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denka
Biden Admin Sues Petrochemical Giants Over Deadly Chemical Pollution in Cancer Alley
"This will have a tremendous impact on our struggle here," said one local activist. "Over the six years we have been fighting this fight we haven't had anything as great as this to happen in terms of getting concrete action on emissions."
Mar 01, 2023
The Biden administration on Tuesday sued two corporations behind a petrochemical plant in Louisiana, arguing that the facility poses "unacceptably high cancer risks" to the low-income and predominantly Black residents of nearby communities and demanding significant cuts in toxic pollution.
On behalf of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a complaint asserting that carcinogenic chloroprene emissions from Denka Performance Elastomer's neoprene manufacturing activities at the Pontchartrain Works Site in St. John the Baptist Parish "present an imminent and substantial endangerment to public health and welfare."
Under Section 303 of the Clean Air Act, the DOJ asked the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana to compel Denka, a Japanese company that purchased the plant from DuPont Specialty Products in 2015, to "immediately reduce its chloroprene emissions to levels that no longer cause or contribute to unacceptably high cancer risks within the communities surrounding the facility."
The White House's lawsuit stems from an emergency action petition that Earthjustice and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law submitted on behalf of Concerned Citizens of St. John, a local advocacy group.
Earthjustice attorney Deena Tumeh welcomed the Biden administration's intervention as "a long-awaited answer to the community's repeated calls for immediate action."
"EPA is finally treating this health crisis for what it is—an emergency," said Tumeh. "We hope this complaint will lead to a swift and significant reduction in chloroprene emissions."
"We are grateful that the EPA is finally taking the first steps to protect this community. For too long, St. John has been failed by every layer of government and we are now facing a dire health emergency and the highest cancer risk from air pollution in the nation as a result."
Denka makes neoprene, a synthetic rubber used to produce wetsuits, orthopedic braces, automotive belts, and other common goods, at the plant. Chloroprene, a chemical used to produce neoprene, is emitted into the air at the facility in LaPlace and travels to other towns in the parish, including Reserve and Edgard. Pontchartrain Works Site is the only place in the U.S. where the compound is emitted.
Average chloroprene concentrations in the air near the facility are up to 14 times higher than the levels recommended for a 70-year lifetime of exposure to the chemical, according to monitoring data cited in the complaint. More than 15,000 people live within two-and-a-half miles of the plant. Fifth Ward Elementary School is located a half-mile west and East St. John High School is about a mile-and-a-half north.
"In the aggregate, the thousands of people breathing this air are incurring a significantly higher cancer risk than would be typically allowed, and they are being exposed to a much greater cancer risk from Denka's air pollution than the majority of United States residents face," says the complaint. The risk "is especially grave for infants and children under the age of 16."
Noting that the DOJ's "environmental justice efforts require ensuring that every community, no matter its demographics, can breathe clean air and drink clean water," Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said in a statement that "our suit aims to stop Denka's dangerous pollution."
Robert Taylor, director of Concerned Citizens of St. John, said in a statement, "We are grateful that the EPA is finally taking the first steps to protect this community."
"For too long, St. John has been failed by every layer of government and we are now facing a dire health emergency and the highest cancer risk from air pollution in the nation as a result," said Taylor. "EPA must continue to advance environmental justice, as promised."
EPA Administrator Michael Regan reiterated the agency's commitment to doing so, describing Tuesday's move as an escalation in an ongoing fight launched after he spent five days visiting heavily polluted Gulf Coast communities in 2021.
\u201cBREAKING: @EPA has asked a federal court to compel Denka to immediately reduce chloroprene emissions from its chemical facility in St. John the Baptist, Louisiana. This is a needed win for an area with one of the highest cancer risks from toxic air pollution in the nation.\u201d— Earthjustice (@Earthjustice) 1677622332
"When I visited Saint John the Baptist Parish during my first Journey to Justice tour, I pledged to the community that EPA would take strong action to protect the health and safety of families from harmful chloroprene pollution from the Denka facility," Regan said in a statement. "This complaint filed against Denka delivers on that promise."
