The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has launched a probe into whether Louisiana’s environmental and health agencies have violated federal law by allowing dangerous air pollution in the predominantly Black John the Baptist Parish.
The investigation into actions of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) and the Department of Health (LDH) centers around parish residents being subject to disproportionate air pollution and related health effects as a result of industrial projects located in what environmentalists have dubbed “Cancer Alley.”
The probe was mentioned in a recent letter from the EPA’s External Civil Rights Compliance Office (ECRCO) to the LDEQ secretary. Specifically mentioned are permit renewal applications for the Denka neoprene production facility in LaPlace as well as approvals for the planned Formosa Plastics complex.
Environmental groups, including the Concerned Citizens of St. John, the Sierra Club and Earthjustice, urged the EPA to investigate the state agencies’ actions, given that Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits such agencies from receiving federal funds if they engage in activities that subject people to racial bias.
“St. John the Baptist Parish is a majority Black parish, and, due to LDEQ’s and LDH’s failures, its residents face the highest cancer risk from air pollution in the nation,” one of the environmental groups’ complaints written earlier this year states.
The LDEQ’s press secretary, Greg Langley, said discussions with the EPA are now under way and that a resolution may be possible through some sort of arbitration.
“We do feel that our permit process is fair and equitable, and we think that we can work out this problem with the EPA,” Langley told the Louisiana Record.
The department doesn’t use terminology such as “Cancer Alley” when referring to industrial areas between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, he said. Though pollution emissions in the region may indicate elevated risks of health issues, data on cancer rates from the Louisiana Tumor Registry are a different story, according to Langley.
“We haven’t seen any evidence that the (cancer) rates there are the highest in Louisiana by any stretch of the imagination,” he said.
Even so, the LDEQ is working to lower air pollution risks throughout the state, Langley said.
In a prepared statement, Deena Tumeh, an Earthjustice attorney, said earlier this year that Black residents in St. John the Baptist Baptist merit the federal government’s help.
“EPA must protect the civil rights of St. John’s residents and ensure that federal funds are not used to discriminate on the basis of race,” Tumeh said.