Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
to Baton Rouge there are 156 industrial facilities,
which emit 129 million pounds of toxins every
year' (Lerner, 2005: 44). In the case of Shell's
Norco refinery, 75 per cent of all of its toxic
emissions go into the atmosphere (Lerner, 2005).
Unintended air pollution in Diamond takes two
basic forms: 1) so-called 'fugitive emissions' that
emanate from leaky pipes and valves; and 2) larger
scale accidental release events. Fugitive emissions
are particularly problematic to human health as
they tend to come from sources close to the
ground, where they are more likely to come into
contact with humans (as opposed to those
emission that are released from chimneys, which
enables air pollution to dissipate at higher alti-
tudes (Lerner, 2005: 44-52)). In terms of larger
scale accidental releases, between January 1990
and September 2000 Shell officially reported 341
pollution 'events', which released dangerous
chemicals such as the carcinogen benzene into the
air around the Norco plants (Lerner, 2005: 48).
The scale and nature of air pollution in
Louisiana's chemical corridor generates scientific
problems at a series of levels. First, the sheer
scale of air pollution in the region means that it is
impossible for scientists and regulators to monitor
all air pollution events. The work of scientists is also
hindered by the clandestine activities of corpora-
tions such as Shell, who, it is claimed, use the cover
of mist, fog and darkness to hide their air polluting
activities (Lerner, 2005: 44-52). Scientists working
for chemical corporations in the region also use the
close proximities of chemical plants as a way of
shifting the blame for air pollution from their
own companies on to other plants. While corpora-
tions are expected to keep their own inventories
of toxic air pollution releases, the leaks and
associated forms of fugitive air pollution tend to
go unrecorded and unmonitored (estimates
suggest that in Diamond some 80 million pounds
of VOC emissions go unreported due to leaks every
year) (Lerner, 2005: 44).
Beyond the practical challenges facing
atmospheric scientists working in Louisiana's
chemical corridor, there are other scientific issues
that impinge upon their work. Even when
definitive evidence of toxic air pollution can be
gathered and attributed to particular polluters,
corporations such as Shell dispute the impacts
that pollution events have on local residents.
While local residents complain of sore eyes,
respiratory difficulties, reduced fertility rates
and cancers that they attribute to breathing in
polluted air, the complex nature of these illnesses
(which are connected to genetics and lifestyles as
well as environmental factors) makes it difficult
for medical scientists to provide causal proof
connecting a pollution event to a particular
illness. Perhaps more worrying still, while Shell
openly acknowledged the release of some 2 million
tons of toxic chemicals into the atmosphere
around Diamond in 1997, the corporation claims
that these releases still fall within permissible
environmental guidelines (Lerner, 2005: 47). The
issue that is raised here concerns the setting
of safe thresholds for permissible pollution (see
Whitehead, 2009). The setting of permissible
pollution standards involves close collaborations
between governmental officials and scientists, but
often reveals uncertainties within the scientific
community concerning precisely what safe levels
of exposure to toxic pollution are. In the context
of the demands for economic development and
job creation in places such as Diamond, there
is a real danger that even if air pollution could
be effectively measured and monitored that
acceptable thresholds for air pollution emissions
would still be set at too high a level.
Many in the community of Diamond are
now seeking relocation away from Shell's Norco
complex. In order to achieve this they are
requesting financial compensation and support
from Shell. Given the uncertainties that surround
the levels of air pollution emanating from Shell's
refinery and chemical plant, the impacts of these
forms of pollution on human health, and what
constitutes acceptable levels of pollution, such
compensation may be difficult to achieve. It is in
the context of situations such as those found in
Diamond that the potential and limitations of
