Barbara Koeppel

About the author: Barbara Koeppel is a Washington, D.C.-based investigative reporter.

The region known as "Cancer Alley," which lies along the Mississippi River valley in eastern Louisiana, has some of the highest rates of cancer, miscarriages, neurological diseases, and other health problems in the nation, yet the industrial plants and wasteprocessing companies present in the area deny that their operations are the cause. In the meantime, these businesses work handin- glove with the state government to assure that expensive, preventive, and remedial measures do not become law.

Something is rotten in the state of Louisiana. It is the stretch along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and just south of New Orleans. Locals call it Cancer Alley. The corridor is home to seven oil refineries and somewhere between 175 and 350 heavy industrial plants, depending on...