The Army Corps of Engineers has been sued by a coalition of environmental groups for allegedly failing to disclose the public health risks of a plastics plant set for construction in St. James Parish.
The Center for Biological Diversity is one of the plaintiffs and staff attorney Emily Jeffers says the Corp was blatantly disregarding the law when they issued a permit for the Formosa facility.
“The Army Corps totally failed to disclose the impacts to air, to the water, impacts in terms of the greenhouse gas emissions, plastic waste that will be discharged,” says Jeffers.
The Center is being joined by Healthy Gulf, Louisiana Bucket Brigade, and Rise St. James in the suit.
Jeffers says the plant would pump out greenhouse gases equivalent to three coal power plants, send poisonous waste downriver into New Orleans’ drinking water, and other pollution concerns.
“The facility would produce 800 tons of hazardous air pollutants every year, and those air pollutants have been shown to cause cancer and other respiratory illnesses,” says Jeffers.
Rise St. James Founder Sharon Lavigne recently told LRN the district is already packed with 12 different industrial projects.
The suit alleges that a full accounting of the public health effects was not done because it would likely have resulted in a rejection of the site’s permit.
“They realize that if they disclose the terrible effects of this facility that there was no way that it could move forward, they could not in good conscience approve it,” says Jeffers.
A Corps spokesperson says they cannot comment on litigation.
