Construction on a $9.4 billion plastics plant in St. James Parish must be delayed so the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers can do a more extensive and lengthy review of the facility’s impacts on the environment and nearby minority communities, a top Army official said yesterday.
The Corps of Engineers acknowledged to a federal judge late last year that an earlier, less intensive review for the permit had errors in part of its analysis. At the time, the Corps had suspended that original, flawed permit, which would allow Formosa to fill in wetlands on the more than 2,300-acre site along the Mississippi River.
The Sunshine Project has been praised by Gov. John Bel Edwards and many other government leaders for the thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in economic development it will bring.
But other local leaders and environmental and community groups have criticized its toxic air emissions, risk of accidental release of plastic pellets, and its proximity to antebellum graves that may hold deceased slaves.
The project, announced in spring 2018, has already hit other slowdowns because of high Mississippi River water and state and federal litigation.
