NEW ORLEANS (AP), Louisiana’s Environmental Protection Agency is investigating whether there was discrimination against Black residents due to air pollution.Between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, there are both existing and proposed facilities.
Lilian Dorka (Director of EPA’s Civil Rights Compliance Office) recently notified environmental groups as well as the state about the investigation into Louisiana’s departments of Health and Environmental Quality.
It involves two complaints. Both claim that the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality has not paid enough attention to environmental justice.One can also accuse the state Department of Health.
These complaints relate to at least seven plants that are currently in operation and two planned large-scale projects in two parishes within the industrial corridor connecting Louisiana’s largest cities.
Both are in the works for a $9.4billion Formosa Plastics facility.St. James Parish, and a $400 million grain terminalIn St. John the Baptist Parish. The Denka Performance Elastomers Plant is one example of an existing plant.which the Japanese company purchased 2015 in St. John.
Gregory Langley, press secretary at the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, stated that officials of the agency’s permit process are impartial. Told The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate.He said that LDEQ deals with all issues in a fair and equitable manner. EPA will be working with LDEQ to resolve this matter.
Steven Russo was the general counsel of the Louisiana Department of Health. We have received the entire complaint from EPA and we are looking into it carefully.
Administrator Michael Regan announced in January that EPA would surprise inspect industrial sitesAir and water pollution are suspected to cause health problems.
Environmental groups refer to the southeast Louisiana industrial corridor as Cancer Alley.
Nearly all census tracts between Baton Rouge & New Orleans have… a higher cancer risk from air toxics than at minimum 95% of U.S. residents, according to a Tulane Environmental Law Clinic complaint against the environmental department.
Professor Lisa Jordan, director of law clinics, stated in an email to The Associated Press that the department must establish policies and procedures to address and prevent the disproportionate burden on air pollution suffered by Black communities.
The complaint alleges that air emissions permits approved for the chemical complex and grain terminal are part of a trend dating back at most to 2016 and involving permits at least six existing plants.
The clinic represents several groups that oppose plans to build a grain terminal. They claim it will release fine particle pollution.
Cal Williams, Greenfield’s Chief Executive Officer, stated to the newspaper Friday that terminals’ emissions would be below the EPA’s strictest air quality standards.
Earthjustice, along with the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law have filed a complaint to both state departments. They claim that Denkas continues to release chloroprene and that other nearby plants are emitting cancer-causing ethylene dioxide.
According to the complaint filed by the Concerned Citizens of St. John (Sierra Club) the health department failed to provide information to predominantly Black residents of St. John about health risks from Denkas emissions.
They also complain that the Sunshine Project complex near Donaldsonville, planned by Formosa Plastics Group member FG LA LLC, would release particulate matter and volatile carbon monoxide.
Sunshine Project has been approved by state and parish bodies. It relied on sound science and met all regulatory criteria. Janile Parks, spokesperson for the AP, stated that it was thoroughly vetted.
Jim Harris, Denka spokesperson, said that the state tumor registry data do not show an increase in cancer rates in St. John the Baptist Parish.
He stated that state agencies are more interested in real science than sensational pseudo-studies to the newspaper.
According to a 2014 National Air Toxics Assessment conducted by the EPA in 2014, the individual lifetime risk of cancer from both chloroprene or ethylene oxide was at the rate 2,000 cases per 1,000,000 people. This rate is the highest near the Denka plant.
Since Denkas agreed to install new equipment, chloroprene levels have fallen dramatically. However, levels at several monitoring sites in the area have been well above the EPA’s cancer risk level of 0.2 micrograms/cubic meter for the past year.
Denka asked EPA to reconsider listing chloroprene in the list of human carcinogens likely to be caused by it based on a peer-reviewed study sponsored by the company.
Dorka stated that her office will investigate whether DEQ’s air pollution control program is designed to discriminate against individuals and look into the state’s handling of Denkas permits.
She also wrote that it will examine whether the health agency has provided information about health risks from Denka and other nearby sources.