In the days of strong pollution in Sulthur, a city in the southwest of Louisian
But he stopped flying the flag after Louisiana approved a law last May that threatened fines of up to $ 1 million for sharing information about air quality that did not comply with strict standards.
On Thursday, Robertson Micah 6: 8 Mission and other Louisiana environmental organizations sued the State in a federal court for the law that, they say, restricts their freedom of expression and does not delay its ability to promote public healing.
When the neighbors asked where the flags were going, “I would say,” the state of Louisiana says we can’t tell them those things, “Robertson said.
Although the State has argued that the law ensures that the precise data is shared with the public, environmental groups such as Micah 6: 8 Mission believed that it intended to censor them with “onerous restrictions” and the law of the rights of the law.
Despite having received funds from the Environmental Protection Agency to monitor sulfur pollution using high quality aerial monitors for several years, Michah 6: 8 stopped the data on the group’s social networks after the law, Robertson said.
Although the federal law requires monitoring of the main pollutants, the communities of the line closely in Louisiana have long sought data on their exposure to hazardous chemicals and probably carcinogenic such as chloroprene oxide.
According to the Biden administration, the EPA adjusted the regulations for these pollutants, thought that the Trump administration has committed to retreat them.
The EPA of the Biden administration also injected funds to support the monitoring of the community based on the community, especially in the neighborhoods in the “nearby line” with industrial plants that issued pollutants that did not demand that you publicly monitor the federal law. Some groups say that they lack confidence in the data provided by the State and took the opportunity to monitor the air with federal funds.
“These programs help detect pollution levels in areas of the country not well attended by traditional and expensive air monitoring systems,” the demand said.
In response to the influx of base air monitoring, the Louisiana Legislature approved the Community Air Monitoring Law, or Camra, which requires that community groups that monitor pollutants “for the purposes of the equipment approved by Federal Allegal or No Combrehy” that can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
“You can’t talk about air quality unless you are using the team you want to use,” said David Bookbinder, director of Law and Policy of the Environmental Integrity Project, which rebukes the plaintiffs. He added that there was no need for community grouts to buy such exensive equipment when the cheapest technology could provide “perfectly adequate results.”
Community groups that share information based on cheaper air monitoring equipment that did not meet these requirements could face sanctions of $ 32,500 per day and up to $ 1 million for intentional violations, according to the analysis of the environmental integrity project.
“We are a small non -profit organization, we couldn’t pay one day,” Robertson said. “And the way in which the law is written is so ambiguous that you really do not know what you can and you cannot do.”
There is no known case in which the State has pursued these sanctions, but community groups say that the law has a chilling effect on their work.
“The purpose of this was very clear: to silence science, preventing people from doing something with him, sharing it in any way,” said Caithlion Hunter, director of Research and Policy of Rise St. James, one of the demanding demanders.
“I am not sure of how the regulation of community air monitoring programs” violates their constitutional rights, “said Louisiana’s Attorney, Liz Murrill, in a written statement.
Industry groups are excluded from the requirements of the law, the demand indicates.
The law assumes that “that air monitoring information lacks precision if community air monitoring groups, but not by industry or state participants,” the complaint establishes.
The Louisian Environmental Quality Department and the Environmental Protection Agency refused to comment, citing pending litigation.
Brook is a member of Associated Press’s body/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a non -profit national service program that places journalists in local writing rooms to report covered issues.
—Jack Brook, Associated Press/Report for America