Louisiana 47th in enviormental quality

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've never understood why Louisianians tend to fall on the anti-regulatory side on issues related to the environment, given industry's destruction of the Gulf and the generally terrible air quality in south LA.

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The risk of cancer in Reserve, a community founded by freed slaves, is 800 times the national average

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The chemical industry is a major employer and taxpayer in Louisiana, providing 27,000 direct jobs, and, based on its trade association's estimates, another 150,000 indirect jobs. The association also regularly points to the progress its members have made through years in reducing emissions and emphasizing worker safety.

Mount Triumph Baptist Church is on the west bank River Road just down from Mosaic's Faustina fertilizer complex and the American Styrenics plant, as well as oil storage tank farms. Farther downriver, Yuhuang Chemical is planning a $1.85 billion methanol plant, while other major plants are being discussed and the Bayou Bridge Pipeline is proposed to have its terminus in the area.

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Marylee Orr, executive director of the Louisiana Environmental Action Network, delivered a presentation on the group's efforts to lower emissions of likely carcinogen chloroprene from the Denka plant in Reserve and detailed pollution levels based on the latest federal reporting data.

Based on that data, LEAN's analysis concludes that the amount of carcinogens released in St. James in 2014 was greater than what 96 percent of the counties and parishes in the nation had received.

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In a later interview, Brown said he will help push for an emergency exit route that many St. James Parish residents have asked for on the west bank, which has been heavily promoted for years as a site for industry.

In St. John, he said, the Denka plant is installing control equipment that will significantly reduce emissions of chloroprene by the end of year, though he disputed that the ambient air standard that LEAN wants to see is necessary for public health.

During the presentation with Booker, people gave testimonials about cancer and other illnesses in their communities that they claim were caused by chemical emissions. The EPA recently estimated the cancer risk in the census tract around the Denka plant is 802 times higher than the national average, though the agency has resisted specifically linking the risk to chloroprene.

Brown said later that other public health data show the incidence of cancer in St. John is no higher than anywhere else in state and, according to the Louisiana Tumor Registry, the cancer rate for black females in St. John is actually lower.

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