Air Date: Week of March 21, 2025

The LaPlace, Louisiana chemical plant was built by Dupont in 1968 and sold to Denka about a decade ago. The Trump Justice Department has dismissed a Biden-era lawsuit alleging that the Denka operation posed unacceptable cancer risks and seeking emissions reductions of the cancer-causing chemical chloroprene. The site produces neoprene, a synthetic rubber that is found in products such as wetsuits and laptop sleeves. The company said it has spent $35 million on upgrades and that emissions are at a historic low. (Photo: Andrew J. Skerritt)

Under President Biden the Department of Justice and EPA sued petrochemical manufacturer Denka, alleging that its Reserve, Louisiana plant posed unacceptable cancer risks. But the Trump administration abruptly dropped the case just weeks before the scheduled start of a trial. Living on Earth Producer Andrew Skerritt visited Reserve to speak to community activists who are being impacted by this decision, and he shares their testimony with Host Paloma Beltran.

Transcript

BELTRAN: The Trump Administration’s dismissal of environmental justice is having a big impact on people in “Cancer Alley.” That’s the stretch of the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans with a high concentration of petrochemical plants. One of those plants is Denka Performance Elastomer and produces neoprene, a synthetic rubber that is found in products such as wetsuits and laptop sleeves. The manufacturing involves the release of a cancer-causing chemical called chloroprene. And residents of Reserve, Louisiana, the predominantly Black community near the plant, have long voiced concerns about breathing issues among children and high adult cancer rates. In 2023 under President Biden, the Department of Justice on behalf of the EPA sued Denka, alleging that the plant posed unacceptable cancer risks. But the Trump administration abruptly dropped the case just weeks before the scheduled start of a trial. Days after the DOJ announcement, our Living on Earth colleague Andrew Skerritt visited Reserve to speak to community activists who are being impacted by this decision, and he joins us now. Hi Andrew, how are you?

SKERRITT: I’m doing well, Paloma.

BELTRAN: So how are activists responding to President Trump's decision?

SKERRIT: You know, I talked to Robert Taylor, founder of Concerned Citizens of Saint John, one of the groups campaigning for the plant to lower its toxic emissions. His group wasn’t part of the lawsuit, but he was still reeling from the DOJ’s announcement.

TAYLOR: Well, I was astounded by, you know, I'm still recovering, I'm still trying to figure that out. I'm still trying to figure out that, what that means, that means that this government has abandoned us, or either has joined the attack on us here to further enforce the reality of a sacrifice zone that these people here, me, my people, our people are being sacrificed.

SKERRITT: Robert was born in Saint John the Baptist Parish within walking distance of where the plant now sits. He married his high school sweetheart five years before the plant was built, in 1968. And they’ve lived in their Reserve neighborhood for more than 60 years.

BELTRAN: So how has this plant in such close proximity to Robert’s home impacted his life?

SKERRITT: Robert was an electrician and later a general contractor. He mostly worked 30-40 miles away in New Orleans and other communities. He was aware of the prevalence of cancer and other serious illnesses among his relatives and neighbors, but the reality of the plant’s emissions didn’t really sink in. That was until he returned home one evening in 2016 to find his wife, Zenobia, in distress.

TAYLOR: Yeah, I came home one night from work, and my wife was I thought she was dying. I immediately called 911, so I'm asking her, what happened? She said, that plant, she said, a wind changed, and it's now blowing, she said, and it's been blowing this way for a week, and that stuff just made me sick. I couldn't, I couldn't stand it anymore, so we rushed her to the hospital. She survived that. But during the process of this, I called 911, and they showed up. And when the fire chief finally arrived, and he jumped out of his car, and he stopped in his tracks, and he looked around, he said, my God, how can they expect y'all to live like this, you know?

SKERRITT: Robert said the fire chief was reacting to the prominent chemical smell in the air. His wife Zenobia waged a long battle with breast cancer and other illnesses before she died last December. And his youngest daughter, Raven, suffers from a rare auto-immune disease. All of which he believes is a result of their lifelong exposure to the chemicals being released from the plant next door.

BELTRAN: Oh wow that’s awful. You know, I’ve actually been to this petrochemical belt in Louisiana and there’s definitely a strong smell.

SKERRITT: Yeah and you know Paloma, the Denka plant was built just a quarter mile away from the overwhelmingly Black Fifth Ward Elementary School. Robert worries for the students.

TAYLOR: And to have that thing in that close to proximity to this community as a whole, you know the idea of children being exposed at these outrageous levels, all science shows that the children are far more vulnerable than an adult. If that’s the case with these children, their life's going to be cut short.

SKERRITT: After years of pressure from activists, the local school board finally voted to close Fifth Ward Elementary. This fall students will be reassigned to schools east of the plant to reduce their daily exposure to Denka’s chemical emissions. Deena Tumeh is a senior lawyer at Earthjustice who’s working with Robert Taylor’s group. She said the threat posed by Denka’s emissions is real.

