Community and environmental advocates have released the first in a series of reports about Ascension Parish, arguing local leaders should prioritize nonindustrial economic development over current proposals.

Those include large ammonia production complexes that CF Industries, Clean Hydrogen Works and Air Products intend to build. The report says those three will quadruple the ammonia production in the parish, which currently has the world’s largest ammonia facility run by CF Industries just outside Donaldsonville city limits.

The first report of the series, produced by the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, focuses on ammonia. It says the chemical poses health and safety risks and will destroy the last rural community in Ascension.

Ashley Gaignard, director of Rural Roots Louisiana and a Donaldsonville resident, wrote that it is “time to change the narrative surrounding our community.

“We must work towards being viewed not as a poor, vulnerable community affected by industrial intrusion, but as a place with potential and aspirations for economic development that respects our rural character,” she wrote. “Economic growth does not have to be a supersized industrial facility at the cost of our health and safety.”

Business and local leaders argue these plants bring jobs and economic development to the parish, including those nonindustrial businesses. The parish is the state’s wealthiest, but Donaldsonville faces poverty levels close to 50%, according to 2023 U.S. Census Bureau estimates.

Desiree LeMoine, campaign manager for the pro-industry group Industry Makes, said the facilities create work beyond jobs directly tied to the plants.

“The indirect jobs are the United Rentals, or the fried chicken shop on the corner or the dealership that’s preparing to support,” she said. “All the jobs, the vendors that support the plant.”

Ammonia health and safety

Ammonia, which is used as fertilizer and is seen as a potential clean fuel for shipping, comes with health risks.

A 2016 report by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency states low-level, chronic exposure can lead to respiratory problems, wheezing and coughing. High, short-term exposure can cause serious burns to the mouth, lungs and eyes.

Mike Belliveau, director of the environmental protection group Bend the Curve, said “Ascension Parish is already ammonia central.”

He highlighted an ammonia leak at the CF Industries plant in 2022 that forced the evacuation of Donaldsonville Primary School. The school educates roughly 460 students and is about a mile from the plant.

No injuries were reported, but some residents fear similar risks for Sorrento Primary School, which is less than a half-mile from land planned for the Air Products ammonia plant.

“So we have three more ammonia plants; you know, it triples the threat to that community,” Belliveau argued. “The community’s already overburdened with the highest pollution levels in the nation. And here comes industry proposing more. It’s really unfair and unsafe.”

EPA data indicate Ascension Parish has led the nation with the largest quantity of air emissions by single, identifiable sources between 2010 and 2023. No data has been released for 2024 or 2025.

Emergency mutual aid networks

LeMoine said the industry “in general always goes above and beyond with their safety protocol.”

She pointed to employee training and the coordination with officials to protect communities. That includes developing mutual aid agreements among parishes and municipalities to assist with emergency help, such as Ascension Parish Community Awareness Emergency Response (CAER).

She also said companies have a fiscal responsibility to prevent leaks.

“We have often been labeled as, you know, money hungry corporations,” she added. “So, if we’re going to run with that argument, then anything that comes out of the pipes is costing us money.”

And she pushed back strongly against environmental advocacy groups, calling them “fearmongers” and saying that “everything is an issue for them.”

Erasure of cultural landmarks

Titled “Pollution or Prosperity,” the series will overview the current and planned industrial development in Ascension Parish.

Louisiana Bucket Brigade Director Anne Rolfes said residents and officials face a decision about the parish’s future.

“We do think it’s a choice,” she said. “Either you do this and pollute everything and destroy it, or we do something different and actually have a shared prosperity.”

Much of the debate centers on the small, unincorporated Modeste west bank community between Donaldsonville and White Castle. The CF Industries plant, Clean Hydrogen Works facility, and Hyundai steel mill all hope to build in that area, one of the largest remaining undeveloped tracts of land along the lower Mississippi River.

Ascension Parish officials have worked for more than a decade to attract industry to build there. But Gaignard says it will erase the community and culture that has existed there for generations.

“We’re also facing the crisis of the displacements of residents. They will erase a big amount of cultural landmarks from Modeste, particularly the Black community,” she added. “The community has been overwhelmed trying to make our voice (heard) at these public hearings. But we do feel like our voices are being ignored.”

Those cultural landmarks include the Elise Reuss Memorial School. Built in 1906, it was one of only eight plantation schools for Black children in the parish, according to a 2023 cultural resource survey performed by TerraXplorations for the proposed CF Industries plant.

Obtained by The Advocate via a records request, the survey says the building was a previously recorded an historic resource. It was demolished.

“The schoolhouse was still standing until early 2023,” the survey says. The building was later destroyed to ease the sale of the property, according to the survey.