5:27

pecans season. Over there, we

5:29

had more in the field where my dad

5:31

would plant. She sugar came. And

5:33

on the side of the

5:34

house, we had a garden where we got up in the morning

5:36

at five o'clock. To go pick the butter beans,

5:38

the snap beans, the

5:39

okra. It all sounds so

5:42

good. But when you get off interstate

5:44

and meander through the parishes between

5:46

these cities,

5:48

you start to see, hear, and

5:50

even smell a different story.

5:53

I used to pick the plums all the time. They used

5:55

to be sweet. They were not sweet in the middle.

5:58

Oh, look at entergy. So

6:02

so far we've seen dau, oxycom,

6:05

entergy. This eighty five

6:07

mile stretch between New Orleans and Baton

6:09

Rouge is known as the industrial corridor.

6:13

There are some one hundred and fifty deep

6:15

plants and refineries up and down this part

6:17

of the Mississippi that process oil

6:19

and produce the chemicals that make up

6:21

plastic. And as your dry driving through

6:23

these rural communities. Okay. Is

6:25

that a normal occurrence that you're just driving

6:28

along this highway and this

6:30

huge plume of white smoke.

6:32

It doesn't look like fire. It

6:36

doesn't look isn't

6:38

good. I was just about to roll down

6:40

the window to see if it smelled like, but that's a point.

6:42

Not a good idea.

6:44

Driving along Highway eighteen to Sharon's house

6:46

you feel dwarfed by these massive

6:49

pipes that stretch over

6:51

the roadway like a bridge. They come

6:53

down on the other side practically splitting

6:55

property lines.

6:57

I have never seen industry so

7:00

close to people's homes.

7:02

When we left that night and got back on I

7:04

ten, Those smoke stacks, they

7:06

kept going. They glaring

7:08

high beams from the plants. We watched them

7:10

fade into these distant

7:13

twinkling lights. Mimicking

7:15

a city skyline. In

7:19

two thousand eighteen, Taiwanese based

7:21

Formosa Plastics Corporation put

7:23

in a bid, a big bid. Nine

7:25

point four billion dollars for

7:27

two thousand four hundred acres in Saint

7:29

James

7:30

Parish. What four might you mask,

7:32

the Sunshine Project. Nine

7:35

point four billion dollars to be invested

7:37

by Formosa Petrochemical Corporation

7:41

We don't talk numbers like this very often

7:43

in Louisiana, and the fact that it's gonna happen

7:45

here along the river in St. James

7:47

Parish. It will result

7:49

in unheard of opportunities for

7:51

our citizens and our businesses.

7:54

The Sunshine Project sounds innocuous,

7:56

doesn't it? Well, according

7:58

to a Guardian article, This Sunshine

8:01

project would roughly double

8:03

toxic emissions in its local area.

8:05

And according to environmentalists, release

8:07

up to thirteen metric tons

8:10

of greenhouse gases a year. It

8:12

would be one of Louisiana's largest

8:15

plastic factories pop down

8:17

essentially in Sharon's backyard. Yeah.

8:20

Sure. It would change the character of

8:22

the neighborhood. But according to environmental

8:24

activists who would do a lot more than

8:26

that. We are being slowing at pause

8:28

since the day by the

8:30

chemical companies that operate up

8:32

and down the

8:33

river. In

8:35

the late nineteen eighties, this area was dubbed

8:37

Cancer Alley by local environmental activists.

8:40

Some began calling it Death Alley. They

8:43

claim if you live close to a petrochemical

8:45

facility in this area, you

8:47

might get cancer at a rate that dwarfs

8:50

the national average. So

8:52

why would anyone choose to live here in

8:54

Cancer Alley? I belong

8:56

here. I don't belong somewhere else.

8:58

Why should I give up with my grandparents to

9:00

work for? To let industry come

9:02

and take it. If I leave, like all

9:04

these people, I'm gonna leave behind. I wouldn't

9:06

wanna leave my neighbors here to die. So

9:10

if I have to fight for me and my

9:12

neighbors, I will.

9:18

This is the story of a woman who was nearly

9:20

driven out of her home in Saint James Parish.

9:23

A woman who lost so many friends

9:25

to cancer, she felt she was running out of

9:27

options. Who was she to

9:29

go up against some of the biggest plastic manufacturers

9:32

in the world. What did she

9:35

have other than her faith and her friends?

9:38

Well, as it turns out, that's

9:39

plenty. This is the story of

9:41

how Sharon Levine took on the sunshine

9:44

project.

9:47

What do we want? Yes, miss. What

9:49

do we want now? We are going

9:51

of win. We're not gonna lose. I'm

9:59

your host. Gloria Rivera. Welcome

10:02

to discarded.

10:11

I never would have described myself

10:13

as someone with any connection to

10:15

an eighty five mile strip of land in Louisiana.

10:19

And I bet the same might be true of you.

10:21

I mean, went to New Orleans for Jazz Fest

10:23

once in two thousand three. It was awesome.

10:26

Shut out to the Neville brothers and the gospel

10:29

tent, but that was it. That

10:31

being said, a connection would come.

10:34

It happened on Sunday, April fourteenth

10:36

two thousand nineteen to be exact.

10:39

I was a pretty healthy forty five year old

10:41

woman. Someone would soon tell me I

10:43

had the resting heartbeat of Michael Phelps.

