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LAPLACE – An attorney representing nearly 1,000 residents living near the Denka plant in Laplace is asking the St. John the Baptist Council to adopt a resolution petitioning the Environmental Protection Agency maintain its current method of obtaining air samples in areas near the plant.

Hugh “Skip” Lambert addressed the council at its Jan. 28 meeting and informed members that the EPA is considering a new monitoring device called the S Pod, which is triggered by other chemicals and not chloroprene, believed to be the carcinogenic emitting from the giant plant that is putting neighbors at higher risks of cancer.

“(The proposed switching) will not measure chloroprene and it will take away the opportunity for this council as well as for the community to know how much chloroprene is being exposed,” Lambert said. “Without that data there is no way of knowing what levels are being (emitted) into the air.”

Air sample data collected from stations during the past two years have continually monitored chloroprene levels being released by Denka plant.

“Monitoring stations are what enable you to inform members of the community how much chloroprene is being emitted and subjected to the population,” Lambert said.

Whitney Plantation owner John Cummings discussed results from a study of the area that was recently presented to Gov. John Bel Edwards. Cummings said 500 to 600 people were interviewed who live in a 2.5-kilometer radius of the former DuPont plant.

He said the results showed a “terrific concentration” of cancer in residents in that area, especially those living closest to Denka, and the risk diminished in areas further removed from the facility.

Cummings said an additional six-month survey requested by Edwards is being conducted by the Louisiana Department of Health and LSU.

“We are asking for a resolution to request EPA simply continue doing what it has been doing and that is to capture samples of chloroprene,” Lambert said.

The board meets Tuesday night in Laplace, with the Finance Committee meeting scheduled to start at 6 p.m.

   – by Richard Meek, contributing writer