Editing Cancer Alley (section)

==Environmental racism==
{{main|Environmental racism in the United States}}
Many scholars and residents of Cancer Alley have referred to the area as a "frontline example of environmental racism".<ref>{{cite web |last1=Batiste |first1=Johneisha |title=Being Black Causes Cancer: Cancer Alley and Environmental Racism |url=https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4092077 |publisher=Social Science Research Network |language=en |date=April 24, 2022 |ssrn=4092077 |access-date=December 15, 2022 |archive-date=December 15, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221215231931/https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4092077 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=TFuOAwAAQBAJ&pg |first=Dorceta |last=Taylor|authorlink=|title=Toxic Communities: Environmental Racism, Industrial Pollution, and Residential Mobility|pages= |publisher=[[NYU Press]]|date=Jun 20, 2014|ISBN=9781479861781}}</ref> Environmental racism can be defined as the institutional rules, regulations, policies, or government/corporate decisions that deliberately target certain communities for locally undesirable land uses and lax enforcement of zoning and [[environmental law]]s, resulting in communities being disproportionately exposed to toxic and hazardous waste based on race.<ref name="greenaction.org">{{cite web |title=Environmental Justice & Environmental Racism – Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice |url=https://greenaction.org/what-is-environmental-justice/ |access-date=December 15, 2022 |archive-date=December 15, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221215231932/https://greenaction.org/what-is-environmental-justice/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Environmental racism can also be caused by several factors. These factors include intentional neglect, the alleged need for a receptacle for pollutants in urban areas, and a lack of institutional power and low land values of people of color.<ref name="greenaction.org"/> It is also a well-documented and well-known fact that communities of color and low-income communities are disproportionately impacted by polluting industries and lax regulation of these industries.<ref name="greenaction.org"/> 75% of Black Americans are reported to more likely live in communities dubbed as "fence-line", communities in close proximity to sites of pollution and industry. Over 1 million of Black Americans are reported to live within a half-mile radius of oil and gas wells.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Critical Infrastructure, Environmental Racism, and Protest: A Case Study in Cancer Alley, Louisiana – Columbia Human Rights Law Review |url=https://hrlr.law.columbia.edu/hrlr/critical-infrastructure-environmental-racism-and-protest-a-case-study-in-cancer-alley-louisiana/ |access-date=2024-04-29 |website=hrlr.law.columbia.edu}}</ref>

Another reason for the disproportionate siting of industrial facilities in poor and Black communities is the “Not In My Backyard Movement” ([[NIMBY]]). Primarily White neighborhoods rallied together against the petrochemical companies that were being placed in their communities. As a result, these companies shifted their sights and locations towards poor communities of color. NIMBY’s growth occurred in the 1970’s at the same time public awareness about health risks related to pollution from these waste facilities grew. These White communities had social power and “clout” that low-income communities of color did not have.  <ref name="Castellón 15">{{Cite journal |last=Castellón |first=Idna |date=2021-02-12 |title=Cancer Alley and the Fight Against Environmental Racism |url=https://digitalcommons.law.villanova.edu/elj/vol32/iss1/2 |journal=Villanova Environmental Law Journal |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=15 |issn=1049-2631}}</ref>

In 2023, the [[United States Environmental Protection Agency|Environmental Protection Agency]] found that found significant evidence that Louisiana regulators’ actions and/or inactions have resulted and continue to result in a range of adverse impacts on African American residents in Cancer Alley.<ref>{{Cite web|first=Madeline |last= Bruning |authorlink=   |title=  EPA Finds Evidence of Racial Discrimination in Cancer Alley |website=[[The Regulatory Review]]|date=March 21, 2023 |url= https://www.theregreview.org/2023/03/21/bruning-epa-finds-evidence-of-racial-discrimination-in-cancer-alley/|accessdate=|archive-url=| archive-date=}}</ref>