Last November, EPA administrator Michael Regan toured the New Orleans site while making a five-day “Journey to Justice” tour that highlighted low-income, mostly minority communities adversely affected by decades of industrial pollution. The city said it was reviewing the ruling but a spokesperson declined to discuss it further or say whether an appeal was planned.ĭozens of mostly Black families still live in the area. “This is a big deal for the residents of Agriculture Street,” said Suzette Bagneris, a lead attorney representing residents. Amid reports that the soil was contaminated with lead and carcinogens, including arsenic, residents began a decades-long effort to be relocated at government expense.
As awareness grew and environmentalists raised concerns, the area was named a federal Superfund cleanup site in 1994.
Homes in the area were built in the 1970s and 1980s and marketed to Black, low- and middle-income residents who were not told that the site was a one-time landfill.
