Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned a lower court’s dismissal of a lawsuit filed by environmental rights groups, enabling them to pursue allegations of racial discrimination in the petrochemical development in black-dominated communities in St. James Parish. 

This region is located in the heart of Louisiana’s heavily industrialized Chemical Corridor, which environmental groups call “Cancer Alley” due to its high pollution levels.

Initially dismissed by Judge Barbier of the U.S. District Court, the Fifth Circuit’s ruling confirms the community organizations’ claims are valid. The decision follows calls for a moratorium on constructing and expanding petrochemical plants in St. James Parish.

The civil groups filed a lawsuit in March 2023, 20 of the 24 industrial facilities being in two parish sections with a majority of Black populations. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found in a 2003 report that St. James Parish ranked higher than the national average for cancer deaths.

The case has been moved to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, which ruled that inclusive Louisiana and other groups filed the lawsuit too late due to a 2014 parish land-use plan.

“Our hard work is paying off. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled in our favor, and now we’ll finally have our day in court,” Sharon Lavigne, Founder & Director of RISE St. James Louisiana.

“We’ve been fighting for a moratorium on new petrochemical plants and expansions, and this ruling brings us one step closer. As the scripture reminds us, they may come against us, but they will not prevail — because God is with us and will deliver us.”

However, the federal court stated that the complaint was timely filed. It emphasized that the lawsuit was “replete with allegations of discriminatory land use decisions” in the parish, with the 2014 plan being merely one example.

The court recognized the groups’ right to sue the parish for permitting industrial development that “desecrates, destroys, and restricts access” to their enslaved ancestors’ cemeteries. Many petrochemical facilities in Louisiana stand on former plantations, with few preserved burial sites of the enslaved.

On January 8, 2025, a District Court also ruled that St. James Parish violated Louisiana’s Open Meetings Law in the Spring of 2019 by secretly meeting with Wanhua, a Chinese chemical company, about a proposed chemical plant in the predominantly Black 4th District. 

Judge John H. Smith found that the Parish Council and Planning Commission structured meetings to evade public scrutiny and transparency.