"The company has not moved far enough or fast enough to reduce emissions or ensure the safety of the surrounding community," said Regan. "This action is not the first step we have taken to reduce risks to the people living in St. John the Baptist Parish, and it will not be the last."
As The Associated Pressreported: "The complaint is the latest move by the Biden administration that targets pollution in an 85-mile stretch from New Orleans to Baton Rouge officially known as the Mississippi River Chemical Corridor, but more commonly called Cancer Alley. The region contains several hot spots where cancer risks are far above levels deemed acceptable by the EPA. The White House has prioritized environmental enforcement in communities overburdened by long-term pollution."
Last year, EPA concluded that Black residents of St. John the Baptist Parish are disproportionately harmed by toxic air pollution after Concerned Citizens of St. John and the Sierra Club accused the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and the Louisiana Department of Health of violating Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by failing to equally protect people of color. EPA is currently pursuing an agreement with the two state agencies, which have denied the allegations.
"This is a positive move in the right direction... This brings us hope. It's been a long time coming. We need action now for our children and want this to be put in place immediately."
Denka, which has lobbied the federal government for years in a bid to undermine peer-reviewed research revealing the cancer-causing properties of chloroprene, claimed Tuesday in a statement that it "is in compliance with its air permits and applicable law."
"EPA is taking an unprecedented step—deviating from its permitting and rulemaking authorities—to allege an 'emergency' based on outdated and erroneous science the agency released over 12 years ago," the Japanese petrochemical firm said.
Tuesday's lawsuit also names DuPont, which built the Pontchartrain Works Site in the 1960s and produced neoprene there for more than 50 years. The U.S.-based petrochemical giant still owns the land beneath the facility. As Denka's landlord, DuPont may need to provide "permission or cooperation to comply with the court's orders," says the complaint.
As The Guardianreported, "DuPont sold the plant to Denka in 2015 in a secretive deal, which The Guardianlater revealed was motivated by concerns from DuPont that it would face heavier regulation after the EPA's decision to classify chloroprene as a likely human carcinogen."
EPA is expected to propose a new rule for chloroprene emissions on March 31, according to Earthjustice, which said the agency has not updated the rule since it determined in 2010 that the compound is a likely carcinogen capable of causing irreversible damage to people's nervous, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, and immune systems.
Speaking to The Guardian about Tuesday's lawsuit, Taylor from Concerned Citizens of St. John said: "This will have a tremendous impact on our struggle here. Over the six years we have been fighting this fight we haven't had anything as great as this to happen in terms of getting concrete action on emissions."
"The state government has totally ignored us—marches on the capitol, rallying—they wouldn't even give us an audience," he added. "And for the administration to come in and do this, it just validates our efforts."
The group's president, Mary Hampton, echoed that sentiment.
"This is a positive move in the right direction," Hampton said in a statement. "This brings us hope. It's been a long time coming. We need action now for our children and want this to be put in place immediately."
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Heavily Polluted 'Cancer Alley' Community Asks EPA to Step In
"Louisiana has failed to protect fenceline communities, including St. John residents, from the harms of highly polluting facilities," said one local advocate.
Jan 20, 2022
A pair of local advocacy groups in St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana, submitted a civil rights complaint to the U.S. EPA on Thursday, accusing two state agencies of failing to protect residents of the low-income and predominantly Black jurisdiction from toxic air.
"We're asking the EPA to step in to protect our civil rights."
According to the complaint--filed by Earthjustice and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law on behalf of Concerned Citizens of St. John (CCSJ) and the Sierra Club--the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) and the Louisiana Department of Health (LDH) have violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits entities receiving federal financial assistance from engaging in activities that subject individuals to discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin.
LDEQ and LDH have violated that prohibition, the complaint says, because their regulatory failures have subjected residents of St. John the Baptist Parish, a majority Black parish, to disproportionate air pollution and related harms.
