[music]

Jesse Giovanni Perkins: We're being told we're living on top of a toxic waste landfill. We weren't aware of this when we purchased our homes.

Wilma Subra: We are the second-highest cancer-causing neighborhood in the State of Louisiana.

Melissa Harris-Perry: These are voices from Gordon Plaza. It's a subdivision in New Orleans ' desired neighborhood. Established in the 1970s, Gordon Plaza is a planned community just to the West of the Deep Canal that links Lake Ponchartrain to the mighty Mississippi. When Gordon Plaza was built, it was supposed to be an opportunity for working-class drivers. With federal funding from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, HUD, the city sought to improve public housing already located in the area and to create new opportunities for the community.

There were rental apartments for the elderly and disabled, advertisements from the era they showed that each unit was outfitted with a fridge, a range, and air conditioning. Listen, that was a big deal in hot New Orleans summers. Gordon Plaza was an opportunity for New Orleans emerging middle-class Black community to buy into the American dream, modest, affordable, single-family homes, near schools, churches, and planned retail. The city's first black mayor Ernest Dutch Morial cut ribbons at celebratory openings and posed smiling on residents neatly manicured front lawns.

Wilma Subra: The HUD housing consisted of what you're calling Gordon Plaza which was first-time homeowners' homes.

Melissa Harris-Perry: This is Wilma Subra.

Wilma Subra: Then it had an old folks home. It had rent-to-own townhomes, and then it had grocery stores, a little shopping center, a beauty parlor, and it had a community center and it had the school. From the perspective of a first-time homeowner, this was an absolutely magnificent place to be able to purchase a home and have a school nearby, have everything you needed for shopping, and have a community center. You really didn't have to go out of the area to get the services you needed.

Melissa Harris-Perry: All right. Let's pause for a moment because Wilma Subra is President of Subra Company, an environmental consulting firm. Miss Subra is a technical advisor to the Louisiana Environmental Action Network. Why does an environmental consulting firm president know so much about Gordon Plaza? The answer to that is the heart of the story where we're beginning today on The Takeaway. Because the dream that was Gordon Plaza quickly dissolved into a nightmare for the residents of this community when they discovered the very foundation was toxic

Wilma Subra: They did not know when they were doing the first-time homeowners or when they were doing the rent-to-own townhomes that it was on top of a hazardous waste landfill. Eventually, it became designated as the Superfund site.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Now, to understand this story we have to go back to the beginning. In the early 1900s, the land that Gordon Plaza now occupies was low-lying, swampy, and largely vacant. New Orleans used this area as a dumping ground for the city's waste. It was called the Agriculture Street Landfill. For decades, residents in nearby neighborhoods complained about the site, and eventually, it was closed. Then in September 1965.

Jesse Giovanni Perkins: The eye of thing or the most or the greater part of it must be right here right now. There's no surging antenna, and one is continuing to blow and I'm telling you she's a blowing and she's a shaken.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Hurricane Betsy slammed it to New Orleans with 150 miles an hour winds and storm surges that drove a wall of water straight down that deep canal from lake to river. Levies failed and the neighborhood flooded. The city temporarily reopened the Agriculture Street Landfill as a dumping ground for debris from Hurricane Betsy. To manage the mountain of trash and debris, incinerators ran bright fires day and night earning a local nickname Dante's Inferno.

Ash, arsenic, lead, and dioxins from the incinerators spread into the air, then drifted back to the earth blanketing the site, settling into yards, plants, grass, groundwater. Decades of waste, debris trash, chemicals, poison, fire, water, ash, layer upon layer. This is the land where federal funders, city planners, and developers chose to build a community for the Black working class.

[music]

Gordon Plaza sits atop what was once Agriculture Street Landfill. Most of the new residents who first bought in Gordon Plaza in the 1980s they didn't know that their homes sat on a toxic site, but within a decade, debris, and residue became visible as sealed oil drums literally popped out of the ground in families' yards. Under intense pressure from environmental activists and distressed residents, the Environmental Protection Agency began to test Gordon Plaza soil and found 140 toxic and hazardous materials more than 40 of which were known to cause cancer.

In 1994, the EPA declared the area a Superfund or a hazardous waste site. Wilma Subra has been working as a consultant for residents on the site since the late 1980s. According to legal documents, the EPA tested the soil on the site in the '80s but Subra says it wasn't until the EPA reassessed their standard for toxicity that it became clear just how poisonous the land was.

Wilma Subra: A number of years later, a more protective standard of dioxin was adopted by the EPA and that made all the waste in the landfill exceed those standards. In the early days, it wasn't there. Then you had benzene, toluene [unintelligible 00:06:18] the volatile organics that are known and suspected to be cancer-causing agents polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons.

