The Dow Chemical plastics plan in Plaquemine was among the top sources of wastewater pollutants, according to an Environmental Integrity Project report. (Wes Muller/Louisiana Illuminator)
A new report from a government accountability group alleges the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency hasn’t regulated key pollutants in wastewater from plastics plants across the country – including 22 in Louisiana.
The Environmental Integrity Project, a nonprofit group that presses for stronger enforcement of environmental laws, found the facilities allow nitrogen, phosphorus and dioxins to seep into waterways such as the Mississippi River. All pose environmental and health risks, but they are legally allowed to be released because of outdated federal regulations.
The report analyzed the permits and records of 70 U.S. facilities that make plastics or the main chemical components in plastics. It cited a lack of oversight and failure to update industry operating permits as reasons why wastewater pollution takes place without repercussions.
“The current federal regulations are outdated and have left downstream communities vulnerable to harmful and poorly controlled pollution released by the plastics industry,” said Kira Dunham, research manager at the Environmental Integrity Project and lead author of the report, during a Nov. 14 online news conference.
The report also highlights the lack of accountability when even lax regulations are violated. Nearly 83% of all the plants examined in the report violated permitted pollution limits at least once from 2021 to 2023, according to self-reported company data in EPA records. Only 14% of these plants faced financial penalties.
James Hiatt, executive director of the environmental group For a Better Bayou, took part in the news conference and spoke on the state advisories not to eat fish and crabs caught from the Calcasieu River, where the Westlake Eagle US 2 Lake Charles plastics plant sends its wastewater.
“By consuming so much or any of this fish … you’re exposing yourselves to known industrial pollution that causes cancer and disease,” Hiatt said.
Five different plastics facilities send wastewater directly into the Calcasieu, according to data included in the report.
The report also says the river contains unsafe levels of known cancer-causing materials such as dioxins, and the Westlake Eagle plant on the Calcasieu released the third most dioxin compounds into water bodies of any U.S. facility in 2022, according to the most recent EPA data.
The Illuminator made multiple attempts to contact Westlake by phone and email with no response.
A regional spokesperson for the EPA said the agency was reviewing the report and would “respond appropriately.”
“It’s unacceptable that these plastics plants, profiting from our natural resources, are allowed to continue to release carcinogens like dioxins into our waterways,” Hiatt said.
The study goes on to cite how communities of color and low-income areas are disproportionately affected by these pollutants. One of the more acute areas highlighted is the west bank of Iberville Parish.
The majority of people living near the Dow Plaquemine plastics plant are people of color, and one-third are noted in the report as low-income. More than 75% of communities around the Shintech Plaquemine plant and the Westlake Chemical & Vinyls Plaquemine facility are made up of people of color, and almost half are from low-income households, according to figures from the report.
Dumping materials such as phosphorus, nitrogen, dioxins and other pollutants is allowed in Louisiana and across the country, but the EPA has an obligation under the Clean Water Act to update federal pollution control technology standards as new technology to prevent pollution advances, the reports authors said.
Updates to standards for organic chemicals the plastics industry produces haven’t happened since 1993, according to the Environmental Integrity Project.
“The federal regulations meant to cut wastewater pollution from the sector are outdated and incomplete, allowing companies to legally dump harmful pollution into our rivers, lakes and other water bodies,” Dunham said.
The Dow Plaquemine plant ranked as the top polluter in 2023 for total dissolved solids among the plastics plants studied. It released 2.8 billion pounds of materials, including chlorides and sulfates, which are dangerous to aquatic life and corrosive to plumbing.
The Dow plant also ranks second worst in the U.S. for nitrogen pollution, with 2 million pounds of total nitrogen dumped into the Mississippi River. It’s also the third worst for phosphorus. The EPA has neither nitrogen nor phosphorus dumping limits for this permit, legally allowing the Dow plant to release unlimited amounts of both into the river.
Dow did not respond to multiple attempts The Illuminator made to contact its media representatives by phone and email.
Nitrogen and phosphorus are among the main causes of “dead-zones,” areas of low or no oxygen found in bodies of water with too much nutrient pollution. Often found in fertilizers, nitrogen and phosphorus accelerate the growth of algal blooms, which deplete the water of oxygen and kill aquatic life.
The Gulf of Mexico has a dead-zone that appears past Louisiana’s coast seasonally with the flow of fertilizer runoff from upper basin states along the Mississippi River. In 2024, the Gulf dead zone grew much more than scientists predicted, The Lens reported, measuring in at an area about the size of New Jersey.
While plastics isn’t the only sector with outdated pollution regulation, the Environmental Integrity Project chose to focus on it because of the industry’s growth in recent years. Two dozen plastics plant expansions are underway in the United States, with 10 new plants proposed, Duggan said.
Hiatt called for action to come from the report’s release.
“We need to hold these polluters accountable, and make them clean up the damage they’ve caused,” Hiatt said.
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