"Environmental injustice in St. John the Baptist Parish has created a public health emergency," Earthjustice attorney Deena Tumeh said in a statement. "This predominantly Black community suffers disproportionate exposure to toxic air pollution and, as a result, the highest cancer risk from air pollution in the nation. EPA must protect the civil rights of St. John's Black residents and ensure that federal funds are not used to discriminate on the basis of race."
Mary Hampton of CCSJ said that "we have tried to engage with state agencies and local officials to share our concerns about our communities' ongoing exposure to toxic air pollution and the extraordinarily high rates of cancer we experience. But we have been dismissed time and again."
"It is unacceptable that we've been ignored for so long," said Hampton, "and so now we're asking the EPA to step in to protect our civil rights, including to have equal protection from environmental harm, and to ensure that our right to breathe clean air is finally enforced."
Located in the heart of Cancer Alley--an 85-mile corridor between Baton Rouge and New Orleans that has long been dominated by the petrochemical industry--St. John the Baptist Parish is home to numerous factories that spew ethylene oxide, as well as the Denka Performance Elastomer neoprene production plant, a potent source of chloroprene.
The EPA inspector general called for stricter limits on chloroprene and ethylene oxide emissions in May after CCSJ submitted a petition to the federal agency for emergency action and rulemaking pursuant to the Clean Air Act.
But Denka--a Tokyo-based corporation that purchased the neoprene manufacturing complex from U.S. chemical giant DuPont in 2015--"says the EPA should reconsider its listing of chloroprene as a likely human carcinogen based on a company-sponsored study that concluded the chemical was much less cancer-causing than the EPA found," Nola.com reported last year.
Also in May, CCSJ took its fight against environmental injustice abroad, filing an emergency request for precautionary measures at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in an attempt to protect St. John residents from further harm.
The new civil rights complaint says that LDEQ has failed to: 1) review the permit renewal applications submitted by Denka and determine whether to renew or strengthen those permits; 2) conduct the public notice and comment process required by Louisiana and federal law for permit renewal applications; and 3) control hazardous air pollution from Denka and other sources as needed to protect St. John residents from disproportionate, adverse impacts.
LDH, meanwhile, has allegedly failed to: 1) provide the public with necessary information on the health threats of air pollution from Denka and nearby sources; and 2) make necessary recommendations to all relevant government agencies and communities on ways to reduce and prevent exposure to hazardous chemicals from these sources.
The complaint adds that both agencies have failed to fulfill the terms of an EPA grant awarded to determine if Denka's hazardous air pollutant emissions have caused higher instances of cancer in St. John the Baptist Parish.
EPA Administrator Michael Regan recently visited the parish during his "Journey to Justice" last fall.
\u201cA powerful visit with residents at St. John the Baptist Parish today. #JourneytoJustice\u201d— Michael Regan, U.S. EPA (@Michael Regan, U.S. EPA) 1637098340
Dorian Spence, director of the Special Litigation and Advocacy Project at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said Thursday that "it is beyond time for the EPA to step in to protect the residents of St. John the Baptist Parish from environmental racism."
"The Louisiana Department of Health and the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality have abandoned their duty to protect this majority Black community," Spence added. "Intervention from the EPA is critical to protect the health and wellness of the residents of St. John."
Jane Williams, chair of the Sierra Club's National Clean Air Team, echoed that message.
"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency must step in and protect the residents of St. John the Baptist Parish," said Williams. "Louisiana has failed to protect fenceline communities, including St. John residents, from the harms of highly polluting facilities. Now is the time to act."
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5-Day March Kicks Off for Environmental Justice in Louisiana's 'Cancer Alley'
"What we are seeing illustrated now is intentional genocide," says one march organizer about the regional pollution
May 31, 2019
Activists in southern Louisiana kicked off a five-day march on Thursday that aims to bring environmental justice to Cancer Alley--the 85-mile stretch between Baton Rouge and New Orleans that's home to poverty-stricken communities in the shadow of scores of petrochemical facilities.
The march was organized by the Coalition Against Death Alley (CADA), which formed earlier this year and began planning "non-violent protests to pressure industrial giants and governments to stop the ongoing poisoning of majority-black communities" in the region, also known as Louisiana's Petrochemical Corridor, which runs along the Mississippi River.
