"NEW ORLEANS — A Taiwan-based company and opponents to plans for a $9.4 billion plastics complex have agreed that site preparation can continue except in wetlands and in five known or possible sites of enslaved people’s graves.
“It’s important that these sites be protected,” Center for Biological Diversity attorney Julie Teel Simmonds said Thursday. She represents environmental and citizens’ groups in a lawsuit asking a federal judge in Washington, D.C., to overturn permits granted by the Army Corps of Engineers.
They had asked last week for an order halting all work until the judge could rule.
The agreement lets current preliminary work continue, said Janile Parks, spokeswoman for FG LA LLC, Formosa Plastics Group’s Louisiana member. The corporation plans 10 chemical plants and four other “major facilities” on 2,500 acres (1,000 hectares) on the Mississippi River in St. James Parish, between Baton Rouge and New Orleans."
Janet McConnaughey reports for the Associated Press November 5, 2020.
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