This story was originally published by Louisiana Illuminator
A proposal to require environmental air monitoring systems at high-emission industrial facilities in Louisiana was left in limbo Tuesday and faces steep odds of moving forward.
The air monitors called for in Senate Bill 356, sponsored by Sen. Royce Duplessis, D-New Orleans, would have provided early warning for neighbors to seek safety in the event of a toxic pollution release. But members of the Senate Committee on Environmental Quality took no action after Duplessis presented his legislation.
The only Democrat on the eight-person committee, Sen. Ed Price, D-Gonzales, wasn’t in the room when the bill came up for consideration, but his presence would not have made a difference.
Duplessis’ bill would have applied to 117 industrial facilities in Louisiana considered “highest risk” to the public based on the type of pollutants they emit. The measure did not call for the systems to be used for regulatory enforcement, only for purposes of community safety.
The monitoring systems, the cost of which would have fallen on the industrial companies to cover, would have continuously tested for toxic releases and posted hourly data to a public website. Neighbors and first responders would have automatically been warned when pollution levels reached specific thresholds.
The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality currently maintains limited air monitoring equipment at about two dozen sites across the state, but the agency only monitors for six pollutants: sulfur dioxide, lead, carbon monoxide, ozone, nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter.
Kim Tyrrell, a scientist with the Environmental Integrity Project who testified in support of the bill, told lawmakers the state’s current monitoring equipment isn’t generally used for measuring some of the more toxic chemicals, such as ethylene oxide or vinyl chloride, that have been released in recent industrial accidents in Louisiana.
The bill had support from dozens of residents and environmental groups, including the Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops. Its executive director, Tom Costanza, called the bill a “reasonable approach” to addressing what he called a preventable harm.
“It prioritizes the human person and supports the common good,” Costanza said of the legislation.
However, committee chairman Sen. Eddie Lambert, R-Gonzales, questioned how the air monitors would be used and said they might lead to false readings, with industrial plants blamed for pollution they didn’t cause.
The monitoring systems, which are used in other states including California, also provide meteorological data that show wind direction and speed so that the source of emissions can be better identified.
Patrick Riley, a lobbyist for the Louisiana Chemistry Industrial Alliance, said industrial companies already go well beyond what the law requires with air monitoring. The continuous hourly readings called for in Duplessis’ bill would be too frequent and lead to false alerts, he added.
The alerts would initially cause people to needlessly panic, and they would eventually learn to ignore the alerts over time, Riley said.
Duplessis’ bill remains in committee though is unlikely to gain enough votes for consideration again this session.