The Environmental Protection Agency announced Jan. 26 that it would conduct a series of enforcement actions aimed to hold industry accountable, reports The American Press.
Conversations with residents in low-income communities along industrial corridors inspired a series of regional and agency-wide actions, including the unannounced inspections of chemical plants and a directive for Denka Performance Elastomer in Reserve to install fence-line emissions monitors.
The EPA said that it would conduct unannounced inspections of industrial sites, a move EPA Administrator Michael Regan says will “keep these facilities on their toes.” Up until this point, inspections were done on a schedule or with prior notice.
St. John the Baptist Parish, St. James Parish and the Mossville community near Lake Charles will be part of a pilot air monitoring project known as the Pollution Accountability Team, or PAT, which pairs increased air pollution monitoring with boots-on-the-ground inspections. Read the entire story.
