The Trump administration plans to drop a federal lawsuit against a chemical manufacturer accused of releasing high levels of a likely carcinogen from its Louisiana plant, according to two people familiar with the plans.
The government filed the lawsuit during the Biden administration after regulators determined that chloroprene emissions from the Denka Performance Elastomer plant were contributing to health concerns in an area with the highest cancer risk of any place in the United States.
The 2023 lawsuit was among several enforcement actions taken by the Environmental Protection Agency on behalf of poor and minority communities that have disproportionately borne the brunt of toxic pollution.
The Denka plant is located in the predominantly Black community of LaPlace, La., in a region so dense with industrial facilities that it is known as “Cancer Alley.” Chloroprene is used to produce neoprene, a synthetic rubber that is found in automotive parts, hoses, beer cozies, orthopedic braces and electric cables.
The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment. The agency intends to ask the United States District Court Eastern District of Louisiana this week to dismiss the lawsuit, according to the two people familiar with the decision, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the case.
The lawsuit had given the neighboring community a measure of hope that pollution levels might finally come down, said Robert Taylor, a founder of Concerned Citizens of St John Parish, a community group.
“The fact that they may drop this is very hard for us,” said Mr. Taylor, who has been fighting pollution from the plant for more than a decade. “We need to regroup and revitalize ourselves and get ready for a very difficult struggle.”
In 2023, the E.P.A. and Justice Department sued Denka, arguing that the plant posed an “imminent and substantial endangerment to public health and welfare” and should be compelled to reduce its emissions.
In announcing the lawsuit, the E.P.A. said that it had found that children under 18 accounted for about 20 percent of the population living within two and a half miles of the Denka plant. More than 300 children who attended an elementary school located less than 500 feet from the Denka facility had been exposed to chloroprene emissions, the agency said.
Children under the age of 16 are particularly vulnerable to mutagenic carcinogens like chloroprene, the E.P.A. has found.
Executives at Denka, a Japanese company that acquired the elastomer plant from DuPont in 2015, could not be reached for comment. Paul Nathanson, a senior principal at Bracewell, a law firm that has represented Denka, declined to comment.
David Uhlmann, who led enforcement at the E.P.A. under the Biden administration, said that dismissing the case “makes clear where the Trump administration stands, fighting for polluters at the expense of a community that simply wants to breathe clean air.”
The Biden administration made environmental justice — the idea that all communities should be protected from environmental harms — a priority. Michael S. Regan, the second Black person to serve as E.P.A. administrator, took a “journey to justice” tour in 2021 to low-income communities in Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas as part of a push to increase monitoring and enforcement of federal rules regarding air and water quality. He promised “strong action,” later buoyed by $60 billion provided by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act for environmental justice programs.
The Trump administration is now eliminating government programs aimed at environmental justice, and, last month, the E.P.A. placed 168 employees who work on the issue on administrative leave.
Mr. Trump has filled the top ranks of the E.P.A. with former lobbyists and lawyers for the oil and chemical industries, many of whom worked in his first administration to weaken climate and pollution protections.
