Suit seeks enforcement

• By AMY WOLD
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: Oct 23, 2008 - Page: 1B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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A federal lawsuit, filed on behalf of two Louisiana and one national environmental group, seeks to have the federal government enforce air regulations on plants producing polyvinyl chloride — or PVC.

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. by Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental law firm, on behalf of Louisiana Environmental Action Network, Mossville Environmental Action Now and the Sierra Club.

The lawsuit claims the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency hasn’t met requirements to regulate PVC plant emissions as set out in the Clean Air Act.

The Clean Air Act of 1990 Amendments require new control technology be used to reduce air pollution on industrial sources of hazardous chemicals including those released from PVC facilities, said Gary Miller, with LEAN.

Louisiana has seven of the more than 20 PVC plants operating in the United States.

Emissions of concern from PVC plants include a variety of classified hazardous air pollutants including vinyl chloride, the lawsuit says. Long-term breathing of vinyl chloride can cause liver damage, problems with immune systems, liver cancer and nerve damage, according to U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

Jim Pew, attorney with Earthjustice, said there were standards set in 1976 for emissions from PVC plants, but the 1990 Clean Air Act required that new technology be put in place to reduce pollution.

EPA needed to come up with those standards by 2000, he said. In 2002, EPA released standards that were basically the same as the ones that had been used since 1976, he said.

Earthjustice, on behalf of MEAN and the Sierra Club, challenged that 2002 rule. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit threw out the rule in 2004 and sent it back to EPA to rework.

“Since 2004, EPA has done nothing,” Miller said. “This lawsuit is to get them to move.”

Cathy Milbourn, a spokeswoman for EPA, said, “At this point there isn’t much we can say other than we’ll review the petition and respond appropriately.”

During a telephone news conference, a resident of a community near PVC plants in Louisiana talked about the health effects he’s seen in Mossville, La., near Lake Charles.

Edgar Mouton said he lived in the community since before most of the PVC and other industrial facilities in the area were built and he’s seen a dramatic decline in the health of the community.