Residents in an area of Louisiana colloquially known as "cancer alley" have filed a lawsuit against their community's biggest polluters in an effort to tackle environmental racism.

The southeastern region is home to the Denka Performance Elastomer synthetic rubber plant. In their suit, residents of St. John the Baptist Parish claimed that their county has approved every request to build industry facilities in majority-Black areas, but have not approved a request in a white area in over 46 years.

“The Defendants ... have intentionally chosen to locate over a dozen enormous industrial facilities in the majority Black 4th and 5th Districts, while explicitly sparing white residents from the risk of environmental harm,” the lawsuit reads, via The Hill.

Last year, ProPublica estimated that the cancer risk for residents in St. John was 1 in 210, which is 47 times what the EPA deems acceptable chloroprene exposure. Chloroprene is classified by the EPA as a "likely human carcinogen," as it is a mutagen. Mutagens can cause cancer by mutating DNA, leaving children at a higher risk due to their cells dividing more rapidly than those of adults.

According to the report, an elementary school resides just 1,500 feet from the Denka facility. The EPA found that students at the school, 75 percent of whom are Black, are regularly exposed to 11 times the acceptable amount of chloroprene.

The EPA's civil rights division previously issued citations for the plant and town of St. John the Baptist Parish in October, 2022 for failing to take action against the harm done to residents. At the beginning of March this year, they filed a lawsuit in tandem with the Justice Department for violating the Clean Air Act.

The latest lawsuit from residents was filed by environmental activism groups Rise St. James and the Triumph Baptist Church. Shamyra Lavigne said in a written statement that they hope to hold the Denka plant accountable for decades of pollution .

“Over and over, the St. James Parish Council has ignored us, has denied our cries for equal rights, for basic human rights,” she wrote. “But we stand here today to say we will not be ignored, you will not sacrifice our lives.”