Community groups are suing the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality over a new law that could prevent them from publicly sharing their air monitoring data.
Conducting their own air monitoring can be a way for communities to hold industry accountable and warn residents about harmful pollution. The law prevents the data from being used to allege violations of pollution regulations if it isn’t collected by EPA-approved equipment and also restricts analysis of that data to the 175 labs accredited by the state.
The community groups argue that the law violates their constitutional rights by preventing them from publicly sharing the data, which is used to alert residents about air pollution and advocate against it.
“This is a case of the state saying we do not want you to talk about your air monitoring,” said Caitlion Hunter, an attorney and research and policy director at Rise St. James, one of the plaintiffs on the lawsuit. “We are putting restrictions on your speech. We are restricting how you can talk about your air monitoring. We're restricting how you can put that information on your website. We are restricting how you can try to use it in court.”
The groups say they are using cutting-edge technology, which is lower-cost and that the EPA-approved equipment is simply too expensive.
Enacted last summer, the industry-backed law includes steep fines and penalties. At the time, proponents said it was intended to standardize community-collected data.
The lawsuit, filed by the Environmental Integrity Project and the Public Citizen Litigation Group, argues it violates their freedom of speech.
Hunter said groups like Rise St. James need to do their own air monitoring because LDEQ isn’t doing enough, especially when it comes to monitoring the carcinogenic chemicals they’re most concerned about, such as ethylene oxide.
“ You have all of this polluting industry that's putting out tons of different carcinogenic stuff and all they were really measuring for was ozone and lead,” she said.
LDEQ declined to comment on the ongoing lawsuit. The bill’s original sponsor, Sen. Eddie Lambert, R-Gonzalez, did not respond to requests for comment.
Peter DeCarlo, an atmospheric scientist at Johns Hopkins University, developed new technology and used it to monitor 60 different hazardous chemicals in Cancer Alley in February 2023. He published a paper showing the results from monitoring ethylene oxide. He went back for additional monitoring earlier this year and is still analyzing the data.
DeCarlo said he’s not sure what the law means for how the data he collected can be used.
”We published a paper that had five anonymous scientists review it and say, ‘this is good science’… and so we can talk about the ethylene oxide measurements that we made,” he said. “But I also don't want to have to go through that whole peer review process to talk to the community groups that we work with. And I feel like this law makes it harder for me to do that.”
Concerns about the law extend beyond “Cancer Alley.” Micah 6:8 Mission, a group in southwest Louisiana, also signed on to the lawsuit, along with New Orleans-based nonprofit, JOIN for Clean Air.
JOIN’s founder, Justin Vittitow said he’s been conducting air monitoring in the Irish Channel and in Harvey from Blackwater Harvey Terminals, which are bulk liquid storage facilities.
Vittitow says he’s been using the EPA-standard equipment, but is still afraid of what might happen if he shares his data.
“ When we're looking all up and down the river, we see this denial of the problem that's going on. So how are we supposed to prove the problem is going on?” he said. “Conducting air monitoring and comparing data with other folks that are doing air monitoring. And that's what they're trying to keep us from doing.”
