“We’ve begged for a seat at the table. We begged for funding. We’ve begged for national organizations, green organizations, big funders, to listen to us, support us,” said Roishetta Ozane, a Sulphur resident and founder of the Vessel Project of Louisiana. “And we said, if we had the funding and the resources, we could win this thing. We could save our communities.”

Those pleas have finally been heard. Millions of dollars from both private and public sources have poured into Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley” and other communities overburdened by pollution. The federal government has made $600 million available for environmental justice projects through the Inflation Reduction Act, but much of that money from the 2022 spending plan still hasn’t trickled into target communities.

Bloomberg Philanthropies has pledged $85 million for such efforts through its Beyond Petrochemicals campaign, including support for Louisiana-based environmental justice nonprofits Louisiana Bucket Brigade, Hip Hop Caucus and Rise St. James.