Those evil people who always site those plants in low-income areas. Put those plants on Rodeo Drive or the Miracle Mile.
Whoops...the minority populations ARE converting both to good plant sites.
I would bet they have the arrow of causality exactly backwards, as usual.
My suspicion is the plant was there first, which lead to the land value being cheap (or staying cheap), so poor people could afford to live there.
On the other hand, who doesn't want to be able to easily walk to work?
Jobs at the refinery are likely some of the best paying jobs in the US Virgin Islands (somewhat below drug smuggler, but with better reliability and retirement).
You can always find a whiner.
......I lived on St.Croix for about a year in 2012. Their government is, like ours, hopelessly corrupt. To even suggest that the air is smelly or there are a few flakes of oil on a house is ludicrous and laughable because it is not even in the top ten of problems for St. Croix.
St. Croix’s problems are all related to corruption bred by racism. You can’t run a lemonade stand without a government permit and if your white you better find a black partner before you get can get a lemonade permit and even that will take a year or two. This dynamic (systemic reverse racism) effectively blocks investment ergo progress in St. Croix.
iirc, the reason the plant closed in the first place was because the EPA told HOVENSA they had to make >$ONE-BILLION in upgrades to stay open, HOVENSA said not worth it and closed the plant i'm pretty sure those upgrades were never made, so... how are they even allowed to be open?
Venz crude is like sludge anyway