When a town stands alone: Gloster vs. Drax

During the 2025 Environmental Justice Summit, residents from Gloster spoke candidly about the environmental impacts they face, the recent permit reversal, and how they’re organizing for the next phase of their fight

By Janilyah Khadaran

In Gloster, Mississippi – a town of just 2,000 – residents are fighting a battle that feels biblical in scale. Their opponent: Drax Group’s wood-pellet plant, a massive industrial operation planted squarely within the town’s two-mile radius. For years, its dust, noise, truck traffic, and air emissions have choked daily life.

Greater Greener Gloster, co-founded by local organizer Krystal Martin, has tracked what residents say are unusually high rates of cancer-like symptoms and respiratory illness – conditions they compare to Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley.” Many say the town has been treated as expendable in Mississippi’s industrial expansion.

Their fight hit a turning point on October 15, 2025, when the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality reversed course and granted Drax a new Title V permit, classifying the facility as a major source of hazardous air pollutants. The reversal wiped out an earlier victory from April and was seen locally as a devastating blow.

But Gloster didn’t fold. Within hours, residents filed three major lawsuits:

• Two federal lawsuits against Drax and its subsidiaries, accusing the company of unlawful pollution, Clean Air Act violations, and harming property values and residents’ ability to safely live in their homes.

• A third case in the U.K., where Drax workers allege the company exposed them to harmful wood-dust conditions without adequate protections.

Drax Biomass said it was aware of the lawsuit and while it could not comment on ongoing legal matters it would “strive to be a good neighbour in our communities and to support their wellbeing and prosperity.”

At the Environmental Justice Summit in Jackson this October, Martin described the uphill battle facing her town: “MDEQ seems to be worried only about keeping industries within regulations – not the health of Mississippians.” She also noted that both local and state officials, including Gloster’s mayor, have repeatedly dismissed community complaints, even as residents describe their town as living inside a “dust storm.”

Since the permit reversal, residents report worsening breathing issues, impaired visibility on the roads, and continuous truck congestion – conditions that some say make everyday life dangerous.

Gloster’s story reveals a larger truth: many of Mississippi’s small, predominantly Black and low-income communities are bearing the brunt of large-scale industrial projects with minimal protection from the state. Instead of tightening oversight, regulators have loosened it, deepening public distrust.

As the lawsuits advance, the situation underscores a critical statewide need: a Mississippi Environmental Resource Center. Such a center would give communities access to tools they currently struggle to obtain, including:

• Independent air-quality testing and public health assessments

• Legal and regulatory guidance

• Training on documenting environmental violations

• A statewide network connecting activists, scientists, legal experts, and policymakers

For Gloster, and towns just like it, a resource center would mean something simple yet transformative: the ability to fight back with the same scale of support that industries bring to the table.

Because in Mississippi, environmental justice shouldn’t rely on David defeating Goliath alone – especially when Goliath has the state on its side.