Then you also said the heavy metals mercury, lead, zinc all of these things were combined in that landfill that this entire subdivision was built on top of. You could actually sit in people's yards and just with your hands you could dig the grass and the very shallow surface soil out and get to the waste. The exposure was right there. Then after a long time of everyone being really involved in educating the impacted communities, there was a push to actually get either relocated or a remedy.

Melissa Harris-Perry: The EPA financed a $20 million remediation project to remove contaminated soil from some areas of the property and to replace a with new soil. Now the residents in the area knew that the land they owned was a former landfill and dumpsite and they knew it was potentially hazardous to their health. They sought more than new dirt for their backyards. They wanted a way to relocate.

Wilma Subra: We lost the relocation at that time. The remedy was removal and replacement of two feet. Removal of two feet of soil waste and put one of those orange construction blankets that you see the orange plastic at a lot of construction sites and then put a mat and then put back two feet of soil. However, only 10% was removed and replaced because you didn't remove and replace under the houses, under the streets, under the sidewalks. They did where the grass was but that was only 10% and the houses were left still sitting on the dump. As a result, the exposure continues and it continues to this day as people live in those houses.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Then, in 2005.

Jesse Giovanni Perins: Waves of water are already washing over parking lots in the greater New Orleans area. Some of the first signs of the approach of Hurricane Katrina.

Melissa Harris-Perry: The devastating lash of Hurricane Katrina took down levies flooding and battering Gordon Plaza.

Wilma Subra: It damaged or destroyed all of the structures. As a result, only the people in Gordon Plaza repaired and returned to their homes. The town halls were finally torn down, the community center was torn down, the shopping center was torn down. All that's left now if you go out there is the Gordon Plaza subdivision part which was where the first-time homeowners. They're single-occupant homes. Then all around the site is still the undeveloped area which has all the waste right at the surface.

I went out there recently and I could walk on it. Just with my fingers pull up the waste from the site.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Now Subra was working with the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council at the time.

Wilma Subra: We were looking at what we could do to help the community relocate out of the area immediately before a hurricane because most of the people for Katrina couldn't make it out of town. It was the end of the month. They didn't have any money for gas and they didn't have any transportation. As part of that, we went on a tour. I took them on a tour, the NEJAC committee and a lot of people were saying, "Why did this happen? Why is this still here? Why was it destroyed and damaged by the hurricane?

One of the EPA officials said, "You had to understand the politics. It wasn't the technical issues, the technical issues qualified for relocation, you had to understand the politics." Meanwhile, these people in the Gordon Plaza have continued to have to live there, and can not get relocated.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Right now according to residents, there are 67 properties and 54 families left in Gordon Plaza, and all are still fighting to be relocated. Subra says she's been working with Superfund sites since before Congress created the Superfund Act in 1980. This site, it feels to her like a particularly glaring instance of environmental injustice.

Wilma Subra: We had a lot of communities that were impacted by groundwater from Superfund sites, by air emissions from Superfund sites, by contaminated flora and fauna from Superfund sites, but none of them were living "on top of". This was the most damaging to the community of any Superfund sites in Louisiana and for the most part in the United States, yet, the community members in Gordon Plaza are still living there, not an appropriate approach to a Superfund site.

Jesse Giovanni Perkins: My name is Jesse Giovanni Perkins. I moved to Gordon Plaza in May of 1988.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Jesse bought a house for his mother and himself. He told us he was "full of happiness" to be able to buy it outright without a mortgage, but he wasn't aware the home was built on toxic land.

Marilyn Amar: My name is Marilyn Amar, and I'm a resident of Gordon Plaza. My home was sold to me by the city of New Orleans, built on top of the Agriculture Street Landfill.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Marilyn first moved into the apartment complexes in the Gordon Plaza subdivision, and then bought a home there.

Marilyn Amar: I moved in this area in 1970, not knowing this was a former dump site or landfill. That was not told to me when I moved into the apartment complex and lived there for years, and then bought the home in Gordon Plaza, which is just a one-block difference. That was not told to me about being a landfill where chemicals were dumped.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Both Jesse and Marilyn have been outspoken advocates for their community over the past three decades. They've sought help from the city for relocation expenses, but they just don't feel like anyone is listening.

Jesse Perkins: I'm under the impression that they don't really care. We're not a priority. Anytime you say you care about people and the quality of life and public safety, then what is a big a public safety issue, a quality of life issue, than what we have been faced with? What else does it take? We don't live near a Superfund site, we live on top of a Superfund site.

