47: CANCER ALLEY: Fighting pollution and restoring community. | Sharon Lavigne

Ms. Sharon Lavigne who runs rise st james, a faith based organization focused on preventing expansion and worsening petrochemical plant pollution in the area.  St. James parish is at the epicenter of “cancer alley", a stretch between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Louisiana with over 110 petrochemical facilities.  She is a former special education teacher now turned environmental justice advocate, who successfully stopped the construction of a US$1.25 billion plastics manufacturing plant alongside the Mississippi River in St. James Parish, Louisiana. Ms. Lavigne mobilized grassroots opposition to the project, educated community members, and organized peaceful protests to defend her predominantly African American community. The plant would have generated one million pounds of liquid hazardous waste annually, in a region already contending with known carcinogens and toxic air pollution.She is currently focused on defending her community from the Formosa Plastics Plant. She was awarded the Goldman environmental prize in 2021.