Louisiana vinyls plant set for expansion to incinerate hazardous waste. State issues key permits.

Westlake Vinyls plans to start construction by August 2027 on two new furnaces that will burn hazardous leftovers from the production of plastics in Geismar but also boost air pollution in Ascension Parish’s Mississippi River corridor.

The company recently received key state permits and a conclusion from Louisiana environmental officials that the region doesn’t have an air pollution “crisis.”

The incineration units will recycle energy and hydrochloric acid as they destroy the hazardous leftovers of ethylene dichloride and vinyl chloride monomer production, known as “heavy ends,” with an efficiency Westlake says is better than 99.99% and also offer a redundant route to destroy other plant emissions.

Ethylene dichloride and vinyl chloride monomer are used to make polyvinyl chloride, a common commercial and consumer plastic used in plumbing, siding and many other applications.  

Company officials said the planned addition will bring five new jobs and also keep the plant, which employs about 240 people, competitive. Chip Swearngan, a Westlake spokesman, said construction is expected to take 18 to 24 months once remaining approvals are obtained.

“Westlake Corporation is committed to the responsible and compliant handling of all waste streams and will continue to work with state and federal agencies to obtain proper permits required under applicable environmental regulations,” he said.

Drawing concern from a handful of environmental groups but little public interest in a required state hearing last year, the new operation will increase toxic and other kinds of air pollutants in an already heavily industrialized zone of eastern Ascension Parish that fell in the 99th percentile nationally for toxic emissions in 2024, according to the EPA’s now-shuttered EJ Screen database.

The immediate site of Westlake on the southeast corner of La. 30 and La. 73 is part of an area with additional lifetime cancer risk from air pollution that is three times the minimum acceptable level, according to EPA air data.

South of Dutchtown and near Geismar, the plant is also surrounded by areas with additional cancer risks that range from just under the EPA minimum acceptable level to two times the level.

The EPA says hitting or exceeding the risk threshold is not a sign of immediate harm but should warrant further scrutiny of air emissions.

Last fall, however, Johns Hopkins University researchers concluded in a peer-reviewed study that cancer risk from air pollution in Ascension and three other parishes in the industrial corridor between Baton Rouge and New Orleans is as much as 11 times higher than the EPA cancer risk data.

The researchers took their own measurements with mobile air monitoring during one month in 2023 and compared them with EPA risk estimates, which are rooted in annual pollution data self-reported by industry. Industry advocates have criticized the mobile and short-term nature of that analysis.

‘No pollution crisis’

The region is also a prime location for a wave of new ammonia and other chemical production facilities that will rely on carbon capture and sequestration in a bid to cut their climate change impact, but also add to the area’s air pollution.

In a document explaining why the state granted one of the new Westlake permits and responding to public comments, officials with the state Department of Environmental Quality rejected the idea that Geismar area has a problem with air pollution.

The environmental officials said that, based on their analysis, air pollutant concentrations are within state and federal limits for lifetime background exposure, often known as “ambient” air quality, and would remain that way after the company’s expansion. 

“With respect to existing ambient air quality, there is no ‘pollution crisis in the area,’” DEQ officials wrote, partially quoting and rejecting the claim of one commenter.

DEQ approved the second of two Westlake permits last month — for hazardous waste operation. The permit allows the complex to handle as much as five million gallons per year of various kinds of hazardous waste and use two nearly 520,000-gallon spherical tanks to store it.

Among the wastes are ignitable materials, the known human carcinogens benzene and vinyl chloride, the probable human carcinogens hexachlorobenzene and carbon tetrachloride, and chromium. One variant of the heavy metal chromium that is tied to industrial processes is a probable human carcinogen that can also cause respiratory tract, liver and kidney damage, according to federal assessments.  

The material is expected to come primarily from Westlake’s current operations in Geismar and avoid the need to continue shipping it by rail to other Westlake facilities in the state. But those wastes could also be shipped in, at times, from other Westlake facilities for destruction, the company has said.

Under the threshold

In addition to boosting several “criteria pollutants” like fine particulates and nitrogen oxides, the new furnaces will sharply increase the toxic air pollutants hydrochloric acid and chlorine, as well as release several heavy metals, permit papers say.

Westlake had initially sought to boost its permit limits for hydrochloric acid emissions by more than nine times, to up to 47 tons per year, but ended up seeking a limit of more than 3 times the current level after new calculations were submitted by the company.

For the air permit, Westlake wasn’t required to assess the cumulative impact of the added toxic and criteria pollutant emissions, but DEQ says its review of the hydrochloric acid and chlorine emissions and other data shows the increases would not violate state standards for long-term air quality. 

With both sets of pollutants, Westlake estimated that they didn’t cross required thresholds that would have forced the cumulative assessments. For some criteria pollutants, which contribute to respiratory and cardiovascular problems but don’t raise toxic risks, the company’s maximum emissions estimates fell just under those standards, however.

For particulates and carbon dioxide, for instance, the estimated increases in maximum emissions fell 3% to 0.1% under the threshold that would have required the deeper impact review, or a half of a ton per year or less. 

Nitrogen oxides, which contribute to harmful ground-level ozone, also fell close to the threshold for deeper modeling, but Westlake said it would cap those emissions through additional air controls to avoid that added analysis.

The nitrogen oxides increase isn’t expected to be more than 35.4 tons per year. The level that would have triggered a broader emissions review of nitrogen oxide is 40 tons per year.

Company estimates say background concentrations of nitrogen oxides would be well under federal limits, but levels of ozone, which forms in the upper atmosphere as pollutants like nitrogen oxide mix with sunlight, would fall at 68 parts per billion, just under the federal background air standard of 70 ppb.

A part per billion is roughly equivalent to one drop of water in an Olympic-sized swimming pool. 

The project will also add new heavy metal, dioxin and furans emissions, common toxic byproducts of burning fossil fuels or of hazardous incineration, including arsenic, chromium and mercury.