Louisiana Accused of Enviro Racism - Vinyl Production Plans

["greenbase" <greenbas@gb.greenpeace.org>]

GREENPEACE  BANNER DRAPES LOUISIANA STATE CAPITOL  BUILDING; 
GOVERNOR, ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM TARGETED  Pending decision on
controversial vinyl facility merges civil rights, environmental 
issues 

BATON ROUGE, LA., February 27, 1998 -- With a landmark federal
decision  imminent in the most watched civil rights battle ever
involving  environmental racism, Greenpeace activists today
draped a huge banner  down the front of the Louisiana state
capitol building in Baton  Rouge.  The banner read "Eco-Justice
Now!" and featured the letters  "PVC" encircled by a skull and
crossbones.

The activists were protesting a plan by the Japanese-owned
Shintech  Corporation to build the world's largest proposed
vinyl (PVC)  plastics plant in Convent, Louisiana.  Vinyl (PVC)
is the worst  plastic for the environment.  The Shintech
facility would expose this  impoverished and mostly African
American community to vast emissions  of dangerous chemicals,
including one of the most toxic substances  known to science,
dioxin.  Local residents, as well as the nation's  preeminent
environmental justice experts and civil rights activists, 
vehemently oppose the plant, and charge Louisiana Governor Mike 
Foster with environmental racism and civil rights violations.

"Governor Foster and his administration have repeatedly sold out
the  environment of this state, and the health and welfare of
its citizens  to the chemical companies," said Damu Smith,
Southern Regional  Representative for Greenpeace.  "They have
been partners in crime  with the vinyl industry in carrying on
a reign of toxic terror  against African American and poor white
communities from Lake Charles  to Cancer Alley."  Foster has
attacked and investigated  Shintech  opponents, threatening to
defund the Tulane University Environmental  Law Clinic.

Convent represents a typical profile of the communities most
often targeted  by polluting industries.  Its population is 72
percent African  American, and 40 percent of its residents live
below the poverty  line.  A January New Orleans Times-Picayune
poll reported that a  majority of Convent and African American
residents oppose Shintech.

In September, 1997, responding to legal complaints filed by
Greenpeace and  Louisiana-based groups, Environmental Protection
Agency Administrator  Carol Browner made an unprecedented
decision ordering the Louisiana  Department of Environmental
Quality (DEQ) to reexamine permits it had  issued to Shintech. 
A decision on a complaint filed under Title VI  of the 1964
Civil Rights Act, asserting that the civil rights of  Convent's
African American residents are being violated by the DEQ,  is
expected as soon as late March.

The Shintech case is being watched closely by environmental
justice and  civil rights advocates, federal policy makers,
industry, and  communities facing similar fights elsewhere in
the nation.  The case  is considered by many as a test of the
1994 presidential Executive  Order on environmental justice and
of Title VI of the Civil Rights  Act to provide equal protection
to all citizens.  Its outcome will  most certainly shape future
policy on siting polluting facilities. 

Throughout its life cycle, vinyl generates dioxin, which is
dangerous even  in small doses.  Dioxin has been linked to such
health problems as  reproductive disorders, immune system
problems, cancers, and  respiratory illnesses.

"The vinyl industry has already destroyed the Louisiana
communities of  Reveilletown and Morrisonville, and Lake Charles
residents are also  threatened by extreme levels of
contamination," Smith added.   "Greenpeace will not rest until
the Governor gets our message, and  the Shintech plant is
stopped for good." 

Greenpeace on the Internet at http://www.greenpeace.org