Highest Ranking Parishes and Industrial Facilities in Louisiana for Chronic Human Health Risk Based on the Environmental Protection Agency Risk Screening Environmental Indicators (RSEI) Database

The Environmental Protection Agency developed the Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators (RSEI) Model (EPA/RSEI Home Page) as a computer screening tool to analyze factors that may result in chronic human health risks. The model was also developed to facilitate priority setting, trend analysis, and ranking of regions, states, counties, industries, chemicals, and/or facilities. The model highlights situations that may lead to potential chronic human health risks.

• Releases of toxic chemicals into the air as reported by facilities in the 2005 Toxic Release Inventory
• Locations of the releases
• Toxicity of the chemicals
• The fate and transport of the chemicals through the environment
• Routes and extent of human exposure
• Size of exposed population/number of people affected

The Environmental Protection Agency states that RSEI risk scores can be used to:

• examine trends
• rank and prioritize chemicals and industry sectors for strategic planning
• support community-based projects

The RSEI database assesses relative hazards and risk. It does not produce a detailed or quantitative risk assessment.

Louisiana RSEI Rankings

The ranking of Louisiana parishes and industrial facilities based on the RSEI database were evaluated and compiled. Data from a total of 2,265 counties (parishes) were examined and ranked on the RSEI database. The highest ranking parishes in the state of Louisiana are listed in the table below.

East Baton Rouge Parish, where the state capitol of Louisiana is located, ranks as the highest human health risk of all parishes in the state of Louisiana due to air emissions from industrial facilities. East Baton Rouge Parish ranks as the 24th highest risk county in the United States. Cook County in Illinois which is home to the city of Chicago is the highest health risk ranked county in the United States.

The second highest ranking parish, St. Charles, is located along the Mississippi River industrial corridor down river from Baton Rouge. The third highest ranking parish, Calcasieu, is situated in the southwestern corner of the state of Louisiana and consists of a large industrial petrochemical complex located around the Calcasieu Estuary and along the Calcasieu Ship Channel.

The parishes in the state of Louisiana with the highest risk to human health rankings are along the Mississippi River industrial corridor from Baton Rouge to the mouth the Mississippi River, in the southwest and northwest corners and northeast area of Louisiana and in central Louisiana. These high human health risk ranked areas are the areas of heaviest industrial facilities in the state of Louisiana.

The highest ranking industrial facilities associated with the highest chronic human health risk in the state of Louisiana, based on the RSEI database are presented in the following table.

Exxon Mobile Refining and Exxon Chemical Plant in Baton Rouge were the number one and three industrial facilities with the highest chronic human health risk ranking in the state of Louisiana. The Chalmette Refining facility in Chalmette, also operated by Exxon Mobil, had the second highest chronic human health risk ranking in the state of Louisiana. The RSEI database was based on the 2005 Toxic Release Inventory toxic chemicals released into the air. Evaluation of the 2006 and 2005 data for the three highest industrial facilities human health risk rankings in the state of Louisiana indicated the following:

The Exxon Mobile Refining air emissions decreased from 954,802 pounds in 2005 to 893,796 pounds in 2006. This is a 6.4 % reduction from 2005 to 2006. This reduction in air emissions will probably result in the Exxon Mobile Refining facility maintaining its number one risk ranking in the state of Louisiana based on 2006 data.

The Exxon Chemical Baton Rouge Chemical Plant air emissions decreased from 1,771,431 pounds in 2005 to 1,507,062 pounds in 2006. This reduction in air emissions was a 15 % reduction from 2005 to 2006. This reduction will probably not move the Exxon Chemical Plant out of third place in chronic human health risk in the state of Louisiana based on 2006 data.

The Chalmette Refining, also operated by Exxon Mobile, had a decrease in air emissions from 944,107 pounds in 2005 to 841,295 pounds in 2006. This reduction in air emissions was an 11 % decrease from 2005 to 2006. This reduction should not move the Chalmette Refining facility out of second place in chronic human health risks in the state of Louisiana based on 2006 data.

The fourth and fifth highest facilities with risk to chronic human health impacts demonstrated increases in air emissions from 2005 to 2006. The Dupont Performance Elastomers facility in Laplace increased in air emissions from 363,605 pounds in 2005 to 400,877 pounds in 2006. This was a 10.3 % increase in air emissions from 2005 to 2006. The CII Carbon facility in Sulfur increased air emissions from 255,881.8 pounds in 2005 to 306,882.5 pounds in 2006. This was a 20 % increase in air emissions from 2005 to 2006. Both of these facilities will probably increase their national ranks while retaining their state of Louisiana rankings when the 2006 RSEI database is developed.

The industrial facilities with the highest risk of chronic human health impacts tracks the parishes with the highest risk of chronic human health impacts, the industrial facilities along the Mississippi River Industrial Corridor, the industrial facilities in the southwest and northwest corners of the state and in the northeast and central areas of the states.

Recommendations

Louisiana Environmental Action Network (LEAN) has worked with community groups and individuals in the immediate areas of all of the industrial facilities and parishes that have ranked the highest in chronic human health risk in the state of Louisiana. LEAN should provide the information on Louisiana parishes and industrial facilities risk rankings from the RSEI database to community members, community groups, local government officials and health and environmental agencies in the areas of the highest chronic human health risk in order to educate and inform the public.

LEAN should continue and increase its efforts to provide technical assistance and organizing skills to community groups in the areas of the highest risk in order to enable the citizens and LEAN to productively work with the local, state and federal environmental and health agencies and the industrial facilities to reduce the chronic human health risks associated with the identified industrial facilities.

LEAN should monitor the progress of risk reduction efforts initiated to reduce the chronic human health risks in order to determine the effectiveness and timeliness of the risk reduction efforts.

LEAN should continue to monitor all available human health risk data bases in order to provide additional input to the community based risk reduction activities targeted towards the highest risk industrial facilities.

See the article in the Baton Rouge Advocate HERE.