The 95 acres of land was a city dump from 1909 until 1958. The Agriculture Street Landfill was the city’s residential, medical and industrial wasteland for nearly 50 years. “The residents of the Agriculture Street Landfill were hard-working, honest folks who worked multiple jobs trying to attain the American Dream of homeownership, only to suffer an American nightmare when the very soil under their homes literally started to kill them.” And it screams out as an example of environmental racism,” said Suzette Bagneris, the lead attorney for the residents’ class-action suit. “This case is a living example of the need for environmental justice. Residents worry that the money may not be enough to buy new homes elsewhere in New Orleans. About 5,000 residents won millions in state court judgments against the city, housing authority and the local public school system, but officials have refused to pay the damages. Some residents of the converted landfill are reportedly stuck with homes they can’t resell and plagued with various forms of cancer and other sicknesses. history, according to a recent Washington Post report. It is considered one of the worst examples of environmental injustice in U.S.
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