Module 56 Human Diseases

Module 57 Toxicology and Chemical Risks

Module 58 Risk Analysis

The neighborhood of Old Diamond in Norco, Louisiana, was composed of four city blocks located between a chemical plant and an oil refinery, both owned by the Shell Oil Company. There were approximately 1,500 residents in the neighborhood, largely lower-income African Americans. In 1973, a pipeline explosion blew a house off its foundation and killed two residents. In 1988, an accident at the refinery killed seven workers and sent more than 70 million kg (159 million pounds) of potentially toxic chemicals into the air. Nearly one-third of the children in Old Diamond suffered from asthma and there were many cases of cancer and birth defects. The unusually high rates of disease raised suspicions that the two nearby industrial facilities were harming the residents.

By 1989, local resident and middle school teacher Margie Richard had seen enough. Richard organized the Concerned Citizens of Norco. The primary goal of the group was to get Shell to buy the residents’ properties at a fair price so they could move away from the industries that were putting their health at risk. Richard contacted environmental scientists and quickly learned that to make a solid case to the company and to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), she needed to be more than an organizer; she also needed to be a scientist.

The residents knew that the local air had a foul smell, but they had no way of knowing which chemicals were present and in what concentrations. To determine whether they were being exposed to chemicals at concentrations that posed a health risk, the air had to be tested. Richard learned about specially built buckets that could collect air samples. She organized a “Bucket Brigade” of volunteers and slowly collected the data she and her collaborators needed. As a result of these efforts, scientists were able to document that the Shell refinery was releasing more than 0.9 million kg (2 million pounds) of toxic chemicals into the air each year.

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The fight against Shell met strong resistance from company officials and went on for 13 years. But in the end, Margie Richard won her battle. In 2002, Shell agreed to purchase the homes of the Old Diamond neighborhood. The company also agreed to pay an additional $5 million for community development and it committed to reducing air emissions from the refinery by 30 percent to help improve the air quality for those residents who remained in the area. In 2007, Shell agreed that it had violated air pollution regulations in several of its Louisiana plants and paid the state of Louisiana $6.5 million in penalties.

For her tremendous efforts in winning the battle in Norco, Margie Richard was the 2004 North American recipient of the Goldman Environmental Prize, which honors grassroots environmentalists. Since then, Richard has brought her message to many other minority communities located near large polluting industries. She teaches that protecting human health and the local environment requires community action—and learning how to be a citizen scientist.

Sources: The Goldman Environmental Prize: Margie Richard. http://www.goldmanprize.org/2004/northamerica; M. Scallan, Shell, DEQ settle emission charges: Fines and upgrades to cost $6.5 million, Times-Picayune (New Orleans), March 15, 2007, http://royaldutchshellplc.com/2007/03/15/the-times-picayune-shell-deq-settle-emission-charges-fines-and-upgrades-to-cost-65-million/.