The Petrochemical Industrial Complex of the St. Charles Parish Industrial Corridor and Its Influence on Urbanization Atternsp
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University of New Orleans ScholarWorks@UNO University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations Dissertations and Theses 12-17-2010 The Petrochemical Industrial Complex of the St. Charles Parish Industrial Corridor and its Influence on Urbanization atternsP Darin Acosta University of New Orleans Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td Recommended Citation Acosta, Darin, "The Petrochemical Industrial Complex of the St. Charles Parish Industrial Corridor and its Influence on Urbanization atterns"P (2010). University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations. 1265. https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/1265 This Thesis is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by ScholarWorks@UNO with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Thesis in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. 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The Petrochemical Industrial Complex and its Influence on Urbanization Patterns in the St. Charles Parish, Louisiana Industrial Corridor A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the University of New Orleans in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Urban and Regional Planning Land Use/Environment by Darin Acosta B.A. University of New Orleans, 2007 December, 2010 TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Tables/Illustrations .................................................................................................... iv ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................. v INTRODUCTION ..................................................................................................................... 1 THE PETROCHEMICAL INDUSTRY IN AN URBAN CONTEXT ......................................................... 1 A Quasi-Urban Environment ................................................................................................... 1 Research Purpose and Design ................................................................................................. 3 Results ..................................................................................................................................... 5 LITERATURE AT THE INTERSECTION OF PETROCHEMICAL INDUSTRIALIZATION ....................... 7 AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT .................................................................................................. 7 THE PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE COMPLEX & HOW IT INTERACTS WITH URBAN AREAS 8 Locational Factors of the Complex ......................................................................................... 8 Locational Factors within the Complex: the Lower Complex and the Corridor ..................... 8 HAZARDS ................................................................................................................................... 14 PLANNING ................................................................................................................................. 15 Local Planning ....................................................................................................................... 16 State-level Planning .............................................................................................................. 18 SYMPTOMS OF GROWTH .......................................................................................................... 20 METHODOLOGY .................................................................................................................. 23 CASE STUDY RESEARCH ............................................................................................................. 23 ii THE GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM DATABASE ............................................................ 23 The Shell Residential Property Database and Archive .......................................................... 24 The Norco Landuse Dataset .................................................................................................. 25 Federal Emergency Management Agency Digital Flood Insurance Rate Maps .................... 25 ANALYSIS ............................................................................................................................ 27 NORCO CASE STUDY.................................................................................................................. 29 History of Development in Norco ......................................................................................... 29 Spatial Calculations ............................................................................................................... 33 Elevation ............................................................................................................................... 36 Data Interpretation ............................................................................................................... 37 CONCLUSION ....................................................................................................................... 39 Future Research .................................................................................................................... 39 APPENDICES ........................................................................................................................ 42 APPENDIX A: LABRANCHE WETLAND HISTORICAL ANALYSIS ................................................... 42 APPENDIX B: THE SHELL RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY PURCHASES DATABASE .............................. 45 APPENDIX C: THE NORCO LAND USE DATASET ......................................................................... 48 BIBLIOGRAPHY .................................................................................................................... 49 PUBLICATIONS ........................................................................................................................... 49 MAPS ......................................................................................................................................... 52 DATA ......................................................................................................................................... 52 VITA………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..……….54 iii LIST OF TABLES/ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1: Base Flood Elevation in the St. Charles Parish Corridor ................................................ 27 Figure 2: Development along the St. Charles Parish Industrial Corridor ...................................... 27 Figure 3: Norco Land Uses ............................................................................................................ 29 Figure 4: The extown of Good Hope in St. Charles Parish. ........................................................... 31 Figure 5: Norco Properties Purchased by Shell............................................................................. 33 Figure 6: Base Flood Elevations within Norco's Boundary ........................................................... 36 Figure 7: LaBranche Wetlands Land Speculation ......................................................................... 42 Figure 8: LaBranche Speculative Developments & Base Flood Elevations ................................... 43 iv ABSTRACT This thesis explores the impact that the petrochemical industry has had on the built environment of Norco, St. Charles Parish, Louisiana. Previous scholars have suggested that heavy industry in Norco consumes a majority of the Mississippi River’s natural levee, which is the most elevated and flood resistant land in the town. In order to test these observations, the author of this thesis has collected parcel-level land use data in Norco to determine the flood hazard and topographical characteristics of these various land uses. Spatial calculations, run using Geographic Information System software, have determined that heavy industrial land uses in Norco consume a vast majority of the Mississippi River’s natural levee. KEY WORDS: PETROCEMICAL INDUSTRY, NORCO, ST. CHARLES PARISH, LOUISIANA, LAND USE, FLOOD HAZARDS v INTRODUCTION THE PETROCHEMICAL INDUSTRY IN AN URBAN CONTEXT A Quasi-Urban Environment Few sources reveal the sheer enormity of Southeast Louisiana’s oil industry as well as the online geographic database of the Louisiana Oil Spill Coordinator’s Office (LOSCO). The website maintains datasets of petroleum and gas infrastructure for the entire state. These data include primary infrastructure such as pipelines, extraction sites, injection wells, and abandoned barges and rigs, as well as public assets heavily utilized by the petroleum industry, such as heliports, highways, and shipping facilities. When I began my research on Louisiana’s “petrochemical industrial complex” (Hemmerling 2007), I included all available datasets of primary oil and gas infrastructure in a single Geographic Information System. I added to it Louisiana’s Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) data, available through the Environmental Protection Agency, which documents all polluting facilities in the state.1 The composite was a mess, scarcely comprehensible. The entire