Nalleli Hidalgo, a community outreach liaison with Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services, attended the signing last week, after meeting with Regan on his listening tour. She told ProPublica she was overwhelmed by the people missing from the room who were not alive to witness this achievement. “We have lost too many loved ones as a result of bureaucratic inertia,” she said, noting that the EPA has long been required by law to update its risk standards for these chemicals. “Our communities should not have to wait one more day for fence line monitoring to take effect.” For years, Texans like Hidalgo, living near chemical plants, have asked the agency to measure what they’re breathing in.

Last week, Biden administration officials finalized a rule they said would significantly reduce cancer-causing air pollutants, lowering cancer risk and advancing environmental justice goals. But the move by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency left out a Black West Virginia community yet again.  While the rule will target facilities surrounding communities historically overburdened by toxic air pollution, it doesn’t cover the chemical production category that has disproportionately affected one of West Virginia’s only two majority-Black communities. “It’s actually a positive development, but it doesn’t fully address the issues in Institute,” said Maya Nye, a former Kanawha Valley resident and member of the Charleston-based People Concerned About Chemical Safety. 

Today, following years of advocacy from environmental justice organizations, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized a rule to significantly reduce emissions of toxic air pollution from an estimated 200 chemical plants, in an effort to reduce elevated cancer risks experienced by fenceline communities. "It has taken nearly a whole generation of hard work to arrive in DC to make this announcement,” said Nalleli Hidalgo, Education Liaison with Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services (tejas), who introduced EPA Administer Michael Regan at today’s White House signing event. “As we take this moment in, we remember that we are not here as individuals but as a community standing in solidarity as we witness a key moment in rulemaking to reduce the daily harm our communities face, especially frontline communities that live directly across from HON facilities.”

Chemical safety advocates praised the EPA’s new requirements but added that the agency needs to go further, including by adding a notoriously explosive farm fertilizer – ammonium nitrate – to the list of chemicals that should require companies to develop risk management plans. Advocates also say EPA should have included more safety requirements and mandates for air monitoring at the fence lines of major facilities so nearby residents can see what chemicals are being released in real time.  “We’ve needed this rule for a long time,” said Maya Nye, executive director of chemical safety advocacy coalition Coming Clean. But she added that “additional measures are needed. Read more in Oil and Gas Watch News. 

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