Every region in the United States has its unique regional history of air pollution and health. Three prominent locations within the American South include Houston, TX, Memphis, TN, and "Cancer Alley", LA. Understanding the history behind these conditions is critical to reflecting on current considerations and future solutions. While our ASB will focus on ongoing issues across Houston and Memphis, it is important to understand the broader sociopolitical context and implications of air pollution to form innovative solutions.

Founded in 1819, Memphis, TN, became attractive for transporting cotton grown along the Mississippi Delta.11 Since then, the air freight services (runway), port (river), trucking corridor (road), and cargo tracks (rail), dubbed the ‘Four Rs,’ have cemented Memphis’ legacy as an urban hub for transportation.12 The city is now home to FedEx, the world’s second busiest cargo airport, and the fifth largest US inland port. Hand-in-hand with industrial growth, however, Memphis has gained an intense history of pollution.

By the 1980s, the growth of transport industries made Memphis not only an employment center for physical labor, but also for retail and service.13 As a result, economic focuses remain on  Memphis’ commercial transportation, decentralizing the city, and imposing barriers for the average pedestrian.14 A 2013 monitoring survey found Southwest Memphis to be a hotspot for air pollution, owing to both mobile (55%) and stationary (45%) industries like steel, refineries, and food processing corporations.15 Furthermore, the study found pollutant risk fell disproportionately on Black and low-income Memphis residents, exacerbating existing socioeconomic struggles.

Key contributors of Memphis’ air pollution have only recently come to light, despite being longstanding components of the landscape. The Sterilization Services of Tennessee, a corporation dating operations to the 1970s, was caught emitting excess ethylene oxide at unusually high levels in 2022.16 The Valero Memphis oil refinery, established in 1941, has been solely responsible for the release of several carcinogens, and is notoriously non-compliant with EPA emission reduction standards.17 Incidents between 2010-12 alone included the release of 500 lbs of sulfur dioxide and 528 pounds of hydrogen cyanide, alongside the dumping of 1500 gallons of diesel and 440 pounds of bleach.18 The Allen Fossil Plant, constructed by the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1956, became infamous for leaking arsenic into groundwater and was ranked the 10th worst contaminated site in the country.19 Today, organizations like Memphis Community Against Air Pollution and the Southern Environmental Law Center remain committed to preventing the exacerbation of these conditions.

The 85-mile industrial corridor along the Mississippi River, from Baton Rouge to New Orleans, is notorious for its 200+ petrochemical facilities.20 Residents face a 95% greater chance of developing cancer than the national average, eliciting the name “Cancer Alley”. 21 Since the coining of this name in the 1980s, the stretch now technically encompasses 255 miles, extending from Baton Rouge to the Gulf of Mexico.22 A culmination of settler colonialism, rapid industrialization, and environmental racism, the landscape sets an important precedent to learn from and overcome. 

Founded between the late 1600s and the early 1700s, Louisiana cities were deeply influenced by French, English, and Spanish settlers. As populations boomed, so did agriculture, with the growth of indigo, cotton, and sugarcane plantations.23 Slavery thus became the main source of labor. New Orleans, specifically, was a hub for the domestic slave trade well into the 1800s, foundational in forming New Orleans culture. When slavery was abolished in the 1900s, the petrochemical industries bought the land once belonging to the plantations. Remaining plantations took advantage of rapid industrialization, turning to oil-based fertilizers and pesticides. Today, multimedia artists like Monique Verdin document the transition from Louisiana’s historical and cultural heritage sites to the industries populating the geography, juxtaposing corporations and communities.24