10:45

You know, I haven't fact checked that, but it sounds

10:47

pretty good. Anyway, that Sunday

10:50

I went to a hot yoga less. And

10:52

the last thing I remember thinking is, I

10:55

need to sit down. I

10:57

had two back to back grand mile seizures

11:00

because I had a cancerous

11:02

brain tumor called an oligodendro glioma

11:06

in my left frontal lobe. I

11:08

was told one course of career had an

11:10

average survival rate of ten years.

11:13

In ten years, my youngest child would be

11:15

going to high school. A crappy

11:18

time for mom to die. So

11:21

yeah, I know what it's like

11:23

to have a doctor look at you

11:25

and deliver the news that you have cancer

11:28

and it might kill In

11:31

this four part series, we start with

11:33

how cancer alley came to be and Sharon's

11:36

mission to take on big plastic. We

11:39

examine how we fostered an environment

11:41

in the United States that often puts

11:43

profits over people. We

11:45

will zoom out of Louisiana and learn how

11:48

plastic first entered the home and

11:50

where things took a turn for the worse.

11:52

While the petrochemical industry is looking

11:54

to scale up production, we are

11:56

highlighting the people who are working to

11:58

scale it down and keep it

12:00

that

12:01

way. Classic is

12:03

the nightmare gift that never

12:05

stops giving. Your garbage is coming here,

12:08

and our community is having to breathe

12:10

at

12:10

them. The politicians are selling us

12:12

out to industry.

12:14

The industry is in denial male about

12:16

his responsibility to the environment and

12:18

to us.

12:18

Our planet is at its breaking point.

12:21

We can't put your profit over

12:23

you destroying the planet. Try

12:26

to go through your day without plastic.

12:28

I can't. Plastic is everywhere

12:32

to fully understand impact, we went

12:34

to ground zero in Louisiana where

12:36

plastic and so many other large

12:38

scale industrial products come into

12:40

this

12:40

world. You remember what it was

12:42

like before the first

12:43

For the first plant? Oh, I heard mom and

12:45

them talking. They were saying this a nice thing and

12:47

they were glad. So I was glad because

12:50

they were glad. Right. Sharon

12:52

was a teenager when she learned the first

12:54

plant was coming to her community. She

12:57

says her mom and friends thought that new industry

12:59

meant prosperity for the

13:01

child. It was told it was safe and

13:03

it was told it's gonna bring jobs. Right.

13:22

We met Sharon at her choir rehearsal.

13:24

They practice every Thursday here at Saint

13:27

James Catholic Church. While

13:37

everyone, including me, is

13:39

tired from the work day, It

13:41

does feel like a peaceful release

13:44

just to find my place on a wooden

13:46

pew and let that music

13:48

fill the room with serenity. When

13:58

practice is over, people slowly filter

14:00

out down the aisle. And I ask, can we

14:02

speak to you? It doesn't take long

14:04

for the subject of cancer to come up.

14:07

Do you think do you believe your cancer was

14:09

connected to the living in Cancer

14:11

Alley? I can't say, no, it wasn't.

14:14

Because I'm because I'm not a hundred percent sure

14:16

that it wasn't because where we live. This

14:18

is Mika. She's a cancer survivor,

14:21

and she's the assistant principal at the

14:23

school where Sharon works. Mika

14:25

is warm. She's got this big smile

14:27

on her face, and she's very happy

14:29

to talk to

14:30

us. I love my Paris.

14:32

I love my community. I almost

14:35

says the principal at the school where I graduated

14:37

from. I love my kids here. I love

14:39

the people here. We heard

14:41

about that kind of love for community

14:44

from almost everyone we spoke to.

14:46

I'm choosing

14:47

Natalie. Because I

14:50

just bill Saint James where

14:52

I belong. This is

14:54

where my great grandparents

14:57

lived. My entire family

14:59

both sides were from St. James. This

15:01

is me, so why should I be forced

15:03

to move? Deep

15:06

family ties and service to the community

15:08

are just some of the reasons people

15:10

stay here, but not everyone

15:12

feels like Mika. The reality

15:15

is it's just not that easy to

15:17

pick up and go. Here's Lisa.

15:19

She's more reserved and I

15:21

could hear the burden she lives

15:23

with. In her voice. Well, I would

15:25

love to leave. I I like the

15:27

place where I grew up. I I love to stay

15:30

here, but I would love to get away from the pollution

15:32

as well. If that was possible

15:34

for me to do so. It's

15:36

not possible. And no. And it's,

15:39

you know, more people here are

15:41

older people and it's hard to start

15:43

over at this age.

15:45

Yeah.

15:45

And sometimes I hear a lot of people

15:48

talk about being depressed. Because

15:51

when you think about the conditions here,

15:54

it is depressing. It's

15:57

like we have been cheated out of

15:59

something cheated out

16:01

of what? A good life, a better

16:03

life, and all the other

16:05

opportunities that other people have

16:08

The plants are here, but they

16:11

benefit other people. They come

16:13

and get the jobs

16:14

here, and we have to breathe the air. That's

16:16

just so sad and heartbreaking. They

16:20

have to breathe the air as

16:23

real as cancer alleys. To so

16:25

many Saint James

16:26

locals. A lot of people disagree.

