Cattle graze in a pasture next to the Denka Performance Elastomer facility in LaPlace, where U.S. Environmental Protection Agency leader Michael Regan announced proposed regulations Thursday, April 6, 2023, for toxic air emissions. The federal government has sued Denka for failing to reduce levels of chloroprene, a known carcinogen, coming from the plant. (Greg LaRose/Louisiana Illuminator)
A LaPlace facility Gov. Jeff Landry has accused a federal agency of trying to shut down reported the leak of a cancer-causing chemical late last month that forced it to temporarily halt operations, according to state officials.
A spill of chloroprene occurred Sept. 25 at the Denka Performance Elastomer plant in St. John the Baptist Parish, the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality said in a news release Tuesday. An estimated 645 pounds of the compound, used to make the synthetic rubber neoprene, were released into the atmosphere, Denka said in its notification to LDEQ.
The leak was attributed to a “mis-valve” and lasted for approximately 14 minutes. Suppression foam and plastic sheeting were applied to the spill to minimize the release of chloroprene into the air, according to the company.
According to Denka, the chloroprene spill happened around 4 p.m. Sept. 25. A company representative notified an emergency response official with St. John the Baptist Parish around 45 minutes later. Louisiana State Police were told about the spill just after 5 p.m., according to a notice from Denka that LDEQ has made public. Read below.
Denka contained the spilled material in an area “sump and retention pit, preventing any contact with the nearby ground or groundwater,” the company said. Its continuous air monitoring system was in use during the incident, and detectors around the pit measured emissions levels to ensure mitigation measures were effective.
LDEQ’s Emergency Response Team performed community air monitoring for volatile organic compounds, and the agency reported no foul odor was detected or noted along the Denka fence line of DPE. Fenceline monitoring has continued since the spill was cleaned up later that day, according to state officials.
Denka told LDEQ that the valve mishap that led to the chloroprene leak is preventable, and the company will update its training to reduce chances of a similar occurrence in the future.
The Environmental Protection Agency has identified five Census tracts in the LaPlace area as having the highest exposure to chloroprene in the nation — all attributed to the Denka plant.
In February 2023, the EPA and U.S. Justice Department filed suit against the company, alleging its neoprene operations “present an imminent and substantial endangerment to public health and welfare” for the cancer risks its chloroprene emissions pose.
The government agencies demanded Denka reduce emissions of chloroprene and ethylene oxide, another carcinogen at its LaPlace plant. Its location in the heart of Louisiana’s so-called “Cancer Alley” industrial corridor led the EPA to give Denka 90 days to bring down its toxic emission levels, compared with two years for facilities in other parts of the country.
From right, Gov. Jeff Landry, Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality Secretary Auriella Giacometto and state Sen. Greg Miller hold a press conference on July 1, 2024, at the Denka neoprene plant in LaPlace, La., to speak against a new EPA rule they say is unfair to the company. (Photo credit: Wes Muller/Louisiana Illuminator)
In early July, the governor, LDEQ Secretary Aurelia Skipworth Giacometto and Attorney General Liz Murrill held a news conference at Denka where they accused the Biden administration of targeting a single company.
The month before, a federal court in Washington, D.C., ruled against Denka’s request to stall the EPA’s 90-day rule, which took effect July 15.
“No other facilities in the United States were granted such a short window,” Landry said at the news conference. “All the other ones were granted a two-year extension, and yet this facility was singled out for a 90-day extension.”
Giacometto said Denka had already lowered its chloroprene emissions “dramatically,” insisting that the EPA’s claims were alarmist.
Officials with LDEQ and St. John Parish have yet to respond to the Illuminator’s questions about what, if any, public notification took place after the Sept. 25 spill. The state agency’s news release Friday came a day after it received Denka’s post-incident report, dated Oct. 2.
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