DeSmog

Facebook-f Twitter
Subscribe
Donate
Search

DeSmog

Donate
Search
Search

A Forgotten Community in New Orleans: Life on a Superfund Site

A Forgotten Community in New Orleans: Life on a Superfund Site
By Julie Dermansky
on

Shannon Rainey lives in a house that was built on top of a Superfund site in the Upper Ninth Ward of New Orleans.

“I bought my house when I was 25, and thirty years later, I still can’t get out,” she told DeSmogBlog.

Rainey’s home in Gordon Plaza is part of a subdivision developed by the city in 1981 on top of the Agriculture Street landfill. No one disclosed to the buyers that their new homes were built on top of a dump that was closed in 1965.

Rainey has a view of two other city-owned properties also built on the landfill: the shuttered Morton Elementary School and Press Park, an abandoned housing project developed by the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO).

 “If it were white folks back here, this would be all gone,” Rainey says bluntly.

By Julie Dermansky
A Forgotten Community in New Orleans: Life on a Superfund Site
Julie Dermansky is a multimedia reporter and artist based in New Orleans. She is an affiliate scholar at Rutgers University’s Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights. Visit her website at www.jsdart.com.

Related Posts

uk/Tory Climate Policies are 'Socialist' Says New Head of Policy at Influential Westminster Think Tank
ByAdam Barnett
on

Matthew Lesh will be joining the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), a free market think tank which played a significant role in advocating for a "hard" Brexit and has criticised the government's approach to climate action as expensive and ineffective.

Matthew Lesh will be joining the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), a free market think tank which played a significant role in advocating for a "hard" Brexit and has criticised the government's approach to climate action as expensive and ineffective.
us/Raising Pressure on Biden, Dozens of Indigenous Activists Occupy Bureau of Indian Affairs and Climate Justice Advocates Decry Gulf ‘Sacrifice Zones’
ByJulie Dermansky
on

Since Monday, activists have racked up 585 arrests at protests in Washington, D.C., while pushing the President to declare a climate emergency ahead of international climate negotiations.

Since Monday, activists have racked up 585 arrests at protests in Washington, D.C., while pushing the President to declare a climate emergency ahead of international climate negotiations.
us/Environmental and Labor Groups Urge Canada to Support Just Transition
ByNick Cunningham
on

A new report finds that half of Canada’s oil and gas jobs could disappear by 2030 as the country presses on with a clean energy transition. But the federal and provincial governments are not doing enough to prepare workers for the change

A new report finds that half of Canada’s oil and gas jobs could disappear by 2030 as the country presses on with a clean energy transition. But the federal and provincial governments are not doing enough to prepare workers for the change
Drax’s ‘Carbon Negative’ Bioenergy Claims ‘Wildly Exaggerated’, Study Argues
ByPhoebe Cooke
on

Responding to the analysis, Phil MacDonald, chief operating officer of Ember, said this was “exactly the kind of research that the UK government should be doing before it makes a decision on funding BECCS”. 

Responding to the analysis, Phil MacDonald, chief operating officer of Ember, said this was “exactly the kind of research that the UK government should be doing before it makes a decision on funding BECCS”. 

DeSmog

Clearing the PR Pollution

Sections

Databases

Topics

DeSmog

Follow

Newsletter

Facebook-f Twitter Youtube Instagram

DeSmog

Clearing the PR Pollution

Follow

Newsletter

Facebook-f Twitter Youtube Instagram

Website by SeriousOtters

Donate

Facebook-f Twitter