Today, Ascension Parish families, whose families have lived in the parish for generations, decried Monday’s announcement by parish leadership to make way for two ammonia plants and Hyundai Steel which will destroy the historic local community. The announcement from the parish—released in a call for contractors to lead the destruction—came on the same day as a  fatal explosion at a steel facility in Pennsylvania, where two workers died and ten more were injured. Governor Landry and parish officials are luring a dangerous Hyundai steel plant to Louisiana with a $600 million incentive package that taxpayers will largely subsidize.

Residents of Modeste in West Ascension, the area slated for destruction, were not included in conversations about their home. They have stepped up to propose a different plan for the parish, one that does not destroy the area but results in a thriving community. Social media comments are running heavily against the parish plan.

The following statements were made in response to the parish announcement.

Twila Collins, Modeste resident (the area targeted for destruction)

“This parish plan is ridiculous. It is wrong to pretend to come up with a buy out plan after you already made a plan. You should have been talking to the people before you decided to bring the plants. You are having all these meetings with people that are not even in the community.  We are the community of Modeste. You never came here. You never even brought the head people of these communities here to discuss how we feel.

We never had any input about it. How can you just come here and destroy us?

I don’t want compensation for my home because I am satisfied where I am. No amount of money that you can offer me can replace 55 years in the same place, with generations before me  with all the love and memories that we have. Tell me how can you just come and disrupt the whole community like we’re nobodies?  We don’t even matter. Is industry more important? You are satisfying your hunger for money over a population of people.  We have history here in Modeste.”

Ashley Gaignard, West Ascension resident and President of Rural Roots, Louisiana 

“Over my 48 years of living in Donaldsonville, I’ve watched the west bank be overlooked and underdeveloped, despite its historic beauty, strategic location, and untapped potential. Now, instead of investing in our community, the parish is entertaining a dangerous pollution build-out that would require moving residents off 17,000 acres — displacing an estimated 600 residents, many of them descendants of sharecropper families who have lived here for generations.

This is not progress. This is a last-resort plan born from decades of missed opportunities to develop Donaldsonville into the thriving conservation, cultural, and tourism hub it could be. We could be building bigger homes with more space — not crowding them as in East Ascension. We could be attracting gas stations, local shops, and even a new school to move our children away from the shadow of CF Industries. We could be restoring our historic and plantation sites to draw tourism, creating a riverfront park with green space where families — including yours — would feel safe to walk, run, skate, and play. We could create dignified places for our aging residents and shelter-in-place protections for existing industry impacts.

Donaldsonville is perfectly positioned in the path of traffic between Iberville and East Ascension. We could be benefiting from it — instead of sacrificing our land, our health, and our history for another industrial gamble.

We want to thrive. But we also want to stay alive.”

Anne Rolfes, Director, Louisiana Bucket Brigade

“West Ascension Parish is a beautiful place, and the historic town of Donaldsonville and neighboring Modeste deserve protection and investment. Instead, the state and the parish plan to destroy the area and drive families away. This approach of destroying Louisiana communities to make way for industry is a pattern that we must bring to an end.

There is already more ammonia produced in Ascension Parish than anyplace else in the world. Enough with industry. Get some imagination. Put the development of the area in the hands of the people who live there instead of mowing over them.

The good news is that the people of Modeste and Ascension Parish have a vision. Let’s invest in people who live here and develop an economy that works for everyone.”

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