“Why did you put 
  it in the Vietnamese
  American community
  where people don't    
  speak the language?  
  You think they can't  
  protest? You think
  they don't know the
  law or their rights?”

          Mimi Nguyen,
          Katrina FEMA Volunteer & Activist

More than three decades ago, Vietnamese refugees began to settle in Versailles, a community in eastern New Orleans.

When the Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005, Versailles residents rebuilt their neighborhood faster than other damaged neighborhoods in the city. Community leaders put together an ambitious redevelopment plan for Versailles, including its
own senior housing, a cultural center,
and an urban community farm
and market.

With all of these great plans moving forward, Versailles residents found themselves threatened by a new
toxic landfill slated to open just
two miles away without proper environmental studies conducted.

Forced out of Vietnam by the war
30 years ago, many residents felt their homes were being taken away from them once again.

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The aftermath

In August 2005, the storm surge created by Hurricane Katrina breached the levees of New Orleans and flooded 80 percent of the city. The lowest-lying areas were especially hard hit, with miles of devastation caused by wind and water. The Village de l’Est in East New Orleans, home to some 6,000 Vietnamese Americans, was one of the destroyed neighborhoods.

Commonly known as Versailles, this small area has perhaps the highest concentration of Vietnamese Americans in the U.S. today due to mass refugee relocation thirty years ago. While the storm devastated the Versailles neighborhood, it ultimately had the opposite effect on its residents.

The Vietnamese Americans were a quiet community, barely noticed outside of East New Orleans. Self-sufficient and industrious, they tended lush garden plots, ran a weekly farmer’s market, built homes, bought cars, and generally achieved the American dream. The center of their community was — and still is — Mary Queen of Vietnam Catholic Church, and its pastor and leader, Father Vien, who joined the congregation in 2003.

When Hurricane Katrina destroyed all that they had built, it was an emotionally wrenching time. When the flood waters covered their community and they were forced to evacuate, those who had once fled their country in boats now found themselves in boats again, looking for refuge.

GRASSROOTS IMPACT

A visit from environmental lawyer Joel Waltzer informed Father Vien that the Chef Menteur landfill would be a dumping ground not just for benign construction debris, but for any and all household
and building waste, including toxic materials.

“It’s essentially the guts of your house, all your personal possessions,”said Joel Waltzer, a lawyer representing landfill opponents. “Electronics, personal-care products, cleaning solutions, pesticides, fertilizers, bleach.” Normally, construction and demolition landfills are not required to have liners, since they are filled with dry, relatively benign waste. Katrina demolition waste is a different story:
it includes the remains of homes soaked for days
in toxic floodwater.

Versailles residents were outraged and staged demonstrations at City Hall and at the landfill site. After many civil invitations and non-violent protests, they still heard very little from the local government, and nothing from Mayor Nagin.

“Maybe we’re not the right kind of people he wanted to return,” Father Vien said.

When their actions failed to close the facility, the residents took their fight to the state legislature and the courts. In August of 2006, the community finally obtained a court order that shut down Chef Menteur.

National Network
& Policy-making

The Vietnamese American community of Versailles made a remarkable comeback. Today, 90 percent
of its residents have returned, and the Chef Menteur landfill remains closed. Residents of Versailles formed the grassroots organization Mary Queen
of Vietnam Community Development Corporation (MQVCDC) “to preserve and promote our unique diversity and improving the quality of life of residents in the Greater New Orleans area, beginning in New Orleans East.” In 2008, one of their own scored
an upset election victory to become the first Vietnamese American to serve in the U.S. House
of Representatives.