Business Loses First Bound In Environmental-Justice Fight

Nation's Business, Nov 1, 1998 by James Worsham

Under pressure from opponents. Shintech Corp. has abandoned its quest to gain approval to build a chemical plant in a heavily industrialized rural area of Louisiana.

The proposed plant had become the first test case of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's still-developing policy on environmental justice, which holds that a disproportionate number of industrial plants and waste sites are located in poor and minority neighborhoods. (See "The EPA's New Reach," October.)

Shintech had planned to build a $700 million polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plant, employing 255 people, in St. James Parish, between New Orleans and Baton Rouge along the Mississippi River. Although there was strong support for the plant in the parish (parishes are Louisiana's equivalent of counties), there also was opposition.

A group of opponents filed a complaint with the EPA alleging that state environmental regulators violated the 1964 Civil Rights Act in approving the plant. The federal environmental agency had not yet ruled on the petition.

Shintech now plans to build a smaller plant southwest of Baton Rouge in Plaquemine, also along the Mississippi River. The plant would be linked directly to a nearby Dow Chemical Co. plant, from which it would draw raw materials. The $250 million plant would have 75 employees.

In a statement, EPA Administrator Carol Browner commended Shintech for its plan to involve the community and community groups before seeking a permit for the plant in Plaquemine. "The principles applied to achieve this solution should be incorporated into any blueprint for dealing with environmental-justice issues," she said.

William Kovacs, vice president for environmental policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, says the EPA has set itself up as a "national zoning board." He adds: "[The] EPA has now established itself as having the authority to determine what facilities can be located in any particular community, the site of the facility, and the number of workers."