16:29

Calling it cancer alley, death alley,

16:31

industrial corridor or

16:32

even chemical

16:33

corn or whatever you call it

16:35

can be political statement. Back

16:38

in the nineteen eighties, a part of South Louisiana

16:40

gained a nickname that was as brightening

16:42

as it was controversial.

16:44

How can it be cancer alley if the cancer

16:46

rates are not higher than the statewide

16:48

average in that area? You can

16:51

walk up any street or knock

16:53

on any door, and you can ask a question,

16:55

has anybody had in this house

16:58

had cancer? And then it's gonna be yes. We

17:00

have annual health checks

17:02

and all kinds of facilities to make

17:04

sure that we're

17:04

okay. So I'm not sure where the term cancellations

17:07

came from and It's controversial.

17:10

Research is lacking despite residents

17:12

of the area maintaining that they're disproportionately

17:15

impacted by cancer and other health

17:17

problems due to these science. Scientists

17:19

have recently tried to investigate that

17:22

correlation. If you look at any

17:24

map from the EPA, of

17:26

levels of cancer causing pollution. The

17:29

entire area between New Orleans

17:31

and Baton Rouge will light

17:33

up This

17:36

is doctor Kimberly Terrell. She's

17:38

a staff scientist and director of community

17:41

engagement at Tulane's Environmental Law

17:43

Clinic in New Orleans. It

17:45

continually blows my mind that

17:48

all of the pollutants we're talking about are

17:51

chemicals that are known to cause health

17:53

problems. Cancer alley residents

17:55

aren't just worried about

17:56

cancer. The area has seen

17:58

increases in asthma, upper

18:00

respiratory illnesses, and heart disease.

18:03

The state doesn't regulate the

18:05

release of steam into the

18:07

air. It regulates pollutants

18:10

that have established health effects.

18:13

So why is it

18:16

that each community has to prove

18:19

that they are susceptible to health

18:21

problems from exposure to

18:24

pollutants that are known to cause health

18:26

problems. But it's

18:28

not that simple, quite frankly, more

18:30

research needs to be done into whether environmental

18:33

risks equate to actual cases

18:35

of all kinds of

18:36

cancer. For Kim, a scientist

18:38

who led a study that found a link between

18:40

pollution and cancer in Louisiana, while

18:43

she's pretty firm on her view. To

18:45

me, Cancer Alley is a place in Southeast

18:48

Louisiana where communities of

18:50

color are disproportionately burdened

18:52

with air pollution and with cancer.

18:55

Kim's convinced. And I just wanna wind

18:57

back a little to grasp this slow

18:59

but massive heavy industry takeover

19:02

along the Mississippi. I

19:04

talked to a local journalist, Mark Schlevstein,

19:07

an environmental reporter at The Times Picay

19:09

Anne, the New Orleans Advocate, who's been

19:11

working this feat since the eighties. Hi.

19:13

Hi. Hi, Mark. How are you? Pretty good.

19:15

Good. We met Mark

19:18

at his house in New Orleans. This

19:20

is actually his most recent home. His

19:22

last one flooded with nearly fifteen

19:25

feet of water during hurricane Katrina.

19:28

He works out of his home office, Reporting

19:30

awards are displayed on the

19:32

walls, and there's also a white hard

19:34

hat he takes on all his site

19:36

visits. Chemical

19:39

plants were built on the Mississippi River

19:42

because there's free

19:44

water from the Mississippi and

19:46

there's free transportation, but you

19:48

also have easy access to

19:50

salt domes throughout the region.

19:53

That can be mined to make chlorine,

19:56

which is the key ingredient for

19:58

most petrochemicals.

20:00

Ah, petrochemicals. You

20:02

are going to hear this word a lot. It

20:05

simply means chemicals that are made from

20:07

oil and gas. They make

20:09

anything from the building blocks of plastics

20:12

to the chemicals that go into fertilizers. Early

20:15

on in Mark's career, he pulled up

20:17

to the gates of a petrochemical plant

20:19

and asked see the facility. After

20:23

some pushback, he got inside with

20:25

a PR representative leading the tour.

20:28

He says, he saw huge trucks

20:31

dumping liquid waste into pits.

20:34

Inside the pits were aerators, which

20:37

essentially cause the ways to evaporate.

20:40

We were walking around in street clothes

20:42

and the guys who were at the trucks

20:45

were in white suits with helmets

20:48

and masks. And we were

20:50

not feeling well to say the least by

20:53

the time we got

20:53

back. The environmental guy

20:56

who was with me was throwing up at the

20:58

front gate.

20:59

So like I said, hazardous

21:02

chemicals And

21:03

this was just one story. Mark

21:05

told our team from those early days of his

21:07

investigative reporting. One of the chemical

21:10

plants that I looked at they let us

21:12

in and took us around and showed us

21:14

all this stuff, and it was very

21:16

well cleaned up and everything. And

21:18

then as we're walking

21:19

along, we smelled something that smelled

21:22

like maple syrup. Yeah.

21:24

So not rotten eggs. Maple syrup.

21:26

The smell of chemicals comes in

21:28

many flavors.

21:30

I asked the plant manager

21:32

and he said, oh, well, that's the

21:34

pancake place in the community next

21:36

door. As I'm walking back,

21:39

this other worker, who's, like, following

21:41

behind us, laying over my

21:43

shoulders, says, you know that not pancake

21:45

syrup and I say, yeah, I know it's ethylene

21:47

dot chloride. Well ethylene

21:49

dot chloride is a very toxic

21:52

material that's used in making

21:54

plastics. does not like pancakes

21:56

here.

