DuPont plant in Louisiana fined $480,000 for releasing a cancer-causing chemical

RESERVE, La. -- A chemical manufacturing plant west of New Orleans has agreed to pay a $480,000 federal fine and install equipment to stop the release of a cancer-causing chemical from a storage tank and pipe.

The consent agreement and final order outlining the settlement between DuPont and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was filed Sept. 25, about 2½ years after an unannounced inspection found several releases of benzene at levels greater than federal rules allowed, The Advocate reported.

The plant is located roughly a half-mile (0.8 kilometer) from an elementary school in Reserve, Louisiana, and is within an 85-mile (137-kilometer) stretch of the state known officially as the Mississippi River Chemical Corridor. Colloquially it is called Cancer Alley.

Daniel Turner, a spokesperson for DuPont Specialty Products, said the release of the chemicals had caused “no impacts to site personnel or to the community.”

“We are pleased to resolve this matter with the U.S. EPA,” Turner said. “From the time the on-site inspection occurred, we have disputed the instrument readings captured by EPA from those of our contractors. However, we have taken immediate corrective actions to resolve the issues identified in the inspection process."

According to the EPA, benzene has been found to cause an increase in leukemia cases for those occupationally exposed. Women who have inhaled high levels of benzene have reported reproductive effects, and long-term exposure can also cause blood disorders. Short-term exposure can cause drowsiness, dizziness, headaches, eye, skin, and respiratory tract irritation, and at high levels can cause unconsciousness.

EPA officials monitored 77 valves and two pumps on the first day of the inspection when they found the violations. They measured 20,100 parts per million of benzene streaming from a vent on a benzene waste tank, and 1,933 ppm of benzene leaking out of a second pressure/vacuum valve.

The inspectors also found an open-ended line from a valve and a second valve in a different location that were leaking about 542 ppm of benzene, just above the EPA limit.

DuPont said its own measurements found much lower benzene levels — though still higher than the EPA limit.

Federal law requires major industries to assure that tanks storing benzene have no detectible emissions, which is indicated by readings of less than 500 ppm and visual inspections. The same standard applies to pipelines or valves used to move benzene, but open-ended valves or lines must be capped or plugged.

The DuPont facility is located on the same site as Denka Performance Elastomers, which the federal government in 2023 accused of presenting an unacceptable cancer risk to the nearby majority-Black community. The DuPont facility makes paraphenylenediamine, or PPDA, a chemical it ships to another DuPont plant to manufacture Kevlar, used in making bulletproof vests. The facility has about 280 employees and contractor employees at the site.