Case Study 3.
Mossville
LEAN Region 4
Southwest Louisiana is the birthplace of Zydeco music and home to a variety of landscapes. Here, you can hike the 180-mile long Creole Nature Trail, or enjoy beaches bordering the Gulf of Mexico. This region includes:
- Allen Parish
- Beauregard Parish
- Calcasieu Parish
- Cameron Parish
- Jefferson Davis Parish
About Mossville
Founded by Jim Moss, a freed enslaved person, who bought land on the Houston River near Lake Charles, Louisiana. The historic African-American community exists in close proximity to several major industrial facilities, perhaps most significantly the nearby Condea Vista chemical plant. In 1998 Condea Vista bought out 206 homes in Mossville. Condea Vista was later purchased by SASOL which announced in 2011 a plan to expand the facility. As part of the expansion plan, SASOL included a voluntary property purchase program for the remaining residents. LEAN’s Wilma Subra has been a technical support system for the residents of Mossville for decades as they navigate concerns over permits, emissions, health impacts, and most recently, the voluntary property purchase program offered by Sasol. Many residents took advantage of the voluntary program and relocated away from Mossville. The community of West Lake on the eastern side of the facility has also been subject to relocation efforts.
Standards
Grade 8
CCSS-RI.1-8
Cite the relevant textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
CCSS-RI.2-8
Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to supporting ideas; provide an objective summary of the text.
CCSS-RI.6-8
Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how the author acknowledges and responds to conflicting evidence or viewpoints.
Grades 9-10
CCSS-RI.1-9.10
Cite relevant and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
CC-RI.2-9.10
Determine a central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.
CCSS-RI.6-9.10
Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and analyze how an author uses rhetoric to advance that point of view or purpose.
CCSS-RI.7-9.10
Analyze various accounts of a subject told in different mediums (e.g., a person’s life story in both print and multimedia), determining which details are emphasized in each account.
Grades 11-12
CCS-RI.1-11.12
Cite strong, thorough, and relevant textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.
CC-RI.2-11.12
Determine two or more central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to provide a complex analysis; provide an objective summary of the text.
CCSS-RI.6-11.12
Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text in which the rhetoric is considered particularly effective, analyzing how style and content contribute to the student interpretation of power, persuasiveness, or beauty of the text.
CCSS-RI.7-11.12
Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in different media or formats (e.g., visually, quantitatively) as well as in words in order to address a question or solve a problem.
Grade 8
8.4
Use geographic representations and historical data to analyze events and developments in U.S. history from 1877 to 2008, including environmental, cultural, economic, and political characteristics and changes.
8.8a
Analyze factors that contributed to and effects of the growth of the industrial economy, including capitalism and growth of free markets, mass production, agricultural advancements, the government’s laissez-faire economic policy, and the rise of corporations.
8.12f
Explain how various factors affected Louisiana’s economy during the early twentieth century, including booms in the tinder, oil, and gas industries.
Civics
C.5
Use geographic representations, demographic data, and geospatial representations to analyze civic issues and government processes.
C.13f
Explain ways in which competition, free enterprise, and government regulation influence what is produced and allocated in an economy, including national and global consequences.
United States History
US.4
Use geographic representations and demographic data to analyze environmental, cultural, economic and political characteristics and changes.
US.11a
Describe how the physical geography of the United States affected industrial growth and trade.
World History
WH.3
Use geographic representations and demographic data to analyze environmental, cultural, economic and political characteristics and changes.
WH.20
Describe the causes of trade, commerce, and industrialization and how they affected governments and societies from 1300 to 2010
WH.22
Analyze trends of increasing economic interdependence and interconnectedness in world history from 1300 to 2010.
WH.24
Analyze the effect that humans have had on the environment in terms of resources, migration patterns, and global environmental issues.
World Geography
WG.6a
Explain the spatial patterns of industrial production and development.
WG.6e
Explain how economic interdependence and globalization affect countries and their populations.
WG.6f
Analyze the historical and contemporary economic influence that Louisiana has on other parts of the United States and on the broader world.
WG.8a
Analyze effects of human settlement patterns and land use on the natural environment.
WG.8c
Analyze causes and effects of local, national, regional, and global environmental issues
Grade 8
8-MS-ESS3-3
Apply scientific principles to design a method for monitoring and minimizing human impact on the environment.
Earth Science
HS-ESS3-4
Evaluate or refine a technological solution that reduces impacts of human activities on natural systems.
Life Sciences
HS-LS2-7
Design, evaluate, and refine a solution for reducing the impacts of human activities on the environment and biodiversity.
Environmental Science
HS-ESS3-4
Evaluate or refine a technological solution that reduces impacts of human activities on natural systems.
Reading Resources
Mossville's End
A 2016 article from Chemical & Enginering News about Sasol’s buyout and relocation of the Mossville community.
Excerpt | Source
The Mossville Story
A timeline of the Mossvile community from settlement to exodus, from the Chemical & Engineering News article.
Excerpt | Source
Excerpt from Poison in the Air
A ProPublica investigation into the compounds effects of air pollution caused by living in close proximity to several chemical plants. It is encouraged that you also access the website to see the dynamic graphics.
Source
The Most Detailed Map of Cancer-Causing Industrial Air Pollution in the U.S.
Interactive map produced by ProPublica that accompanies the Poison in the Air investigative reporting.
Source
‘Startling’: EPA head pledges action for vanishing Black community of Mossville
2021 article from The Baton Rouge Advocate profiling the head of the EPA’s visit to Mossvile’s remaining residents.
Source
How a Chemical Company Created a Ghost Town | Overlooked
Vice documentary about Mossville. Length, 19:47.
Source
Extended Reading Activity
Read and analyze The Mossvile Story, Excerpt from Poison in the Air, and ‘Startling’: EPA head pledges action for vanishing Black community of Mossville. Then discuss and answer the essential questions for this unit. Answers will vary to the questions, however students should be able to grasp the basic power dynamics of the situation.
Expansion
This can be a transformed into a larger activity by reading the previously listed texts, as well as accessing The Most Detailed Map of Cancer-Causing Industrial Air Pollution in the U.S., and discuss and answer the essential questions.
Click here to access a worksheet of the essential questions.