[StBernard] St. Bernard Parish officials join push for better air quality enforcement

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard Parish officials join push for better air quality enforcement
 By Benjamin Alexander-Bloch, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune 
on January 24, 2013 at 6:09 PM, updated January 24, 2013 at 6:53 PM Print

As the state Department of Environmental Quality continues to examine
heightened sulphur dioxide levels in the Chalmette area, St. Bernard Parish
government officials and a New Orleans environmental group are putting
pressure on the DEQ and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to better
regulate Chalmette facilities. Parish Chief Administrative Officer Jerry
Graves said on Thursday that he is "absolutely appalled at the very cavalier
attitude of the DEQ and EPA officials."

 "I got the feeling that they were more interested in appeasing industry
than answering our questions," said Graves. Graves was part of a private
meeting on Wednesday with EPA, DEQ, U.S. Department of Homeland Security and
industry representatives.

Graves made his remarks at the end of a parish Housing, Redevelopment and
Quality of Life Commission meeting.

"Well, industry doesn't think we're too closely tied," DEQ spokesman Rodney
Mallet emailed in response to a reporter's questions on Thursday afternoon.
"We've issued orders to gather emissions data. We've enlisted our Mobile Air
Monitoring Lab for additional monitoring. We've begun the process to get
into attainment and lower emissions before the federal clock even begins
ticking."

The EPA hourly standard for sulphur dioxide is 75 parts per billion in an
hour. And due to about 30 instances last year where that level was
surpassed, the state DEQ already has recommended that the EPA designate St.
Bernard as being out of compliance with standards for how much sulphur
dioxide gas is released in an hour. - or in "nonattainment."

The EPA is expected to set a 2017 compliance deadline once it issues its
non-compliance directive. The DEQ would then have to submit a state
implementation plan to the EPA by mid-2014 that demonstrates how St. Bernard
will reach sulphur dioxide standards by 2017.

Already in January, there have been several sulphur dioxide spikes in
Chalmette above the hourly federal standard.

Earlier Thursday, the nonprofit New Orleans-based environmental group
Louisiana Bucket Brigade released a nonscientific survey showing 70 people
in the Chalmette area have reported respiratory problems, headaches or eye
irritation.

The Bucket Brigade survey states that about 90 of the 132 people reported
smelling bad odors and that nine people said they had visited, or informed,
a doctor.

"This is an urgent situation," said Anne Rolfes, founding director of the
environmental group, "The facilities should not be allowed to operate until
they can assure people's health is safeguarded."

"Oil industry profits have a greater priority in this state than our
health," she continued. "The good news is that people in St. Bernard Parish
are filing reports and speaking out."