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.

Fertiliser and Grain Bosses Bank $66 Million Selling Shares During Iran War

ByClare Carlile

onApr 30, 2026 @ 05:45 PDT

Industry giants have been accused of ‘enriching shareholders’ while ‘farmers and consumers pay the price’.

uk/Revealed: Reform’s £24 Million from Fossil Fuel Interests

ByAdam Barnett and Sam Bright

onApr 30, 2026 @ 01:27 PDT

Nigel Farage’s anti-climate party has received two thirds of its income from oil investors.

Series: Defending Democracy from Dirty Money

Series: Defending-UK-Democracy

uk/'Mad Men Fuelling the Madness': Meet the Advertising CEOs Boosting Big Oil

ByTJ Jordan

onApr 29, 2026 @ 23:05 PDT

You might not have heard of them, but a new analysis shows these ad execs have overseen $1.5 billion worth of fossil fuel ads in the U.S. since the Paris Agreement.