The Trump administration is planning to stop federal lawsuits against chemical manufacturers accused of releasing high levels of carcinogens from its Louisiana factory, according to two people familiar with the plan.
The government filed a lawsuit during the Biden administration after regulators determined that chloroprene emissions from Denka's performance elastomer plants contributed to health concerns in areas where cancer risk is most common everywhere in the United States.
The 2023 lawsuit was one of several enforcement measures taken by the Environmental Protection Agency on behalf of poor and minority communities, who are bearing the brunt of toxic pollution.
The Denka Factory is located in Laplace's largely black community, in an area with a very dense concentration of industrial facilities, and is known as the “cancer alley.” Chloroprene is used to produce neoprene, a synthetic rubber found in automotive parts, hoses, beer communities, orthopedic braces and electrical cables.
The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment. The agency plans to ask the Eastern District of Louisiana to dismiss the lawsuit this week, according to two people who spoke about the state of anonymity this week because they had no authority to publicly discuss the lawsuit.
The lawsuit gave neighboring communities a measure of hope that pollution levels could ultimately fall, said Robert Taylor, founder of the community group's Saint John Parish Citizen.
“The fact that they might drop this is extremely difficult for us,” said Taylor, who has fought pollution from the factory for over a decade. “We need to reorganize ourselves and activate ourselves and prepare ourselves for a very difficult struggle.”
In 2023, the EPA and the Department of Justice should be forced to cut its emissions by suing Denka, claiming that the plants “substantial and impending dangers to public health and welfare.”
In announcing the lawsuit, the EPA said it found that children under the age of 18 account for about 20% of the population living within two and a half miles of the Denka factory. More than 300 children attending elementary schools less than 500 feet from the Denka facility were exposed to chloroprene emissions, the agency said.
Children under the age of 16 are particularly vulnerable to mutagenic carcinogens such as chloroprene, the EPA has found.
An executive at Denka, a Japanese company that acquired the elastomer factory from DuPont in 2015, could not be reached for comment. Paul Nathanson, senior principal at Braiswell, a law firm representing Denka, declined to comment.
David Ullman, who led the EPA enforcement under the Biden administration, said he would dismiss the incident that “reveals the Trump administration stands fighting for polluters at the expense of communities that want to breathe clean air.”
The Biden administration made environmental justice – the idea that all communities should be protected from environmental harm – a priority. Michael S. Regan, the second black man to serve as EPA administrator, held a “Journey to Justice” tour in low-income communities in Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas in 2021, pushing for increased monitoring and enforcement of federal regulations on air and water quality. He promised “strong action” and was supported by the $60 billion provided by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act for Environmental Justice Programs.
The Trump administration is now eliminating government programs aimed at environmental justice, and last month the EPA deployed 168 employees working on administrative leave.
Trump has filled the top ranks of the EPA with former lobbyists and lawyers in the petroleum and chemical industries.