21:58

So the pancake plastic excuse was probably

22:01

fake, but the community next door, now

22:03

that's very real. And it just so

22:05

happens to be a predominantly black

22:07

community that Mark told us had issued

22:09

a number of complaints about the pollution,

22:12

not a pancake factory. At

22:14

this point, it's nineteen eighty eight. Louisiana

22:17

ranks number two in toxic

22:19

emissions behind KSL, and

22:22

the Environmental Protection Agency, the

22:24

EPA, has officially begun

22:26

to require industry to

22:28

track their pollution

22:29

numbers. The result of that was

22:31

two thirds of the emissions in Louisiana disappeared

22:35

over the next fifteen years.

22:38

Wow. Okay. Two thirds, I mean, we're

22:40

getting somewhere, but wait. Mark

22:42

said it was fifteen years. That would place

22:45

us around the early odds. The last

22:47

time I checked, we have moved on

22:49

from the early

22:50

odds, and we still have a big problem

22:52

today. In the last five

22:54

or ten years, the industry,

22:57

both because there are more

22:59

of them, but also because the companies

23:01

themselves have expanded their size

23:04

and have increased the amount of product that

23:06

they're

23:06

producing. Were seeing an increase

23:08

in the total amount of emissions in the state.

23:11

So what happened? And where's the oversight?

23:14

Mark explained what was happening in the seventies

23:16

that planted the seeds of how we got

23:18

here. At that time, governor

23:20

Edwards was in charge of what

23:22

was happening. Both the federal

23:25

and state regulation of environmental

23:27

issues was really fairly new.

23:30

The industry was very interested did

23:32

in how to develop ways

23:34

of disposing of hazardous waste and

23:36

making money off of this

23:38

large amount of chemical plants that were in

23:40

the state.

23:41

Edwin W Edwards, a Democrat.

23:44

He served four times. In fact,

23:46

the only four term governor in Louisiana

23:48

history, and he was oh,

23:50

how can I put this? He was quite the

23:52

character.

23:53

Where did

23:54

you help me? Where

23:56

did we go? In

23:58

nineteen seventy two, Ed in Edwards,

24:01

he was governor of Louisiana at the

24:03

age of forty 40I wanted to be a country

24:05

in Western Salem, but

24:08

only my mother thought I could sing.

24:10

Edwards admitted his wife, Elaine, took

24:12

twenty thousand dollars from lobbyists for

24:14

the Korean rice industry when he was

24:16

in

24:16

congress. We will not know which of us

24:19

is to blame until the trial has been concluded.

24:22

So back in the early nineteen seventies,

24:24

these new regulations meant companies

24:27

producing hazardous waste, had to

24:29

meet new disposal standards.

24:31

Parameters. Sounds pretty

24:33

good to me, but the catch that

24:35

Edwards well, he allowed these

24:37

companies to dump all of their toxic

24:40

waste in Louisiana. And

24:42

I will give you one guest as

24:44

to, I don't know, who

24:46

owned the dumps? There's a term

24:49

for it in Louisiana, Friends

24:51

of Edwards. But those slick

24:53

deals, well, they finally caught

24:55

up with old Edwin Edwards over

24:57

a riverboat casino scandal that

24:59

landed him in prison. Also,

25:01

just to point of clarification here, Edwin

25:03

Edwards is not related to Louisiana's current

25:06

governor John Bell Edwards. Regardless,

25:08

in addition to political corruption, the

25:11

Department of Environmental Quality, the

25:13

DEQ. Well, Mark said they

25:15

seem to be doing the bare minimum. We've

25:17

reached out to the Louisiana DEQ for

25:20

an interview they declined, but did

25:22

answer a few questions, including stating,

25:24

quote, permits are issued in a

25:26

fair and partial process that

25:29

is prescribed by state and federal

25:31

law. If you talk to the Louisiana Department

25:34

of Environmental Quality, what they will

25:36

say is that they are following

25:39

the federal laws that they're required to

25:41

enforce and the state laws

25:43

that determine how they

25:45

are to regulate the industry. The

25:49

result of that is that

25:51

it's rare that companies do

25:54

not get the permits that they need.

26:00

In fact, Mark contributed to a big

26:02

investigative series for ProPublica

26:04

a few years ago. The title of the

26:06

first piece

26:07

was, I've investigated industrial

26:09

pollution for thirty five years. We're

26:11

going backwards. I think the

26:13

fact that we are allowing increases

26:16

in emissions and

26:18

we have seen dramatic improvements

26:21

in ways to reduce emissions. For

26:24

some reason, that dramatic

26:26

improvement is not occurring here.

26:30

That here is Louisiana. That

26:33

here is Cancer Alley. That

26:35

here is Saint James Parish, where

26:37

we come back to after the break.

