HJNO Mar/Apr 2020

POLLUTER’S PARADISE 24 MAR / APR 2020 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF NEW ORLEANS   smog created by petrochemical produc- tion. As a national environmental movement took root, Congress passed the CleanAirAct. A1990 amendment required major polluters to reduce their toxic emissions. Using the EPA model, we calculated the estimated spread of toxic chemicals in Lou- isiana’s air in the last three decades. Over that time, the state’s 50 most polluted cen- sus block groups had improved by an esti- mated 75%. (A block group is an area of varying size that typically has fewer than 3,000 people.) But in the nation’s most pol- luted block groups, the median improve- ment rate was 94%, putting Louisiana among the 10 least-improved states. The analysis also found that Louisiana’s share of the most heavily polluted block groups in the country increased from 3% to 7% over that period. The backsliding may be a direct result of how Louisiana regulates industry. Follow- ing the passage of the Clean Air Act, many states developed their own rules to increase oversight of major polluters. And while the Louisiana DEQ calls its set of guidelines one of the nation’s most stringent, many other states have far stiffer standards. “Louisiana’s program lacks the specificity and actual monitoring that is found in other state programs,”wrote Victor Flatt, an envi- ronmental law professor at the University of Houston, in a 2007 paper comparing air toxics programs in different states. The paper stresses the importance of regular air monitoring of toxic pollutants, as Texas and Massachusetts do, to ensure emissions data provided by chemical com- panies is accurate. Flatt also pointed out that some states like Connecticut and NewYork regulate all sources of toxic pollution, not just major plants. Louisiana, instead, opts to monitor only major polluters, and in most cases it takes companies at their word on emissions. Bryan Johnston, an air permits admin- istrator at the DEQ, defended Louisiana’s methods. “There’s a perception that these [per- mits] are rubber-stamped, represented as “Johnston explained that getting permits in some areas of the state is difficult because — owing to existing emissions — companies cannot demonstrate that nearby air quality will meet national standards. Even so, more than a dozen chemical plants are being built and expanded in the already-busy river corridor.”