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| Photo Credit: AP. |
RESERVE, La. (AP) — Sprawling industrial complexes line the drive east along the Mississippi River to the majority-Black town of Reserve, Louisiana. In the last seven miles the road passes a massive, rust-colored aluminum-oxide refinery, then the Evonik chemical plant, then rows of white tanks at the Marathon oil refinery.
But it’s the
Denka chemical plant that is under scrutiny from federal officials. Less than a
half mile from an elementary school in Reserve, it makes synthetic rubber,
emitting chloroprene, listed as a carcinogen in California, and a likely one by
the Environmental Protection Agency.
Angelo
Bernard is a grandfather whose family has lived in Reserve for generations. His
three grandkids used to attend the school, Fifth Ward Elementary. Hurricane Ida
forced them to move.
“I’m glad
they’re away,” said Bernard. “I feel for the kids that have to go to school
that close to the plant.”
The
investigation is part of a push by the Biden administration to prioritize
environmental enforcement in communities overburdened by pollution. On
Saturday, that push ratcheted up a notch when EPA administrator Michael Regan
announced the creation of a new office at EPA focused on environmental justice.
“We are
embedding environmental justice and civil rights into the DNA of EPA,” Regan
said.
Regan
visited Reserve last year and said “we will do better.” Now the EPA is
investigating whether Louisiana regulators are discriminating against Black
residents by failing to control air pollution in parishes packed with
refineries and petrochemical plants, a region some call “cancer alley.”
To do it,
they are using an old tool in a new way. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of
1964 forbids anyone who receives federal funds from discriminating based on
race or national origin. It’s been used in housing and transportation, but
rarely on environmental matters.
The Biden
administration said that must change.
The U.S.
Department of Justice last fall opened its first-ever environmental Title VI
investigation into state and local officials in Alabama over chronic wastewater
problems in majority-Black Lowndes County. Another is looking into illegal
dumping in Houston. The EPA initiated its own investigation into Colorado’s air
program, also a first. Activists are taking notice and filing more complaints.
Experts say the EPA is addressing them more quickly than in the past.
Alexandra
Dapolito Dunn, an environment attorney at the law firm Baker Botts, said the
approach represents “a seismic shift.”
The EPA
accepted three complaints from activists to investigate Louisiana’s regulation
of air emissions. The agency could pull federal funds if they find a civil
rights violation, but local governments more commonly agree to make changes.
Bernard said
some nights he smells something like benzene when he steps out of his home in
Reserve. He is skeptical that the Title VI complaint will force Denka to cut
its emissions further – there’s too much money at stake.
“If this was
California, maybe they would shut it down. But this is Louisiana – no way,” he
said.
Agreements
typically have not directly attacked discriminatory policies — they’ve focused
on procedure. Activists hope that will change.
The Denka
plant’s emissions have gone down significantly in recent years, but EPA
monitoring found chloroprene levels higher than what activists say is safe.
A Denka
spokesperson said advocates were describing a crisis that “simply does not
exist.” The state said it has worked to help the company emit less, denying it was
taking too long to do more.
And as the
Biden administration takes credit for its environmental justice push, some say
it’s also working at cross purposes. The oil and gas industry that is
concentrated in Louisiana received a boost with the Inflation Reduction Act
signed into law this summer. It requires auctions of new offshore oil and gas
leases.
On Saturday,
Regan announced the creation of the Office of Environmental Justice and
External Civil Rights in the same spot where the environmental justice movement
started: Warren County, North Carolina, where hundreds were arrested in the
early 1980s protesting plans to dump hazardous waste in the predominantly Black
community.
“Creating
the separate office is a very visible step that puts a spotlight on these
issues and demonstrates how important they are to the administration,” Dunn
said.
About 30
miles upriver from Reserve is Welcome, a sparsely populated stretch of St.
James Parish. It’s an area of heavy industry and sugarcane fields. Many of its
mostly Black residents have deep local roots and family nearby.
The other
Louisiana community complaint accepted by the EPA concerns a local affiliate of
Formosa Plastics called FG LA. It plans to build a $9.4 billion petrochemical
complex in the area. The complaint says the Louisiana Department of
Environmental Quality is ignoring the threat that new industrial facilities
like Formosa’s pose to already polluted areas. It says too often residents,
especially Black residents, are left out of the permitting process.
In a recent
setback for Formosa’s plans, a Louisiana judge threw out the 14 air permits the
state issued for the complex, saying environmental justice issues were “at the
very heart of this case.”
Gloria
Johnson is 61, has lived in the area her whole life and said there are many
elderly and disabled residents who are vulnerable if a new industrial complex
makes the air quality worse.
“It’s too
close to the neighborhood,” she said, adding that she didn’t know about
Formosa’s plans until it felt like a done deal.
The company
said the complex would create 1,200 jobs, generate millions in taxes and fund
improvements in the community. It emphasized that local parish officials voted
to support the complex. Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards has said it would
continue the “tremendous industrial growth” that’s occurred along the
Mississippi River.
Louisiana
environmental regulators said they did not discriminate — companies want to
locate in the region because key infrastructure already exists here. Air
permitting decisions are based on well-established requirements and the public
is informed when major projects are being considered, the state told the EPA in
its response to the Formosa complaint.
Mary Hampton
lives in Reserve. She grew up during segregation. Her father helped her obtain
property so she could build and own her home. She didn’t want a job cleaning
kitchens or mopping floors.
“I wanted to
get a job where I could make money,” she said.
Eventually,
she became one of the first Black women to work at a nearby chemical plant,
walking in on her first day to a sea of white faces shocked by her presence.
But over
time she has come to worry about what was coming out of the Denka plant.
“My main
concern was that we had been smelling things for years and years and years and
we never even knew what we were living next to,” she said. Hampton is the
president of Concerned Citizens of St. John the Baptist Parish, which raised
civil rights concerns about the state’s handling of Denka.
She worries
about the health of her family and friends and is frustrated that the
environmental consequences fall on this community.
“We want EPA
to set rules,” Hampton said. “And stick to it.”