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.

Analysis

As Mark Carney Fast-tracks Canadian LNG Projects, First Nations Face Hidden Financial Traps

ByMitch Anderson

onNov 24, 2025 @ 09:00 PST

Critics say new LNG ventures in British Columbia saddle Indigenous communities with debt, opaque ownership structures, and financial risk that could leave them owing billions.

Toby Young to Address Orbán-Backed Group on UK ‘Censorship’

BySam Bright

onNov 24, 2025 @ 07:38 PST

Campaigners have highlighted the irony of the Tory peer warning about threats to free speech at a think tank bankrolled by a repressive regime.

Analysis

Pesticide Industry 'Hijacked' Climate Stage at COP30, Campaigners Say

ByClare Carlile

onNov 21, 2025 @ 16:13 PST

Corporate pledges to fight deforestation by turning degraded pasture into cropland seen boosting demand for harmful chemical inputs.

Series: 2025 COP30 Climate Summit, Shining a Light on Big Ag’s Climate Push, Investigating the Pesticide Lobby

Series: COP30 Coverage, Big Ag's Climate Push, Investigating the Pesticide Lobby

Exclusive: COP30 PR Agency Edelman Lobbied Presidency to Favour Fossil Fuel Client

ByTJ Jordan, Naira Hofmeister and Maria Clára Parente

onNov 21, 2025 @ 05:00 PST

As the New York-based firm was preparing to work on the climate summit, it was also pushing for Brazilian oil and gas distributor Vibra Energia to help power it.

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

Series: COP30 Coverage, Advertising & PR Industry