The nation’s only neoprene production facility will pay a penalty just shy of $1 million over violations of waste regulations, EPA announced Friday.
The Denka Performance Elastomer plant in Louisiana was a high-profile part of the Biden administration’s environmental justice agenda because of its alleged emissions into the surrounding, predominantly Black community.
While the Trump administration has pulled back on a separate but related enforcement action and aims to ease rules that applied to the plant, EPA enforcement chief Jeffrey Hall hailed the settlement in a statement.
“Denka’s mishandling of hazardous chloroprene waste and its many violations of the law exposed workers and the surrounding community to excessive chloroprene and potentially serious health risks,” Hall said.
