With carbon capture boom, a wariness in historic Louisiana Black community over more pollution

Residents of the historic Black community of Elkinsville in southeastern Louisiana have elevated their fight against an ammonia plant proposed nearby

A dispute over a planned ammonia plant near a historic Black town in southeastern Louisiana ratcheted up a notch Friday with a challenge to the state's approval process.

The battle over the plant is occurring despite the fact that part of the impetus to build it is a provision in a key climate law signed by President Joe Biden. The company claims it will store underground almost all of the climate-damaging carbon dioxide emitted in the production of ammonia, commonly used for fertilizers. Environmental groups warn this is an unrealistic expectation.

The Tulane University Environmental Law Clinic is asking the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality to recuse itself from deciding on a permit for St. Charles Clean Fuels' ammonia plant next to the Elkinsville community. The agency appears to have already decided to grant the permit, the clinic said, before weighing all public comment, which would be illegal under Louisiana law.

The motion comes after a public hearing in September in St. Charles Parish was shut down when more than 150 people tried to fit into a room in a public library the state had reserved.

The agency characterized that turnout as “an organized attempt to hinder economic growth and prosperity for the state and local communities.”

The department said it plans to reschedule the public hearing for late December and will carefully consider public comments.

Elkinsville resident Kimbrelle Kyereh said she is not confident Louisiana environmental regulators are doing enough to protect her community, however. She has made many complaints about fumes coming from a large existing chemical tank storage complex next door, but "no one seems to truly care,” she said.

If the state agency were to recuse itself, it would fall to Gov. Jeff Landry to appoint another entity to review the permit application. Landry strongly supports Louisiana's petrochemical industry.

Residents live with a long legacy of pollution

Like many other communities in the region of the proposed plant, Elkinsville was established by and for free Black people on the periphery of a former Mississippi River plantation.

About a century ago, some plantation land was sold off for an oil export terminal. Today, International-Matex Tank Terminals (IMIT) operates a large tank farm storing diesel, ethanol and other chemicals waiting to be loaded onto river vessels.

Only a chain-link fence separates it from the homes of Elkinsville.

In interviews and public hearings, residents said the new ammonia plant would add to what they already experience: smells so foul they wake up short of breath at night and need to clamp down their windows.

Rose Wilright, 80, loves her community, the four streets where she grew up surrounded by relatives whose memories are held in a small cemetery in the center of the town.

Wilright said she believes IMTT and the many other nearby industrial facilities are why she has spent nights watching her grandson struggling to breathe with asthma. Now she too relies on an albuterol inhaler and has contracted bronchitis.

“It’s just devastating that they trying to bring more chemicals on us,” she said.

Company defends its environmental record

The new ammonia plant would store its ammonia in IMTT's tanks.

IMTT CEO Carlin Conner said he takes residents' complaints seriously.

“This is their home,” he said. “We try our best to understand what they’re feeling and saying and then try to fix it.”

The bad smells are “obviously a pain for people” but “we definitely do not believe it’s impacting health,” he said.

IMTT has invested in tank venting equipment to limit odors, Conner said. He pointed out that the company partners with local charities and supports a welding training program for youth.

Even Elkinsville residents who criticize IMTT — many of whom have relatives working there — acknowledge the company has brought economic benefits.

Conner emphasized that his company operates within legal limits. Last year, IMTT reported releasing more than 100,000 pounds of toxic volatile organic compounds, twice the level as qualifies as a major source of toxic air pollution in Louisiana.

St. Charles Clean Fuels, majority-owned by Danish investment firm Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, said in an emailed statement that its ammonia facility was “essential to fighting climate change” and would generate 200 permanent jobs.

It reports the facility will produce 8,000 metric tons of ammonia daily and release about 118,700 pounds of ammonia annually.

Ammonia buildout propelled by money for carbon capture

The new ammonia project is buoyed by federal subsidies intended to make chemical production less damaging for the climate. The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act promises companies up to $85 in tax credits for every ton of carbon dioxide they capture and store.

Ammonia is widely used in fertilizers but also heralded by industry groups as a potential transport fuel. It is usually made from natural gas, in a process that contributes to climate change.

St. Charles Clean Fuels said it will clean up that process, storing its greenhouse gases deep underground. There are dozens of carbon capture and storage facilities proposed across Louisiana.

The company said its facility will prevent 5 million tons of carbon dioxide from being released annually.

Environmental groups have generally cautioned against carbon capture and storage as a climate solution and urged a transition away from natural gas-based production. They note that carbon capture and storage has been around for decades and has fallen far short of the 99% capture rate promised by St. Charles Clean Fuels.

The company did not provide evidence for this figure but said it will employ innovative technology based on auto-thermal reforming, in which oxygen and steam convert natural gas at extremely high temperatures into a byproduct used for ammonia production. The process is marketed by industry groups as improving energy efficiency.

Michael Levien, a Johns Hopkins University sociologist who is working on a book about the Elkinsville community, said he believes the Inflation Reduction Act is deepening environmental and racial injustices by encouraging more industrial expansion in heavily polluted areas through its subsidies for carbon capture and storage.

Clean air concerns near chemical tank complex

The conflict over the federally supported new ammonia plant comes as the Biden administration has wrestled with the state of Louisiana over air quality and environmental health issues it says disproportionately affect Black people.

In July, the Environmental Protection Agency fined IMTT over insufficient safeguards and said the company did not conduct appropriate hazard assessments. IMTT said it has since improved its protocols.

The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality said the air quality around Elkinsville tracked by its air monitor was “deemed safe” based on data measured between 2018 and 2023, leading the agency to remove its air monitor.

Kim Terrell, environmental scientist with the Tulane law clinic, said the department only monitored continuously for a small number of pollutants.

IMTT’s modeling for air near its facility shows high levels of n-hexane, which can trigger respiratory problems, and naphthalene, which the EPA considers a possible carcinogen. Terrell criticized Louisiana’s regulation for these chemicals because they are based on the assumption people will be exposed for no more than an eight-hour workday rather than day and night as residents may be.

Louisiana allows for “vastly higher” exposure to these chemicals than recommended by the EPA's health guidelines based on safe levels of long-term exposure, Terrell said.

The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality said the EPA guidelines shouldn't be compared with Louisiana's rules, which are focused on short-term exposure.

IMTT said in September it is working with a local environmental group to install several air monitors so nearby residents will know more about their air quality.

Terrell said the monitoring system the company plans to install will not meet EPA standards.

Meanwhile, Wilright, the lifelong Elkinsville resident whose home is up against the IMTT fence, said that if she could, she would “leave tonight,” despite her family's generations of memories there.

She would go “wherever they don’t have chemical plants,” she said.

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Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Brook on the social platform X: @jack_brook96