Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right

by Arlie Russell Hochschild

But the Jambalaya Capital is sadly located on one the most polluted industrial strips in the world. A hundred and fifty facilities line the two sides of the Mississippi, an eighty-five-mile strip, each plant surrounded by chain-link fences, some with entrances whose signs proudly announce the small number of work days missed due to accidents. Many plants were built on former cotton and sugarcane plantations. Other towns along River Road—Plaquemine, St. Gabriel, Geismar, Donaldsonville—lie in parishes that in 2013 ranked in the top 3 percent of U.S. counties in reported toxic releases, according to the EPA. Louisiana is the nation’s sixth leading state in generating hazardous waste, and it is third in the nation for the amount of hazardous waste it imports from other states. “We import hazardous waste from Arkansas,” the General continues, eyes wide as if in disbelief, “because they’ve got stricter regulations than we do.”