TUMEH: They are dangerous. The facts on the ground for this case are really strong. St. John faces some of the highest cancer risk from toxic air pollution in the nation. And when EPA brought this enforcement case, it concluded that a child born near Denka would accumulate double his or her lifetime cancer risk from chloroprene alone by the age of two. So this lawsuit wasn't about hypothetical harm. It wasn't about marginal harm. It was about stopping ongoing and very dangerous pollution.

BELTRAN: Well, and even though this one school is being closed, people like Robert Taylor still live right by the plant. So given the threat posed by Denka’s emissions, what reasoning did the Department of Justice give for dismissing the case?

SKERRIT: DOJ officials said they are fulfilling President Trump’s executive order called, “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing.” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said this move is a step toward ensuring that environmental enforcement is consistent with the law. He added that while EPA’s core mission includes securing clean air for all Americans, the agency can fulfill that mission within well-established legal frameworks. He also said the EPA doesn’t need to stretch the bounds of the law or improperly implement “so-called environmental justice.” But Deena Tumeh is just not impressed. She said the EPA is putting politics and corporate profits ahead of people.

TUMEH: So the Trump EPA’s decision to drop this enforcement case leaves the St. John community without sufficient federal protection, and it leaves them at the mercy of industry, right? It allows these corporate emissions to continue harming people who've already been breathing it for years. And this decision also signals, it'll say to industry, that environmental harms will go unchecked, right? If a company can release toxic chemicals at harmful levels with little consequence, other polluters will follow suit. The Trump EPA claims to care about Americans’ rights to clean air, but if it did, it wouldn't be dropping an enforcement case like this one where pollution is at its worst, right? The reality is that communities like St. John need more protection from the federal government, not less.

BELTRAN: So what options do fence line residents like those in Saint John have when it comes to calling for protections from toxic emissions like those from the Denka plant?

SKERRITT: Deena said these communities will have to keep fighting and that they’ll have to look for help closer to home.

TUMEH: So dropping this enforcement case tells other cancer alley communities and other communities across the country facing severe toxic air pollution that they can't rely on the federal government to enforce federal law, and with the federal government stepping back, these communities will have to rely on state enforcement, local advocacy, and lawsuits that they bring to hold polluters accountable. Community advocates will also need to keep pushing the EPA and the DOJ to strengthen protections and public attention and media coverage will also help compel action from the government.

BELTRAN: You know, Andrew, where do Robert Taylor and the Concerned Citizens of St. John go from here?

SKERRITT: You know, Robert is 84 years old, but he’s determined to keep fighting for the health of his community. And the world is paying attention.

BELTRAN: Thanks, Andrew.

SKERRIT: Thank you, Paloma.

BELTRAN: That’s Living on Earth’s Producer Andrew Skerritt.

On March 7, Denka released a statement which says in part, “no emergency can exist when the facility’s emissions are at a historical low as a result of Denka’s investment of more than $35 million and the innovation of its workforce. The company remains committed to implementing the emissions reductions achieved as we turn the page from this relentless and draining attack on our business.” To read the full statement visit the Living on Earth website at loe.org.

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STATEMENT FROM DENKA PERFORMANCE ELASTOMER (DPE) ON DISMISSAL OF EPA LAWSUIT:

EPA and DPE reached an agreement for EPA to dismiss the agency’s “imminent and substantial endangerment” case against our company, marking a long-overdue and appropriate end to a case lacking scientific and legal merit from the start.

No “emergency” can exist when the facility’s emissions are at an historical low as a result of DPE’s investment (more than $35 million) and the innovation of its workforce. Scientifically, the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) review program was misused to dramatically exaggerate the cancer risk of chloroprene with a series of overly conservative assumptions stacked on top of 20-year-old data. As a result, the actual potential health risk was not properly communicated to the community, the established process for risk assessment was disregarded, and the Louisiana Tumor Registry (LTR) was ignored. The LTR shows that cancer incidence rates in our community are in the lowest quartile in the state. The focus should be on the real-world data that shows no adverse health effects, even at substantially higher emission levels.

DPE remains committed to implementing the emissions reductions achieved as we turn the page from this relentless and draining attack on our business. We are also committed to working with the EPA to develop a sensible replacement for the Section 112 emissions standards for neoprene production.

We thank the Trump Administration and are grateful for the unwavering support of Governor Jeff Landry, Louisiana’s other elected leaders, and DPE’s dedicated workforce during this challenging period.

 

Links

AP | “Justice Dept. Says Ending Louisiana Petrochemical Case Helps ‘Dismantle Radical DEI Programs’”

U.S. Department of Justice | “Justice Department Dismisses Suit Against Suit Against Denka, Delivering President Trump’s Mandate to End Radical DEI Program”

Environmental Integrity Project | “Trump Dropping Clean Air Act Enforcement Case in Louisiana “Raises Alarm Bells”

MSNBC | “Cancer Alley Residents Fight for Public Health After Trump Drops Biden Era Pollution Lawsuit”