Neither do we.
BWC Harvey (formerly named Blackwater) is a 48-acre bulk storage facility on the West bank of the Mississippi River that handles hundreds of millions of gallons a year of toxic petrochemicals. Blackwater built its facility less than a quarter mile from homes in Harvey (Jefferson Parish) and less than a mile from the Irish Channel, a major source of tourism revenue for the City of New Orleans.
Toxic Pollution in the Neighborhood
Each year, billions of gallons of toxic petrochemicals are exported by the strip of industrial facilities along the Mississippi River in Gretna, Harvey, and Marrero. These facilities are located less than a 1/4 mile from peoples’ homes on the Westbank and under a mile from the Irish Channel and East Riverside – major tourist destinations in Uptown New Orleans. More than 30,000 people live within a mile from this petrochemical strip.
Nearly 2,000 toxic odor complaints in 2 years.
The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality has identified BWC Harvey (formerly Blackwater) as the “primary source” of the ongoing surge in toxic odor complaints in Uptown New Orleans, with about 850 complaints linked to this facility between May 2019 and April 2021. BWC Harvey has the capacity to store nearly 100 million gallons of molten asphalt and other toxic petrochemicals .
Everyone deserves clean air. 