Louisiana DEQ and EPA need to step up and do their part to be part of the solution.
Sulfur Dioxide and Particulate Matter concerns in St Bernard Parish
The State SIP for sulfur dioxide in St Bernard Parish should address and restrict all sources of sulfur dioxide emissions to lower ambient air levels so the human inhabitants can at least breathe. That level, at minimum, should be below the one-hour health limit of 75 parts per billion SO2. Louisiana & EPA have delayed a St Bernard Parish SIP for sulfur dioxide. Regulators continue to address an air operating permit at Rain CII Carbon Chalmette calcining. Even Senator Bill Cassidy got involved to delay enforcement. Efforts continue to focus on the challenges at Rain CII in meeting the public health standard. The challenges seem to vary as much as the plant's various operating scenarios and as noted in 2018 public comments: "On April 20 2018 the EPA published in the Federal Register [...] a notice to approve the February 2 2018 Rain AOC as a source specific SIP revision to make it permanent and federally enforceable. Rain considers this proposed rule to be extremely problematic since it simply cannot operate its facility subject to the AOC limits."
Meanwhile, lung health is at critical risk. A recent study by the University of Massachusetts Political Economy Research ranks neighboring Chalmette Elementary School as low as the Third National Percentile for air quality, and nearby Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr Pre-4 - 12th Grade Charter School for Science and Technology in Orleans Parish Lower 9th Ward in the 10th National Percentile for air quality.
Our children deserve better. Improvements to State SIPs would greatly improve air quality, public health outcomes, and quality of life, especially for residents who reside on the other side of the fence from the polluting plants.
According to research reporting at ProPublica, Chalmette Louisiana residents in the neighborhoods near the PBF Energy Chalmette refinery and the Rain Carbon CII Chalmette calciner have "an estimated excess lifetime cancer risk from industrial sources of about 1 in 17,000." "Over the five years ProPublica analyzed, the excess risk here has ranged from as low as 1 in 28,000 to as high as 1 in 12,000. In 2018, the risk was 1 in 12,000."
The Most Detailed Map of Cancer Causing Industrial Air Pollution in the U.S. by Al Shaw and Lylla Younes, additional reporting by Ava Kofman November 2 2021 Updated March 15 2022
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