Louisiana is experiencing rapid land loss, partly due to sea level rise caused by climate change. At the same time, the state has a large amount of industry that often disproportionately burdens poor communities and communities of color with pollutants.
A new study published in Nature Communications looked at what happens when those two problems intersect, and found that these communities will be at greater risk of flooding that could release toxic materials in the air, land and water by the end of the century.
Researchers from the science nonprofit, Climate Central, the University of California, Berkeley and the University of California, Los Angeles looked at thousands of facilities across the coastal United States that, if they were to flood, could release hazardous materials and harm surrounding communities. It found that 5,500 of these sites are at risk of 1-in-100-year flood events due to sea level rise by the year 2100.
It also found that this number could go down if the world takes action to reduce global warming to 2 degrees Celsius (3.5 degrees Fahrenheit), the target set by the Paris Agreement, which President Donald Trump pulled out of earlier this year.
Texas saw the intersection of these dangers — flooding and pollution — play out in 2017, when Hurricane Harvey flooded America’s largest petrochemical corridor. An investigation by the Associated Press and the Houston Chronicle found the hurricane caused more than 100 toxic releases contaminating the soil, waterways and wellwater in the greater Houston metropolitan area, many more than what the public was originally told.
Many of the chemicals released were known carcinogens. For example, dioxin is linked to cancer and reproductive health issues, was released into the San Jacinto river, a key waterway, and contaminated some residents’ wellwater. Scientists also found that low-income Hispanic residents were disproportionately impacted by this disaster.
Louisiana could see a similar event. According to the new research, the state has far and away the greatest number of these exposed facilities — more than 1,700. Most of them are a part of the fossil fuel industry’s infrastructure along the coast.
“I was really just astounded… I understand we have a high density of these sites around us, but it's just shocking when you actually have the data and the numbers once again to validate it,” said Jo Banner, a resident of Louisiana’s petrochemical corridor nicknamed “Cancer Alley,” and founder of the Descendants Project, an environmental justice advocacy organization.
The study also found that the risk is higher for marginalized communities. It found that coastal neighborhoods designated as “disadvantaged” by the EPA’s Climate and Environmental Justice Screening Tool are 50% more likely to have one of these at-risk facilities within 1 kilometer (0.62 miles) of them than other coastal neighborhoods.
Alessandra Jerolleman, director of research at Loyola’s Center on Environment, Land, and Law, said this aligns with what is already known about how industry impacts low-income people and people of color.
“There's value in always having more data, right? More evidence that shows that risks are being disproportionately borne,” she said. “ And in this particular case, we'd be talking about the risk of the intersection between sea level rise and locations that are housing hazardous materials.”
But she added that she would like to see more research on the underlying social and political reasons for the disproportionate impacts on these communities to fully address the problem.
“Ultimately, future site-specific work will be needed to fully characterize the threats posed by sea level rise at individual locations,” said Lara Cushing, a professor of environmental health sciences and one of the authors of the study.
The bar chart shows the number of sites at risk in each state is broken down by type, with Louisiana having the highest number.
The study has a few limitations that may have caused an over- or underestimation of the number of these at-risk facilities. It does not account for how hurricanes, which are becoming more intense due to climate change, might impact these facilities, like how Hurricane Harvey impacted Houston.
It also does not account for how the demographics might change as people move away from the coast, or any flood mitigation infrastructure that was implemented after 2015.
But Banner said the information is still valuable to her, because there’s so little information on the risks those who live near these facilities are facing, especially as new projects are being proposed — from ammonia to steel plants.
“We currently have our elected officials who are going around the world and who are promising that Louisiana, especially in the River Parishes, is a good place to invest their money and the risk that’s associated,” said Banner. “This, to me, shows in an objective way, in a peer-reviewed way, how much needs to be considered.”