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28:44

I wanna see Saint James restored

28:46

to the time when I used to

28:49

visit Saint James as a college

28:51

student back in the early eighties. And

28:53

they essentially had a high school, football

28:56

games was skiing, and that

28:58

now all of that's moving

28:59

away, dying out. Before you know it, it'll

29:01

be a ghost town. Meet

29:04

Michael McLennan, Louisiana NAACP

29:07

state conference president. Michael

29:09

is the kind of guy who brightens any

29:11

room he enters. Michael is just always on

29:13

the go driving from his home in Baton Rouge

29:16

to various activist campaigns and

29:18

events across Louisiana. He

29:20

remembers Saint James, the way it was

29:22

when he visited the area as a

29:24

college student back in the mid

29:26

eighties. We would go there maybe

29:28

a Friday night. You know, there was always a

29:30

club open. And at the time, I might

29:32

have been drinking a little bit and eating

29:34

having a good time and Friday

29:36

night football was

29:37

on. You know, it was good. Okay.

29:40

So Michael's a good storyteller, and his

29:42

eyes just widened with excitement as

29:44

he took us back to the heyday of

29:46

Saint

29:47

James. After the game, Saint

29:49

James probably won, fight a planned arrival,

29:52

we would go out and we would dance and

29:54

drink and their parents would be cooking

29:56

for them and all

29:57

that. Maybe, oh, damn.

29:59

That that I love those stories.

30:01

But I have to be honest. It is really

30:03

hard to imagine that this community where

30:06

you can almost hear a pin drop was

30:08

once so vibrant It's

30:10

as if these companies have slowly

30:13

taken over the whole town

30:15

suffocating

30:16

it.

30:16

You hear about the health issues

30:19

that come along with living close to XI.

30:21

Now let Mo just tell him to move. Michael

30:24

explained that it's just not that easy. After

30:27

years, generations of families

30:29

working for these plants. It's

30:31

really asking someone to sacrifice their

30:33

entire

30:34

livelihood. So

30:35

now it's embedded in the community because they get

30:37

a paycheck on it. And so they don't wanna

30:40

talk about it.

30:42

The phrase I always use is company

30:45

town.

30:45

That's Mark, our environmental journalist again.

30:48

There's a lot of company townish culture

30:51

going on in a lot of these locations.

30:54

Industry can do no wrong. Louisiana's

30:57

Department of Economic Development makes

30:59

a big deal out of announcing that

31:02

new projects are occurring and

31:04

in part it's because of the

31:06

money that's pouring

31:07

in, in various different ways.

31:10

This concept of a company town

31:13

doesn't just happen in Saint James.

31:15

When I think of Saint John, Baptist Parish,

31:17

I think of Marathon as just underwriting

31:19

everything because if you would think that Marathon was

31:22

part of like our official

31:23

government. It just it it blends in with the scenery.

31:26

That's Joe Banner, the co founder and co

31:28

director of the defendant's project. She

31:31

lives in Wallace. It's just down the road from

31:33

Saint James, and she's a fellow campaigner alongside

31:35

Sharon. When Joe says marathon

31:38

She's talking about Marathon Petroleum, one

31:41

of the largest oil refineries in

31:43

the country. They're Garyville refinery

31:45

in St. John Parish right next to St.

31:47

James. Refines over five hundred

31:50

and eighty thousand barrels of

31:52

crude oil per wait for it.

31:55

Day per day. That

31:57

oil can be turned into all kinds

31:59

of things. The gas that goes in

32:01

your car, the asphalt you drive

32:03

on, even the plastic your car

32:05

is made

32:06

of. And it's this

32:08

connection that is unnatural

32:11

but so natural at the same time for this area.

32:13

That you don't even see it. Like, you don't even realize

32:16

when I go to a a public meeting

32:18

and here's marathon given

32:20

backpacks, they're so ingrained in everything.

32:23

Yeah, backpacks. In fact,

32:25

we found this wrap from a

32:27

nineteen eighty nine Dow Chemical

32:30

Educational Video called

32:32

chemistry. Journey to your future.

32:42

Gotta love the eighties. So

32:44

the wrap states at the beginning that

32:47

the video is designed to give

32:49

you a look inside the chemical industry.

32:51

And how that relates to what you are

32:53

learning in the classroom and the

32:55

opportunities available should

32:58

you decide to pursue a career in

33:00

the sciences. And, yes, they

33:02

do provide

33:03

jobs. But not everybody works at

33:05

Marathon and lot of the people who work there aren't

33:07

even from Saint John Parish.

33:09

When it comes to Sharon's fight, her

33:11

own brother, Milton Cayette, worked

33:13

at a plant for almost thirty years.

33:16

When we went to visit him just a mile down

33:18

the road from Sharon, he opened his front

33:20

door in his wheelchair.

33:23

Hi, Milton Ekere Junior. He's

33:26

in Saint James Bay of District,

33:28

and

33:30

I've been here in this house since nineteen

33:32

and he hit four. You can hear there.

33:34

He's got this very gentle way about

33:36

him. He's warm. He's

33:39

older. He's also kind of funny.

33:41

Listen closely because he can be hard to

33:43

understand.

33:45

He is seven and nine. I was hired

33:47

by Phil. Furniture has been

33:49

pushed aside. To make room for Milton

33:51

to maneuver. You have a lot of nice pictures

33:53

in

33:53

here. Mhmm. And how many children do you

33:56

have?

33:56

Two girls and boy.

33:57

Alright. And this is a graduation from

34:00

I

34:00

said they can't, like, high school.

34:01

Oh, wow. Because

34:03

there's my niece out there that could play it

34:05

for too late. Oh, basketball. Oh,

34:07

basketball. Mhmm. Who's this?

34:11

He's my son. He

34:11

looks a lot more serious in his football uniform.

