LAPLACE — Thirteen St. John the Baptist Parish residents, including Parish Councilman Larry Sorapuru, are seeking legal action to reduce chloroprene emissions from a LaPlace plant, as well as punitive and medical compensation for maladies caused by the exposure to chloroprene.

The Class Action petition was filed into the 40th Judicial Court of St. John the Baptist Parish June 29 and will be heard by Judge J. Sterling Snowdy.

A jury trial has been requested. Snowdy is expected to rule on the petition’s merit to proceed as a class action lawsuit.

The defendants listed are Denka Performance Elastomer LLC and E.I. DuPont De Nemours and Company.

Denka Performance Elastomer acquired the LaPlace facility from DuPont Nov. 1, 2015. Denka is owned by two Japanese companies and was expressly formed to purchase the Neoprene business from DuPont, which had operated the Neoprene units since 1973.

Material produced at the LaPlace site is used in consumer products including wet suits, orthopedic braces, adhesives, electrical insulation and coatings.

During the company’s grand opening for the public in December, Plant Manager Jorge Lavastida said the plan was to grow the Neoprene business into a profitable and contributing member of the community.

At the time, Denka Performance Elastomer announced it employed 250 people and provides support for more than 20 contractors, which can double in number during certain times of the year.

As of Thursday, Lavastida said Denka had not been served the lawsuit.

“While we will continue to provide the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, the Environmental Protection Agency and others with information about our facility, we cannot directly comment on the lawsuit on advice of our attorneys,” Lavastida said.

The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and Denka Performance Elastomer signed a formal document Jan. 6 outlining the company’s voluntary commitment to reduce emissions of the chemical chloroprene.

Under the Administrative Order on Consent, emissions reduction devices will be installed on a set schedule, culminating with the installation of the Regenerative Thermal Oxidizer by the end of the fourth quarter of 2017.

“Two of the four projects covered by the AOC have been installed ahead of schedule and are now operational,” Lavastida said. “The Monomer Emission Reduction and Regenerative Thermal Oxidizer projects are both on schedule to be installed by the end of the year. These and additional plans covered in the AOC are designed to reduce chloroprene emissions from the facility by 85 percent.”

After the EPA reclassified chloroprene as a likely carcinogen, the National Air Toxics Assessment of 2011 showed an elevated risk for certain types of cancer in parts of LaPlace.

The findings were published in 2015.

The company also agreed to provide written progress reports to LDEQ on a monthly basis tracking the emissions reductions efforts, to conduct ambient air monitoring until six months after the Regenerative Thermal Oxidizer starts up and to acquire all necessary permits for installation and operation of the emissions reduction equipment.

According to The New Orleans Advocate, monitoring sites near the plant showed that in May “residents were exposed to an average of between 12 and 58 times the amount the EPA says is the ‘upper limit of acceptability.’ Spikes in emissions during the last year have reached much higher — up to 765 times the risk-based standard — according to data collected by the plant and the EPA.”

The petition seeks to create a plaintiff class and sub-class to include all who have lived, worked or attended school in the region from Jan. 1, 2011, to the present.

The geographical lines include Interstate 10 on the north, the St. John/St. James parish line on the west, Louisiana 3127 on the south and on the east by the western boundary of the Bonnet Carre Spillway on the East Bank and the eastern boundary of Killona on the West Bank.

The petition notes the LaPlace facility is the only manufacturing facility for Neoprene in the United States, DuPont had knowledge of the harmful “effects of the exposure to chloroprene emissions by at least 1988” and concealed that knowledge.

“At the time that DuPont sold the Pontchartrain Works Neoprene production facility to Denka, Denka had the same knowledge of the harms of chloroprene exposure as did DuPont,” the petition reads.

Denka officials stressed this week they don’t know of epidemiological studies showing any connection between exposure to chloroprene and health problems among chloroprene workers.

“We are further reassured by data from the Louisiana Tumor Registry indicating that the incidence of cancer in St. John the Baptist Parish is slightly lower than the state average,” Lavastida said.