A Forgotten Community in New Orleans: Life on a Superfund Site

onJun 22, 2014 @ 11:00 PDT

Shannon Rainey lives in a house that was built on top of a Superfund site in the Upper Ninth Ward of New Orleans.

“I bought my house when I was 25, and thirty years later, I still can’t get out,” she told DeSmogBlog.

Rainey’s home in Gordon Plaza is part of a subdivision developed by the city in 1981 on top of the Agriculture Street landfill. No one disclosed to the buyers that their new homes were built on top of a dump that was closed in 1965.

Rainey has a view of two other city-owned properties also built on the landfill: the shuttered Morton Elementary School and Press Park, an abandoned housing project developed by the Housing Authority of New Orleans (HANO).

“If it were white folks back here, this would be all gone,” Rainey says bluntly.

By Julie Dermansky

Julie Dermansky is a multimedia reporter and artist based in New Orleans. She is an affiliate scholar at Rutgers University’s Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights. Visit her website at www.jsdart.com.

uk/UK Newspapers Publish More Ads for Polluting Products Than Climate Coverage

ByEllen Ormesher

onNov 8, 2025 @ 01:51 PST

Space devoted to promoting flights, cruises, SUVs, and the oil industry dwarfed the column inches given to last year's U.N. climate summit, study finds.

Series: 2025 COP30 Climate Summit, Holding the Advertising and Public Relations Industry Accountable for Greenwash and Climate Misinformation

Series: COP30 Coverage, Advertising & PR Industry