The Westwego City Council votes unanimously to not allow any permitting of a proposed 500 million dollar Wanhua chemical storage and distribution facility in it’s suburban New Orleans city limits.
Councilmember Glen Green says the public and council had serious concerns about the flammability and combustibility of the facility, it’s emissions and the potential for leaks so close to a residential area.
“Environmental concerns, that was the gist of it,” says Green. “And not to be political, but I’m just not positive about things from China anyway.”
The site selected was directly across the river from the Audubon Park and Zoo, formerly used by KinderMorgan.
Green says the public’s unease with the project was made worse by the Wanhua spokesperson’s inability or refusal to respond to local resident’s concerns at the public meeting.
“All of the people there were against, and they came up and gave statements about why they were against it, and he could not respond effectively to most of those concerns,” says Green.
The plant would have created 75 new full-time jobs, and 500 construction jobs, but Green says they weren’t particularly interested in bringing on many locals.
“This big plant was going to permanently hire 70 people, but only 15 were going to be from Westwego, I had a problem with that,” says Green.
The facility would have processed a chemical called MDI on-site into component products for paint, shoes, and more.