\u201cA new Louisiana coalition kicked off a 5-day march to protest decades of petrochemical pollution in what it calls "Death Alley." It's also suing state officials for the right to march across two Mississippi River bridges, setting the stage for a stand-off. @jsdart for @DeSmogBlog\u201d— DeSmog (@DeSmog) 1559260005
Marchers began Thursday morning in St. John the Baptist Parish at an elementary school near the Ponchartrain Works facility, which the American chemical giant DuPont sold to the Japanese company Denka in 2015.
A study released by the Environmental Protection Agency that same year determined that the plant--the only one in the United States that manufactures neoprene, synthetic rubber made from chloroprene--put nearby residents at the highest risk for developing cancer from airborne pollution of anywhere in the country.
\u201cSinging \u201cvictory is mine\u201d, 60+ marchers approach the #Denka chloroprene plant. Neighbors suffer from 800 TIMES the national cancer avg. With an elementary school only 1500\u2019 away, it\u2019s time to shut Denka down! #EndDeathAlley #MarchAgainstDeathAlley\u201d— Ethan Buckner (@Ethan Buckner) 1559228901
Denka reached an agreement with the state's environmental agency in 2017 to scale back the facility's high emissions of chloroprene, which the EPA classifies as "likely to be carcinogenic to humans." However, readings from last year show that the company has failed to reach its reduction targets, and activists are demanding bolder action for the sake of public health.
In an interview with The Guardian Thursday outside the elementary school by the facility, local activist Robert Taylor called for the plant to be shuttered.
"We are demanding not only the saving of our children at this school, we are demanding the salvation of this entire area," he said. "Up and down this river they are poisoning our communities with impunity. We have implored [the factory] to get down to at least what the EPA says is a safe level. They have refused to do that and based on that, they need to shut down."
CADA's broader demands, detailed on the coalition's website, are:
- No new petrochemical projects in the river parishes;
- Ban industrial emissions within five miles of public spaces;
- Either curb production at Denka to stay under the EPA-recommended limit for chloroprene emissions or shut Denka down;
- Shut down Mosaic and remove the toxic radioactive gypsum waste material that is posing a public health risk;
- Cover healthcare costs incurred by residents due to pollution exposure; and
- End the industrial tax exemption program.
The marchers took a detour from their planned route on Friday to attend a court hearing in Baton Rouge for a lawsuit filed earlier this week over state officials' refusal to grant activists permission to march across the Interstate 10 bridge in Baton Rouge and the Sunshine Bridge, which crosses the Mississippi River.
\u201cDay 2 of the #MarchAgainstDeathAlley begins in #BatonRouge! Marchers are picketing in front of the 19th Judicial District courthouse. This morning, a judge will rule whether or not the march can cross two highway bridges this weekend. #EndDeathAlley\u201d— Earthworks (@Earthworks) 1559313969
"We see the act of crossing these bridges as symbolic," Rev. Gregory Manning, one of the march's organizers, told The Louisiana Weekly earlier this week. "We want to bring attention to how this is an issue that impacts both sides of the river, and we also want to bring attention to specific plants like Denka Dupont, and the recently approved Formosa plastics plant in St. James."
The newspaper reported that in addition to signs, marchers planned to carry photos of loved ones lost to cancer and other illnesses that they believe were tied to regional pollution from the petrochemical industry.
"What we are seeing illustrated now is intentional genocide, and the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and the governor are very conscious of what is happening with the uncontrolled amounts of poison and toxins filling the air in this sacrificial zone, where the ancestors of those enslaved became sharecroppers and worked hard to purchase property, now worth pennies on the dollar," Manning added. "The government is complicit, and this behavior will not be tolerated any longer."
According to the LA Bucket Brigade, the judge was expected to rule on whether the marchers will be allowed to cross the bridges sometime Friday afternoon. Members of the coalition spoke outside the courthouse about the suit as well as the march, which is set to conclude at the steps of the Louisiana State Capitol on Monday.
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