34:14

Yeah. You do. Yeah.

34:15

When you started thinking about,

34:18

is this a safe place because of the pollutants.

34:20

Oh, well, I I thought about it back

34:23

in the ages.

34:24

Back in the ages? When they told me, how they

34:26

call it every year. Cancer alley.

34:28

Is that the first time you heard the phrase cancer

34:30

alley? I heard how many I heard it.

34:32

I got over to the chemical when they

34:34

told me that I didn't think about

34:36

it there because it was a

34:38

good paying

34:39

job. And the

34:41

main thing I was concerned at that time that

34:43

I had a job

34:44

Yeah. I guess I pulled my hand. Yeah.

34:46

Milton was so proud to put food on

34:48

his table for his family, to get

34:51

consistent raises.

34:53

But he lost his wife in two thousand

34:55

one after her second battle

34:57

with breast cancer. Today,

34:59

prostate cancer is just one of

35:01

his many health issues. After

35:04

loyal, if anxious, service

35:06

to a plant for decades, signs

35:08

in support of his sister's fight now

35:10

array his yard. For KSL,

35:12

you're not welcome here. And

35:14

we live on death row. No

35:17

for

35:17

mosa. Before Sharon

35:19

took on for Moses, she definitely had

35:21

doubts.

35:22

If you were wondering, where are we gonna go?

35:24

And that's when he say he's going to come, then I

35:26

say, that's not far enough. And

35:28

then one day, Sharon got a call

35:30

from her daughter while she was teaching in her

35:32

classroom.

35:33

Chanel Chanel called me and

35:35

told me the governor just to

35:37

prove for most of the come in.

35:40

We made multiple attempts to contact the

35:42

governor's office to hear his side but

35:44

our calls and emails went

35:45

unanswered. I was in my classroom.

35:49

And she said, watch it on TV. We're

35:51

trying to watch at all my students.

35:53

Put the TV on for me and I

35:55

saw for myself. They were

35:57

in there celebrating with the people from

35:59

Taiwan and the governor was there too. People

36:01

were happy and rejoicing that

36:04

a new plant was coming to Saint James.

36:07

This is the moment Sharon sat on her

36:09

porch, saw those red cardinals,

36:12

and new Formosa had no home

36:14

in Saint James Parish. If

36:16

we don't win this fight, we're gonna die.

36:20

We'll be right back.

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We have the power, and we will

39:28

fight. We're gonna keep this chemical

39:30

plants from cutting in. We have a nut

39:33

in here already came in. And I've

39:35

done look in the morning here.

39:37

With a new mission in life, Sharon started

39:39

learning as much as she could about what

39:42

she was facing. She read parish

39:44

council papers. She went online

39:46

looking at petrochemical websites. She

39:48

spoke to her neighbors. She even

39:50

joined a local organization called

39:52

help that worked as a voice for the

39:54

community. We asked them to let's

39:56

do a march. So we did a march

39:58

on September eight, twenty

40:01

eighteen. With the help association.

40:03

We had our signs, and

40:05

Shamela and I spoke for the first time in

40:08

public. And the people got government

40:10

names, taking pictures of us. I said, what did they

40:12

do in our life?

40:13

I had no idea this was gonna go further.

40:16

In that moment, Sharon

40:17

saw the power her community had and

40:19

she wanted to push the limits. We

40:22

asked them Let's stop from also.

40:25

They said that they are not that kind of an

40:27

organization. Then they said,

40:30

there's nothing you could do about it. The

40:32

governor approved it. It's a done

40:34

deal. You can't stop it.

40:37

And I said, they're gonna sit up here and don't even try

40:39

to fight. This was a common

40:41

story here. A company comes into

40:44

the neighborhood and sets right up

40:46

often without a

40:47

fight. And we were mad. Near

40:49

Geraldine, Beverly, all of us

40:51

were angry. We were getting the car from the

40:53

help and meeting to go

40:54

home. Geraldine would be fucking Leveen.

40:57

You can start a August eight, and I said, not me.

40:59

I'm not a public speaker, not me, Jeremy.

41:01

But that conversation stuck in Sharon's

41:04

head. The very next day,

41:06

she started organizing meetings in her den,

41:08

just few people and a pot of gumbo

41:10

she had cooked up From those meetings,

41:13

she formed her own organization, Rise

41:16

Saint James. I should also say

41:18

we did reach out to Saint James Parish Council

41:20

asking to find out their role within

41:22

this process and to get their take.

41:25

But despite multiple attempts, the council

41:27

did not respond to our request for

41:29

an interview. All

41:35

this time, she still had her day job working

41:37

as a special education teacher. It

41:40

became too much and Sharon had to

41:42

make a very difficult

41:43

choice.

41:44

I didn't want to quit, but

41:46

I had to quit because I was getting tired

41:49

doing all this work by myself. After

41:52

nearly forty years of teaching, Sharon

41:55

handed in her

41:55

notice. From that point on, Rise

41:58

Saint James had her full attention. But

42:00

this fight, it is so much bigger

42:03

than

42:03

Sharon, than Saint James, than New

42:05

Orleans. It planted its roots in

42:07

this state a long time ago. In

42:10

order to determine when

42:12

Cancer Alley became Cancer Alley, we kind

42:14

of have to go all the way back to

42:16

the original French explorers who

42:18

came up the Mississippi River and

42:20

claimed this area for France.

