A landmark federal lawsuit initiated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency alleging that a chemical facility in St. John the Baptist Parish threatens the surrounding community with unacceptable cancer risks could be dropped in the coming days, according to recent reports, a sign of sharp changes in environmental policy being undertaken by the Trump administration.

The move comes as a win for state leaders who claimed President Joe Biden’s focus on environmental justice in Louisiana needlessly targeted industry. But residents and community groups near the facility fear that abandoning the case will worsen an already dire public health situation.

Under Biden’s leadership, the EPA sued Denka Performance Elastomer in 2023 over emissions of the chemical chloroprene, a likely carcinogen. Denka’s facility in LaPlace is the nation’s largest emitter of the toxic chemical, which is released in the process of making neoprene, the synthetic rubber used in gloves, wetsuits and military equipment. The plant is the only source of neoprene in the United States.

The EPA had demanded that the company immediately reduce its chloroprene emissions. The New York Times first reported the plans to drop the lawsuit. 

The Denka plant has become a focus in the fight between environmental justice advocates, industry and politicians on either side, both in Louisiana and beyond. Gov. Jeff Landry, a steadfast Trump supporter, visited the plant last year in a show of support for the company and announced his administration’s legal challenge to what was then a new federal rule aimed at reducing cancer risks.

“The Biden administration was engaged in an unfounded and ill-advised coordinated attack on a single company that plays an essential role in the American supply chain,” said Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, a close ally of the governor. “I’m grateful the new administration is correcting course.”

Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality secretary Aurelia Giacometto similarly praised the move. 

“We are grateful for the EPA decision,” she said. “I am committed to advocating for Louisiana’s interests. By reevaluating regulations and litigation stances, we can unlock the potential of our resources, contributing to energy dominance of this administration while benefiting Louisiana and the American people.”

Denka said it could not comment on the still-pending litigation. The EPA directed questions to the U.S. Department of Justice, which did not respond.

Advocates in the heavily industrialized region along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans sharply opposed the decision, arguing that the government is putting the profits of a company over community wellbeing. 

“Just like our ancestors fought for their freedoms in Reconstruction and the Civil Rights eras, we will keep fighting for clean air, clean water, and clean soil so that we can live on the land our ancestors passed to us,” said Sharon Lavigne, founder of the advocacy group RISE St. James. 

Emission levels still exceed federal guidelines

The 2023 lawsuit was paused after the EPA adopted a new rule last year requiring a reduction of chloroprene limits. Denka challenged this ruling in federal court, arguing that the EPA used flawed studies to determine the chemical’s cancer risk and saying they would not be able to meet the 90-day deadline for reduced emissions.

The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality gave the company a two-year delay to meet the new federal limits. A federal court in New Orleans agreed to reopen the case, as other challenges to the EPA emissions guidelines continue to be litigated in federal court in Washington D.C.

The EPA contended that chloroprene emissions above 0.2 micrograms per cubic meter in areas outside the facility and 0.3 on the fence-line result in cancer risks greater than 1 in 10,000 people over a 70-year lifetime. Fence-line monitors over the past few years have shown emission levels much higher than the 0.3 figure. The most recent monitoring reports for January show average chloroprene emissions of 0.90 micrograms per cubic meter.

Denka also sits a couple hundred feet from an elementary school in its final semester of existence. The St. John school board voted to shut down the school amid a discrimination case over the young children’s exposure to the likely cancer-causing chemical, which can be even more dangerous for children. The majority Black school is in a U.S. census tract with the highest risk of cancer from air pollution in the country, according to an EPA report.

‘Dire from the start’

Robert Taylor, a founding member of community activist group Concerned Citizens of St. John, said the organization is entering “emergency mode” over the reports that the lawsuit may be dropped.

Taylor said that for years, the local and state government failed to support the predominantly Black residents who were raising alarm over the public health and environmental issues in their area. For Taylor, this began to change when Biden entered office and put environmental racism, in which communities of color are disproportionately impacted by pollution, in the national spotlight.

“Now, the situation has reverted back or gotten even worse because we’ve got a government here that’s so aggressive to the environment” and, Taylor alleged, unfair to the Black population in the region activists often refer to as “Cancer Alley.”

“Our situation was dire from the start.”

The leader of another advocacy organization in St. John, The Descendants Project, similarly said that environmental groups “are used to having a government that’s hostile towards us at the state level,” Joy Banner said, so facing hostility at the federal level is not much of a change.