LaPLACE, La. — Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan traveled to the site of a rubber plant on Thursday to announce a proposal aimed at sharply reducing the amount of chemical toxins released into the air by the facility and others around the country.
With the Denka Performance Elastomer plant looming behind him, Regan said the proposal would cut more than 6,000 tons of toxic air pollution a year, in part by requiring chemical facilities to monitor their emissions and take action when they exceed a certain level.
“This rule is absolutely a game changer for many of these communities,” he said in an interview with NBC News after the news conference.
For more on this story, tune in to NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt tonight at 6:30pm ET/5:30pm CT or check your local listings.
The announcement came three weeks after an NBC News report chronicled years of inaction by state and federal government in this industrial swath of southern Louisiana known as “Cancer Alley.” The Denka facility is among more than 150 chemical plants built along an 85-mile corridor between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, where toxic chemicals have plagued the mostly Black communities for decades.
Regan’s proposal was met with effusive praise from the elderly activists who have led the fight for cleaner air in St. John the Baptist Parish.
“It’s a great day in St. John Parish,” said Mary Hampton, who turns 84 on Friday. “I just told Mr. Regan: ‘The son has come to save us. The Lord has sent us his son to save us.’”
Robert Taylor, 82, said he and Hampton didn’t hear even “a peep” from any public officials in the first few years after they founded the community group Concerned Citizens of St. John in 2016.
“It means so much to me that we now have someone in some agencies and parts of the government that not only heard our cry, they came to our defense,” Taylor added.
The Denka Performance Elastomer plant in LaPlace is one of the only…
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