42:22

So we have to go back to the roots

42:25

of colonialism. And we really

42:27

have to go back to the origins

42:29

of the plantation economy.

42:31

Jane Patton is the campaign manager for plastics

42:34

and petrochemicals at the center for international

42:36

environmental

42:37

law. I am a lifelong Louisiana

42:39

resident. I grew up here one

42:41

of five kids just up the road in Baton

42:43

Rouge and my family goes

42:45

back five generations in New

42:47

Orleans.

42:48

She's worked on plastics and petrochemical issues

42:50

for over a decade. Her goal, reduce

42:53

harm, prevent waste. And it

42:55

will become very apparent that Jane

42:57

is not willing to back down. When

42:59

she speaks, you listen. Louisiana

43:02

is still predicated on

43:04

a plantation economy. On

43:07

an economy of mass

43:09

extraction from the environment, from

43:11

local workers and labor, This is

43:13

something that is not just our economy,

43:16

but our entire political system for

43:18

generations has gone in to reinforcing

43:20

this power structure. Jane reminds

43:22

me of just how deep the

43:24

political and racial roots of Louisiana

43:27

are. You know, what we're seeing is

43:29

that today's Chemical

43:32

Corridor is yesterday's Plantation

43:34

Alley. And we

43:36

are seeing that the political systems

43:39

that allowed horrendous exploitation

43:41

and suffering are still the

43:43

political systems of today. The

43:46

same places suffering most

43:48

today are the very places that endured

43:50

slavery before the civil war. The

43:53

industrial system and the

43:56

white supremacist, frankly, political system

43:58

continued to encroach around them

44:01

and continue to exploit and harm

44:03

them in ways that are today

44:05

protected by law. Okay.

44:08

Let's get into those laws. In

44:10

Louisiana, we actually have some additional,

44:13

quote unquote protections. I'm making air quotes,

44:15

but you can't see them. Around wetlands

44:18

protection because there is so

44:20

much land loss happening in Louisiana and

44:23

because the Mississippi River is such

44:25

an important trade nism for

44:27

the country. Aha. Okay.

44:29

So you remember what Mark said. Industry

44:32

needs water. If you

44:34

are coming from a precautionary principal,

44:36

that the people have a protected

44:38

right to air and water, which by the way,

44:41

we do have an international a

44:43

protected right to clean air and clean

44:45

water. If you are starting from

44:47

that place, you don't assume

44:49

there's gonna be

44:50

harm. You assume that

44:52

it is your job to stop harm

44:54

from happening. Petrochemical companies

44:56

get permits from state and federal authorities

44:58

to pollute its sanctioned levels. But

45:01

Jane says companies pushed the limits.

45:03

My team looked into reports on the EPA

45:06

website and found multiple petrochemical

45:08

facilities around

45:09

St. James do have a history of

45:11

violations. We see that there

45:13

are companies that are allowed to be in violation

45:16

of their permits in

45:19

terms of toxic emissions for

45:21

years on end in some cases.

45:23

With no effort to actually shut

45:26

them down, they pay a nominal fine, the fines

45:28

paid, they keep doing what they're gonna do. Right? We

45:30

see that happening all over Louisiana. Some

45:32

of these plants have been inconsistent violation

45:35

of their clean air act permits for more

45:37

than a decade. And they are still in operation

45:39

every day. Yep, this seems like a

45:41

mess. The other key thing that we see

45:43

happening is that the EPA is actually

45:46

not keeping consistent records of the

45:48

cumulative impact from all

45:50

of these plants. These are

45:52

the levels of all the toxic that

45:55

I would be breathing in that I would be affected

45:57

by. We actually don't have

45:59

that data readily available. In

46:02

Jane's

46:02

view, the EPA is just flat out not doing

46:04

enough. We brought

46:06

this to the EPA and they shared a lengthy

46:09

statement. The EPA did tell

46:11

us that in two thousand eighteen, they released

46:13

the AIR TOXIX Screening Assessment.

46:16

Which tracks air toxins and

46:18

emissions that may pose health risks.

46:20

The state of Louisiana has around forty

46:23

two air monitors for the entire state.

46:26

Okay. Just a quick air monitor 101.

46:28

The Louisiana DEQ is responsible

46:31

for setting up these instruments, which essentially

46:33

detect pollutants in the air for a designated

46:36

spot. For

46:37

example, St. James has one air monitor

46:39

for the whole parish. And when we

46:41

try to push for more air monitoring, the state of Louisiana

46:43

says we can't afford that. And

46:46

so they can afford for millions of people

46:48

to be getting sick, but they can't afford air

46:50

monitors. But wait, let's rewind

46:52

just a little. This doesn't make sense. If

46:54

Louisiana has so much big industry

46:56

that's bringing in jobs and economic wealth

46:59

to the state, where's the money?

47:01

In the early eighties, when oil and

47:03

gas was sort of at its peak, more

47:05

than forty percent of Louisiana

47:07

state revenue came from oil

47:09

and gas. Today, oil

47:12

and gas pays less than five percent

47:14

of Louisiana state

47:15

revenue. We've also lost a

47:17

considerable number of jobs in

47:19

the oil and gas sector in Louisiana. So

47:21

a company like Pharmacist says, hey, it's

47:24

all good. We're gonna bring a lot of jobs

47:26

to the

47:26

area. But in reality, it's more

47:28

complex. What we're not hearing

47:30

is that a lot of the jobs created by these facilities

47:33

are temporary construction jobs. They

47:36

are not long term sustained

47:39

full time pension protected

47:42

jobs. That is not what they are.

