EPA proposal takes on health risks near US chemical plants

WASHINGTON

In what could prove a significant move for communities facing air pollution, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed on April 6 that chemical plants nationwide measure certain hazardous compounds that cross beyond their property lines and reduce them when they are too high.

The proposed rules would reduce cancer risk and other exposure for communities that live close to harmful emitters, the EPA said. The data would be made public and the results would force companies to fix problems that increase emissions.

“This is probably the most significant rule I’m experiencing in my 30 years of working in cancer alley,” said Beverly Wright, executive director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice and a member of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council. She referred to an area dense with petrochemical development along the Gulf Coast.

In the past, Wright said, even when emissions caused harm, residents weren’t able to sue and reduce the threat.

The proposed measure is also intended to address short-term emissions spikes when plants start up, shut down and malfunction. If the proposal is finalized, it would impact roughly 200 chemical plants, the agency said.

Fence-line monitoring has long been a priority of the environmental justice movement and a number of refinery communities have won it in recent years. This measure would extend some of those changes nationwide.

EPA Administrator Michael Regan announced the plan in St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana. It is home to the Denka chemical plant, which makes synthetic rubber and emits chloroprene, listed as a carcinogen in California. Denka is less than a half-mile from an elementary school and has been targeted by federal officials for allegedly increasing the cancer risk for the nearby, majority-Black community.

“For generations, our most vulnerable communities have unjustly borne the burden of breathing unsafe, polluted air,” Regan said.

Data show the plant has drastically reduced its emissions over time and it already conducts fence-line monitoring.

A statement provided by Denka Performance Elastomer said that the cancer risk of chloroprene has been overstated and that it has pushed the EPA to reevaluate its risk assessment.