Formosa Plastics among those groups want EPA to address

By JEFF MONTGOMERY
The News Journal

A plastics factory in Delaware is among the worst polluters targeted Wednesday in a nationwide lawsuit filed by environmental groups seeking to force tougher federal controls on toxic vinyl chloride emissions.

The environmental groups asked an appeals court to set deadlines for an Environmental Protection Agency rewrite of emission standards for cancer-causing polyvinyl chloride.

Members of Earthjustice, Sierra Club and other organizations cited the agency's failure to answer repeated calls to update pollution limits originally set in 1976 for factories like Formosa Plastics near Delaware City.

"Given their track record of incompetence and delay from the get-go, we're not sure we can trust them to get the job done," said Katie Renshaw, an attorney with Earthjustice. "That is why we're here today, to limit once and for all the dangerous chemicals from PVC plants raining down on communities around the country."

Louisiana and Texas have more PVC factories, but Formosa in Delaware has long ranked among the nation's top individual sources of carcinogenic vinyl chloride releases into the air.

Accidental and routine emissions from the Delaware plant were so high during the late 1980s that state regulators took the highly unusual step of briefly shutting down the operation.

Mabel B. Roberts-Cole, who lives near Middletown but commutes daily through Delaware City, saidDelaware and the EPA still need to do more.

"Somebody has to be accountable," Roberts-Cole said. "The federal government has used communities as toxic dumping grounds, but not communities where decision-makers live."

Roberts-Cole said she worries residents may be unaware of the factory emissions in newly built developments and school classrooms near Formosa and the nearby Delaware City Refinery.

"A lot of people aren't aware of what's surrounding them, of what's coming out of those places," Roberts-Cole said. "Where do they think this stuff is going?"

Formosa officials could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.

Cathy Milbourn, a spokeswoman for the EPA's headquarters, said the agency would "review the petition and respond appropriately."

The lawsuit asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to set a deadline for EPA establishment of "maximum available control standards" covering industry releases of vinyl chloride, chlorine and other chemicals.

Congress ordered an update of toxic pollution rules in 1990 when it overhauled the Clean Air Act. In 2000, the EPA attempted to continue with current standards set in 1976, but an appeals court rejected that plan in 2004 after the same environmental groups sued the agency.

Delaware's Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control has kept steady pressure on Formosa to control and curb its emissions in recent years.

Accidents and leaks periodically send thousands of pounds of vinyl chloride into the air, with the company reporting 37,460 pounds emitted in 2007, down from more than 125,000 pounds in 1990s and the early part of this decade.

Vinyl chloride is one of 17 chemicals classified as known carcinogens in the EPA's program for tracking toxic pollution. It also can cause reproductive problems. State officials have long monitored levels of the chemical in the air outside the factory, and once maintained a sensor inside the Delaware City fire hall.

In the late 1990s, a nationwide EPA study of county-level toxic pollution levels found that Formosa's emissions increased cancer risks in areas immediately outside the plant.

A more elaborate state study released in 2005 found elevated vinyl chloride levels outside the plant and an increased cancer risk in the Delaware City area, but cautioned the higher risk was based on a combination of exposures in that area.

The Delaware plant also reported releases of irritating vinyl acetate and ammonia, with smokestack levels of vinyl acetate ranked as the nation's 10th highest in 2006.

DNREC records show that Formosa had problems as recently as August, when an operator error spilled 5,000 gallons of contaminated wastewater onto the ground.

In mid-2005, the Delaware plant agreed to pay a $450,000 fine and spend $840,000 on plant improvements to settle EPA and state complaints.

Violations cited at the time included excessive vinyl chloride releases during production, undetected leaks, late or improperly calculated emissions reports, delays in system repairs, improper waste storage, violations of wastewater permits and unauthorized storm water discharges.

Earthjustice said problems are most severe along the Gulf Coast, where most of the country's PVC factories are concentrated, and where public exposures have earned a portion of Louisiana the nickname "cancer alley."

"EPA has turned a blind eye to a heavily polluting industry and they've turned a deaf ear to citizen's reasonable requests for meaningful limits on air pollution from PVC plants," said Marti Sinclair, of Sierra Club.

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