Melissa Harris-Perry: We're continuing our conversation about the residents of Gordon Plaza, whose houses were built on what was once the Agriculture Street Landfill in New Orleans, designated as a Superfund or a hazardous waste site back in 1994. Jesse Perkins and Marilyn Amar currently live in Gordon Plaza. They bought their houses without knowing about the dangerous toxins they might be exposed to on their own properties. Jesse told The Takeaway about the steps he takes to protect himself, his neighbors, and his family while doing everyday things like yard work and mowing the lawn.

Jesse Giovanni Perkins: I do the lawn around here, all my neighbors, I just do it. I do the entire block. When I'm doing it, I used to wear long sleeves, but I make sure when I'm storing up the grass and the dust and everything else that's in there, that I have a mask on. I was wearing a mask way before COVID came out because I didn't want to have all of that stuff going into my lungs and possibly exposing me. There's different transmission rates through the skin, from the pores, through ingestion, and just breathing. I tried to limit the amount of dust particles that I've read when I do the lawn.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Jesse also wanted to put upswings and a slide in his backyard, so his granddaughter could play, but he was concerned about exposing her to toxins in the soil. He tries to cover up all the bare spots in his yard.

Jesse Giovanni Perkins: Then I had my yard test set about three years ago and the lead contamination was I think over 1200 parts per million. We really, really, really became concerned for her because of her development and growth, and how vulnerable that she could be to this stuff, whereas we may not be as vulnerable as she is, because of those reasons. What we did was, what can we do to give her some similar stuff, still being a kid, being able to play in a yard without giving her all of this contact with the soil? We put a trampoline up and she goes and bounce on that, and she's about four feet above the ground and we feel comfortable with that. Not totally, but a little peace of mind.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Even if they try their best to keep themselves and their families safe, illness and cancer have become routine realities for them. According to a 2019 report from the Louisiana tumor registry, Gordon Plaza's census track has the second-highest cancer rate in the state. Although the report also says it's hard to prove links between cancer and certain exposures, but Jesse has plenty of stories.

Jesse Giovanni Perkins: Two of my board members, one lady is about 78 years old, and the other is about 72, they both are in remission from cancer. We have two people that are unofficial officers, they organize with us also, they both are in remission from cancer also. We've lost two people right down the street from where I live from multiple cancers, including brain cancer, and bone cancer. Right around the corner, a 16-year-old girl died from leukemia. Next door to that young lady, a 63-year-old lady passed from multiple myeloma.

One of the ladies who is in remission from cancer, her husband died about six months ago to colon cancer. One of the ladies that's in remission from cancer, her husband is currently battling colon cancer. One of the other neighbor's husband, he is on his third trial of chemo and radiation. It's very widespread throughout the community.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Marilyn has experience with this too.

Marilyn Amar: I'm a five-year breast cancer survivor. I have respiratory problems. I have skin ailments from living on this toxic landfill.

Melissa Harris-Perry: It's not only cancer.

Jesse Giovanni Perkins: Five people within a one-block span of where I live, including my mother, develop dementia. I guess people would say, where does dementia have to do with these carcinogens? Arsenic from what the research that I've done is linked somehow to dementia.

Melissa Harris-Perry: As the Louisiana tumor registry report noted, these things are hard to prove, but Jesse and Marilyn, they're quite convinced.

Marilyn Amar: My children grew up here. My son was ill for years. He had to drop out of college for some time. He had to have different types of surgeries because he had stomach problems, and part of his intestines had to be removed because of living on this chemical landfill dumpsite. He had to drop out of school, go back when he was well, drop out again, go back, but when he finally graduated from college, he left Louisiana altogether.

He comes to visit, he cannot stay for over two days, he gets ill. My children live away from Louisiana and so they very seldom come back to this area.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Now, some people might be listening to this and asking, "Why not just move?" You have to remember this was a community built for elderly and low-income families in the 1980s. The land has depreciated in value because of its status as a Superfund site. The 54 families left in this development, many feel trapped, but they continue to fight to be relocated.

Marilyn Amar: I can't afford to leave. I'm retired on a limited income. No one is going to give me a loan to buy another home. Plus, I'm a senior citizen I can't afford to start a new mortgage. If I could, I would not be here.

Jesse Giovanni Perkins: People question that, "You know what is there, why don't y'all just leave?" If it was that simple, we'd all be gone. It's much more complicated than that.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Jesse says even if he could afford to leave, there's still a matter of principle.

