WALLACE, La. — Heavy industry developers in St. John the Baptist Parish announced Tuesday it would no longer build a massive Grain Export Facility near a historically Black community.
The 800-million-dollar facility was proposed by Greenfield Louisiana LLC, who announced on Twitter they would halt the project because of a lengthy permit process by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
“This was purposely done, or had some influence,” said Chad Rousell, who told WWLTV he was disappointed by Greenfield’s decision.
A spokesperson for the company Lynda Van Davis said Greenfield expected the permitting process to take around 6 months to complete, instead, they’ve been waiting roughly three years.
“You have to ask, what took the corps so long,” said Van Davis.
In a statement, a spokesperson with the USACE told WWL Louisiana there is no specific timeline for permitting. Saying “The time required to evaluate a proposal differs from project to project.”
Permitting wasn’t the only controversy, as we’ve previously reported, the site on the Mississippi River sat between the historic Black community of Wallace and Whitney Plantation, a tourist attraction dedicated to telling the history of enslaved people.
Its owners, Joy Banner and her sister Jo even sued the parish to keep the grain facility out of Wallace, citing environmental concerns.
“I want to be here for my community,” said Jo Banner with The Descendants Project, “I want us to be healthy. We deserve that, our ancestors fought for us to be happy and healthy.”
Wednesday Governor Landry blasted the Corps of Engineers saying:
“After years of delay—it’s despicable that the Corps of Engineers had additional delays with this project—choosing to adhere to special interest groups and wealthy plantation owners.”
“This was never really about environmental equality,” said Van Davis. “This was never really about environmental justice this was about preserving the plantation tourism industry.”
Banner disagrees and says the facility's plan to pull out is a win for community health.
“It’s more than just a site fight,” said Banner. “It’s a system fight. So, we are vigilant, we are watching to make sure that industry that is inappropriate for this area is not located here.”
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