LEAN, with Mossville Environmental Action Now (MEAN) and the Sierra Club and represented by Earthjustice, has sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for failing to enforce Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) plant emissions standards.

     The Clean Air Act requires that all industrial facilities that emit hazardous air pollutants must meet national emissions standards, also called MACT or Maximum Achievable Control Technology. When emissions standards were originally set by EPA for PVC plants the environmental community agreed that these standards were completely inadequate. So, in 2004 Earthjustice, with technical assistance from LEAN chemical engineering expert Gary Miller, sued EPA to force them to strengthen the PVC emissions standards. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit agreed that the standards set by the EPA for PVC facilities DID NOT meet the requirements of the Clean Air Act and threw out the old standards telling EPA to create new ones. EPA has yet to develop these new standards and so LEAN, MEAN, Sierra Club and Earthjustice have sued EPA to force them to implement strong, appropriate emissions standards for PVC plants.

     Having strong emissions standards is of great importance to the health and safety of the citizens living near PVC plants. This is particularly important in Louisiana as we have 7 of the nations PVC plants FIVE of which are located in the greater Baton Rouge area (Baton Rouge, Addis, Plaquemine [2] and Geismar). Two are located in the heavily industrial Westlake area near Lake Charles. The citizens of Louisiana need to be protected today, they are living next to these facilities. EPA must step up and take care of them immediately.

     The original PVC emissions standards were focused solely on Vinyl Chloride Monomer. This IS an incredibly toxic chemical, of which over 500,000 POUNDS is emitted in the U.S. annually, but it is not the only one produced by PVC plants. The new emissions standards must also take into account ALL of these other toxic air pollutants; which include chlorine, dioxin and hydrogen chloride.

You can read the Earthjustice Press Release HERE.

You can check out the news coverage:

Article in the Baton Rouge Advocate HERE
Video from WBRZ channel 2 in Baton Rouge HERE
Article from the Houston Chronicle HERE
Article from Delaware Online HERE