47:44

A representative of Formosa's

47:46

Sunshine Project declined our request for an

47:48

interview. They did send us an email. They did

47:50

write. They quote unquote expect one

47:53

thousand two hundred permanent jobs over

47:55

the next eight years are committed to

47:57

hiring locally and

47:58

yes, there will be thousands of construction

48:01

jobs too. State and local politicians

48:04

play a really key role in a lot of

48:06

things around the fossil fuel infrastructure.

48:08

For instance,

48:09

they continue to be the primary bodies

48:11

that give these companies what we call

48:14

the social license to continue to build.

48:16

A lucrative tax break benefiting

48:19

these companies incentivize them

48:21

to come and build in this part of the state.

48:23

So up until twenty sixteen, Louisiana

48:26

had one of the most permissive and

48:28

generous industrial tax exemption

48:30

programs in the country. It was called

48:32

ITEP, literally the industrial tax

48:35

exemption program, ITEP.

48:37

What this program essentially was

48:39

was that it allowed industry

48:43

to be exempt from

48:45

paying local property

48:47

taxes if they

48:50

made capital improvements. So

48:53

basically, if a company said we've built

48:55

this infrastructure or we've made this capital

48:57

improvement to our existing facility. We'd

48:59

like a tax exemption, please, not have

49:01

to pay property taxes. Thank you. And

49:03

on top of

49:04

that, if approved for ITEP, these

49:07

companies didn't have to pay property taxes

49:09

for ten years. That's

49:11

money for communities to thrive. I'm

49:13

talking schools, emergency response,

49:16

and health services. Remember

49:18

Marathon Troleum located in Saint John

49:20

where Joe Banner lives?

49:22

Under the iTech program, Marathon

49:24

was by far the largest benefactor

49:26

from the program one point, they were receiving

49:29

one point five million

49:32

dollars in tax exemptions per

49:35

job. That Marathon created.

49:38

One and a half million dollars per

49:40

job. Tax incentives are set

49:42

up to attract businesses into the area

49:45

with the assumption they will bring jobs

49:47

in economic stimulus. And oftentimes,

49:49

this can be great. These numbers

49:52

Jane is referring to were true up

49:54

until two thousand

49:55

sixteen. That year, the

49:57

newly elected Democratic governor

49:59

gave local authorities the right

50:01

to approve or reject these exemptions

50:04

instead of the state board. When

50:06

marathon was actually forced,

50:08

by the Parish Council in Saint John

50:11

to put all of their the

50:13

property they own in Saint John and they are one of the

50:15

largest landowners in Saint John. When

50:17

they were required by the parish council

50:20

to put that property on the tax rolls,

50:22

the parish's budget almost

50:24

doubled. From one year to the next.

50:27

That is the amount of money that was

50:29

being taken by one

50:31

of the world's largest oil

50:33

and gas companies from the people

50:36

of Saint John to give to their

50:38

shareholders. It was not a drop

50:40

in the bucket for the people of Saint John. That

50:43

money was the world, is

50:45

the world to them, and it was

50:47

nothing to marathon shareholders. But

50:50

it might not stay this way. Now,

50:53

the governor's term is up next year, and he

50:55

can't be reelected, he's term limited. And

50:57

we are almost certainly going to elect a

50:59

Republican governor in twenty

51:01

twenty three because the state of Louisiana is heavily

51:03

gerrymandered. And so what we are

51:05

facing right now is that unless this

51:07

change is protected, under state law,

51:10

the people of Saint John might lose

51:12

half of their budget. So after

51:14

all this doom and gloom, I

51:17

asked Jane the same thing. I've

51:19

asked everyone else, why

51:21

stay here? I am fighting

51:23

for all of us being able to

51:26

hold the thing sacred that we hold sacred,

51:28

which include our ancestors, which include this

51:30

land, which include the clean air and the clean water.

51:33

And that is something that we have to to have

51:35

optimism toward. Because what else do

51:37

we have? We believe this place is magical

51:40

and it's special. And it should

51:42

be enjoyed by people who've been here for five

51:44

and people who've been here for five minutes. And

51:46

it should not be

51:49

further pillaged and ravaged by

51:51

these companies and buy this

51:53

broken

51:54

extractive, harmful political system.

51:56

It just shouldn't. We

52:00

wanted to give you just a glimpse

52:03

into the power struggles in Louisiana.

52:05

Just an idea of what Sharon was

52:08

really up against. She compared

52:10

herself to David fighting alive.

52:13

But the more she gave buoyed

52:15

by knowledge and the strength of her community,

52:18

the stronger she got You

52:21

could argue by now. She's

52:23

the

52:23

goliath.

52:24

I didn't think we would rule on all accounts.

52:27

And that's the part I got to make every

52:29

thing? Yeah. Unbelievable. You're

52:31

gonna wanna hear all about how the fight went

52:33

down. Discarded

52:44

is a lemonade media original presented

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And on this new series, we're

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54:53

lord, a chapel.

54:55

His name is Kenato Garcia Luna.

54:57

Maybe you have never heard heard about him.

55:00

But we are here to tell you why he

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Can we make healthcare more equitable? An

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