Jesse Giovanni Perkins: let's just say, it's not just about the money, but it's going to take money to make this situation right for us. It is, because nothing else is going to do it and the city has the money, and that is the sad irony of this whole situation. We don't want to die here. We're going to die one day, all of us are going to die, but I don't want to die because my city neglected to do the right thing and remove me from a toxic waste landfill.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Back in 1993, the Environmental Protection Agency tested the soil where these houses are and found 140 toxic and hazardous materials, more than 40 of which were known to cause cancer. The next year, the EPA designated the area a hazardous waste site. In 1993, the community filed a class-action lawsuit against the city of New Orleans, the Housing Authority of New Orleans, and the Orleans Parish School Board.

In 2005, Civil District Court Judge Nadine Ramsey awarded residents $90 million. Now Ramsey wrote an extensive decision citing the failures of city and school board officials. The financial award was meant to compensate residents for the loss of property value and their experiences of emotional distress. Just months after the judge's decision, Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans.

Many residents were displaced and municipal services were disrupted for years. Officials appealed, negotiated and many residents still have not seen any compensation from the original ruling. In 2015, the Housing Authority of New Orleans private insurers paid out 14.2 million, but little of that reached residents. In a new judgment in March of this year, Orleans' Civil District Court Judge Nicole Shepherd again sided with residents awarding a $75 million judgment, but residents are concerned that they won't see much of any of that money after legal fees.

In 2016, the city amended its master plan and included a portion about Gordon Plaza residents. It provided a five-year timeline to "identify and apply for federal state and other funding or resources to relocate consenting residents of the Gordon Plaza subdivision that was built on the Agriculture Street landfill". That five-year timeline ended in 2021. Residents have estimated it will now cost $35 million to relocate the 54 families still living in Gordon Plaza.

In the newest city budget passed back in December, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell allocated 2 million in bond funding to survey the site for redevelopment. In a statement provided to The Takeaway, the city said it plans to turn Gordon Plaza into a sustainable solar farm that would increase the city's power resilience and minimize greenhouse gas emissions. On January 6th of this year, the New Orleans city council earmarked 35 million in the capital budget to help relocate residents but the money's not guaranteed.

Marilyn Amar: Now in 2022, with still 67 properties here we fought to be on the budget for $35 million as a budget line item. We need an immediate timeline and distribution of these funds. It's long overdue, the time is up, it's time for action now. We're still in a fight with the city trying to get the mayor to go ahead and do a timeline and allocation and distribution of these funds so we can get off of this toxic soil. I would love to live the rest of my life on some clean soil.

Melissa Harris-Perry: After so many years of fighting residents are still skeptical about timelines and intentions.

Jesse Giovanni Perkins: We wanted a fully funded relocation, cut the checks, get them in our hands, let them clear, and that way we know it's a done deal and allow those people that want to stay, let them stay but I do know that the majority of the people want to leave. A lot of these people are getting old now, they're up in age in their late 70s and there's a couple of them in their 80s. I want them to be able to live to see this come to light. I want them to be able to just have the joy of knowing that our fight was not in vain, no matter what the city does anyway, still not in vain because we are doing what's right.

We are doing what we're supposed to be. We're supposed to be standing up and fighting for our rights. We didn't volunteer and knowingly came into this situation, "Oh, I'm good with that stuff." No, none of us were aware so we don't deserve the treatment that we've gotten from our city. We've literally been filled on every level of government, local, state, as well as federal.

Melissa Harris-Perry: Environmental racism, it's the only explanation some residents have after three decades of struggle.

Jesse Giovanni Perkins: It just so happened to be my community is all black people and we feel as though if it was one white person living back here we might have been out of here, but we weren't lucky enough to have one white person living back here. Now, whether that holds true is yet to be seen, but that's just the consensus of the people.

Marilyn Amar: We are Black families. These homes were sold to low and modern income Black families. This is why we've gone through six mayors. This is why we are still here. The fight was really strong back in 1994, but the people just gave up, died out, and gave up. Now, since Hurricane Katrina, we've started up again with the fight and we're not giving up because we want to live a quality of life not on this toxic landfill.

We want our future generations not to have to live on this landfill. That's why we're still in a fight and we're not giving up, but I do believe because we are all Black families and that is one of the reasons why we're still here.

Melissa Harris-Perry: We want to say thank you to Jesse Perkins and Marilyn Amar for sharing their stories with us and a note that Katerina Barton was our lead producer on this story with a little help from our senior producer, Ethan Oberman.

[music]

Copyright © 2022 New York Public Radio. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use at www.wnyc.org for further information.

New York Public Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline, often by contractors. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of New York Public Radio’s programming is the audio record.