Commissioners approve rezoning of Greenfield property for heavy industrial use, despite a prolonged community push to keep the land’s residential zoning in this largely rural part of St. John.
Tag: Living with Industry
Posted inEnvironment
Climate-weary Mississippi River delegation lobbies for help in D.C.
Mayors from Louisiana and advocates from the Water Collaborative, Healthy Gulf, 1Mississippi, and the National Audubon Society asked Congress to invest in better water infrastructure and increase federal funding for farmer-led conservation.
Posted inEnvironment
Keeping a Lid on Carnival Trash
They put out recycling bins and picked up cans during and after parades. In the end, this group of plucky nonprofit groups, with support from the city’s Recycle Dat! initiative, tripled the recycling totals for Uptown parades, diverting an impressive amount of trash from the River Birch landfill.
Posted inEnvironment
Formosa Plastics gets air permits back, but a few hurdles remain
Advocates still hope to block the permits for Formosa’s proposed petrochemical complex in St. James Parish, a community at the heart of new research into the health effects of air pollution.
Posted inEnvironment
Marshing Orders
To rebuild marshes in the Barataria Basin requires terraces of sand, a map of nearby orphan oil wells and miles of pipe to carry dredged river sediment to degraded wetlands.
Posted inEnvironment
Public outcry against carbon capture in Louisiana growing
Some activists worry that the daytime state task force hearings in Baton Rouge on the issue are missing important voices from affected Black communities
Posted inGovernment & Politics
St. John Parish sued for shutting down critic, told not to rezone controversial site
In the same week, a judge again barred the parish from making the Greenfield Property industrial. And parish-council critic Joy Banner filed a First Amendment lawsuit.
Posted inGovernment & Politics
Joy Banner told to curtail remarks or risk arrest
Banner planned to ask the council why they were retaining a lawyer to defend its president from personal ethical concerns. But she was interrupted by the council chairman, who cited an invalidated statute and warned her that, if she spoke, she could face criminal prosecution.
Posted inEnvironment
Climate report indicates dire future for Mississippi River basin, which is already feeling impacts
Though there is still room for mitigation, the cycle of flooding and drought will become more extreme.
Posted inEnvironment
Louisiana’s rare growing coast, anchored by black willows and bald cypress trees
Fifty years after the historic 1973 flood, land is still forming in the Wax Lake and Atchafalaya River deltas. It’s held in place by the roots of coastal trees, which protect from flooding and hurricane winds and store carbon dioxide.