- Denka Performance Elastomers, a Louisiana-based manufacturer of the synthetic rubber neoprene, has warned it will shut down operations if the Biden administration doesn’t give it more time to cut emissions.
- Federal officials have accused the plant of increasing cancer risks in nearby, predominantly black communities.
- This follows new emissions limits imposed by the Environmental Protection Agency on more than 200 industrial facilities. Denka claims its more hazardous facilities have a two-year deadline, but in fact they are subject to a much shorter 90-day deadline.
A synthetic rubber manufacturer accused of increasing cancer risks in a nearby predominantly Black Louisiana community told a federal appeals court it would have to close its plant “possibly permanently” if it is forced to meet the Biden administration’s emissions-reduction deadline.
Denka Performance Elastomers on Tuesday slammed new Environmental Protection Agency regulations targeting emissions from more than 200 industrial plants, arguing that the company is subject to an “illegal and politically motivated” 90-day deadline while other, more hazardous facilities face a two-year compliance deadline.
The Denka plant makes neoprene, used in making wetsuits, car belts and other products, and the company says it employs about 250 people. The plant is about a half-mile from an elementary school in Reserve, Louisiana, and is within the state’s 85-mile stretch officially known as the Mississippi River Chemical Corridor, colloquially known as “Cancer Alley.”
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The company is at the center of a broader fight over environmental regulation and racism, as well as the Biden administration’s promise to use its enforcement and regulatory powers to improve the lives of residents in poor and minority-dominated communities that are disproportionately affected by pollution.
“Without a waiver from the 90-day enforcement period, (Denka) would be unable to comply with the rules and would likely be forced to close its facilities permanently,” the company told the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C.
When the EPA initially proposed tougher emissions limits, Denka was subject to a longer deadline, but the EPA sued the company last year, alleging that the facility posed an “imminent and significant danger” to nearby communities, a determination the EPA said justified the shorter 90-day deadline in the final rule.
Fifth Ward Elementary School and a residential neighborhood near the Denka Performance Elastomers plant (background) in Reserve, Louisiana, on Sept. 23, 2022. Denka Performance Elastomers of Louisiana has threatened to close the plant if the Biden administration doesn’t give it more time to reduce emissions. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
“They need to shut down the plant,” said Sharon Lavigne, founder of the anti-nuclear group Rise St. James. “It contaminated the people of the Reserve.”
The new rules cover a range of emissions, including chloroprene, and will significantly reduce cancer risks, according to the EPA, which declined to comment on the lawsuit.
In its filing, the company is seeking an extension of the EPA’s 90-day deadline, which the EPA says it won’t consider until Denka develops an emissions-reduction plan. The company has significantly reduced its emissions in recent years and argues the government has exaggerated the risks of the chemical chloroprene released from the plant.
In 2022, environmental activists filed a civil rights complaint with the Environmental Protection Agency, alleging that Louisiana air regulators allowed new facilities to be built in areas where Black residents already endure severe pollution and did not do enough to strengthen oversight of dangerous facilities.
The EPA initially found evidence of racial discrimination but then dropped its investigation without reaching any concrete conclusions, and the agency said it was unable to extract any commitments from state regulators by a July deadline — disappointing to activists who had hoped the investigation would force change.
But EPA officials sued, arguing there were other ways to reduce emissions that posed unacceptable cancer risks. The EPA ultimately asked that the lawsuit be stayed until new emissions limits for industrial facilities go into effect.
“(Denka) has at least two years to plan, develop, test and install the controls required by this rule,” the company said in a court filing.
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To win, the company needs to prove that the EPA’s deadlines would cause “irreparable harm,” and it has used the threat of shutdowns to argue that the court needs to act quickly.
The company held talks with federal officials about an extension, but they demanded a commitment to reduce emissions that Denka refused to accept.
In a statement, the company thanked Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry and other state officials for their “unwavering support.” When Landry was attorney general, his office sued the EPA over a civil rights investigation, arguing that it exceeded its authority by targeting discrimination that allegedly harmed Black residents more, rather than focusing only on intentional discrimination. A federal judge gave the state an early victory in the case this year.
