Grandmother Spearheads Fight Against Shintech

A 75-year old great grandmother has become a hero to thousands of environmental justice activists around the country. A gentle churchgoer turned activist, Emelda West, a long-time Convent, Louisiana residents, was pressed into duty. Her home, community, and environment are under siege from industrial polluters who would turn the strip along the Lower Mississippi River into a toxic wasteland. From her home located on the winding River Road, she has witnessed her community undergo a transformation from sugar cane plantations to one heavily dominated and devastated by the petrochemical industry. Over the years, she has heard dozens of companies moving into her community promise jobs to local residents. However, few community residents of Convent, which is over 70 percent African American, actually are hired. The community has a 60 percent unemployment rate; the average annual income of residents is only $6,000; over 40 percent live below the poverty line. The plants are so close to residents' homes that people could actually walk to work. Mrs. West helped found the St. James Citizens for Jobs and the Environment, a grassroots group fighting the Shintech poly vinyl chloride plant proposal. She joined the struggle against the Japanese company because environmental justice in Convent is long overdue. She argues that the U.S. EPA and Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality are bound by the law to administer and implement their programs, mandates, and policies in a nondiscriminatory way. Clearly, it is African Americans and poor people in Convent who will be disproportionately impacted by Shintech if the plant is allowed to be built. The Shintech plant would be located in a parish that ranks third in the state for toxic releases and transfers. The Shintech plant would add over 600,000 pounds of air pollutants annually to the more than 17.7 million pounds of releases. Mrs. West admits she is not an environmental scientist. However, she is quick to tell you she can add. Permitting the Shintech plant in Convent would significantly add to the toxic burden borne by local residents. She vows to fight this injustice to the bitter end.