River Log section: Baton Rouge to Venice
Baton Rouge to Venice
185 LBD - Industrial Complex including Borden Chemicals, Westlake Chemicals, and Momentive Specialty Chemicals Borden Chemicals originally operated a chemical facility here producing vinyl chloride monomer, ammonia, and PVC. After an explosion and chemical release brought attention from Federal regulators in 1997 the U.S. Government filed a civil action
Baton Rouge to Venice
185 LBD - Geismar Once surrounded by agriculture fields, the predominantly African-American community of Geismar in Ascension Parish is now surrounded by over 20 industrial facilities including Borden Chemical. BASF, PCS Nitrogen, and Shell Chemical. When EPA’s TRI first came out in 1987 Ascension Parish had the highest toxic
Baton Rouge to Venice
206 RBD - Reveilletown An accident at the Georgia Gulf PVC plant filled the air of the surrounding area with toxic fumes. Plumes of vinyl chloride seeped into the residential community of Reveilletown, which was located less than 1,000 feet from the plant. Residents filed suit against Georgia Gulf
Baton Rouge to Venice
209 RBD - Myrtle Grove Trailer Park The extensive vinyl chloride contamination under the Dow facility that spurred the Morrisonville buyout also traveled through the groundwater more than a mile south of the facility. In 1997 the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals found vinyl chloride in the drinking water
Baton Rouge to Venice
210.2 RBD - Morrisonville Founded on Manchac Point, a spit of swampy land surrounded by the Mississippi River, by slaves newly freed from plantations near Plaquemine, Louisiana. Following catastrophic flooding on the Mississippi River the residents moved in 1931, a few miles west and just inside the new Federal
Baton Rouge to Venice
231.8 RBD - Sunrise The town of Sunrise was founded by a former slave in 1874. A large oil refinery was constructed adjacent to this community in 1972 and acquired by Placid Refining in 1974. By 1990, Placid had bought out 241 residents breaking apart the historic community.
Baton Rouge to Venice
232 LBD - Exxon Mobile Buffer Zone The Standard Oil Company built an oil refinery not far from downtown Baton Rouge in 1909. In the decades following the city grew up around the refinery and soon was surrounded by primarily white middle-class neighborhoods. The refinery boomed during WWII, literally fueling
Baton Rouge to Venice
235 LBD - University Place A predominantly African-American community adjacent to the campus of historic Southern University in Baton Rouge. It is also adjacent to the Baton Rouge North Wastewater Treatment Plant. As the treatment plant expanded odors and sewer flies plagued the community. A second round of buyouts will
Baton Rouge to Venice
244.5 - Devil’s Swamp Lake Superfund Site Devil’s Swamp is located on a point of land surrounded by, and regularly flooded by, the Mississippi River and is about ten miles north of the City of Baton Rouge. Devil’s Swamp is a wetland, flood plain and lake
Baton Rouge to Venice
245 LBD - Alsen The Rollins hazardous-waste landfill and incinerator is located next to Alsen, a historic African-American community of 1,104 persons in 1980. After years of noxious odors, cattle dropping dead in their field, deer with tumors, and yards littered with dead birds (just to name a few
Baton Rouge to Venice
246.5 LBD - Petro Processors Superfund Site Petro-Processors of Louisiana, Inc. Brooklawn site is located on Brooklawn Drive one and one half miles west of Scenic Highway. From 1969 to 1978 Petro-Processors used the site as a depository for various petrochemical waste products. The Brooklawn site covers approximately 80
Baton Rouge to Venice
20 RBD Fort Jackson Paddlers can make landing on a rocky landing directly downstream of the Louisiana Responder, or pull up directly below ramparts of the fort, also a rocky landing. If these rough landings don’t fit your temperament, keep downstream another 200 yards to find a much softer