
Louisiana stifles community air monitoring with threat of million-dollar fines, federal lawsuit says
NEW ORLEANS — On days of heavy pollution in Sulphur, a southwest Louisiana town surrounded by more than 16 industrial plants, Cynthia 'Cindy' Robertson once flew a red flag outside her home so her community knew they faced health hazards from high levels of soot and other pollutants.
But she stopped flying the flag after Louisiana passed a law last May that threatened fines of up to $1 million for sharing information about air quality that did not meet strict standards.
On Thursday, Robertson's group Micah 6:8 Mission and other Louisiana environmental organizations sued the state in federal court over the law they say restricts their free speech and undermines their ability to promote public health in heavily industrialized communities .
When neighbors asked where the flags went, 'I'd tell them, 'The state of Louisiana says we can't tell y'all that stuff,' ' Robertson said.
While the state has argued the law ensures that accurate data is shared with the public, environmental groups like Micah 6:8 Mission believed it was intended to censor them with 'onerous restrictions' and violates their free speech rights, according to the lawsuit.
Despite having received Environmental Protection Agency funding to monitor Sulphur's pollution using high quality air monitors for several years, Michah 6:8 Mission stopped posting data on the group's social media after the law was signed last May, Robertson said.
While federal law requires publicly disclosed monitoring of major pollutants, fence-line communities in Louisiana have long sought data on their exposure to hazardous and likely carcinogenic chemicals like chloroprene and ethylene oxide , which were not subject to these same regulations.
Under the Biden administration, the EPA tightened regulations for these pollutants, though the Trump administration has committed to rolling them back.
The Biden administration's EPA also injected funding to support community-based air monitoring, especially in neighborhoods on the 'fence-line' with industrial plants that emitted pollutants that they were not required to publicly monitor under federal law. Some groups say they lack confidence in the data the state does provide and embraced the chance to monitor the air themselves with federal funding.
'These programs help detect pollution levels in areas of the country not well served by traditional and costly air monitoring systems,' the lawsuit stated.
In response to the influx of grassroots air monitoring, Louisiana's Legislature passed the Community Air Monitoring Reliability Act, or CAMRA, which requires that community groups that monitor pollutants 'for the purpose of alleging violations or noncompliance' of federal law must follow EPA standards, including approved equipment that can costs hundreds of thousands of dollars.
'You can't talk about air quality unless you're using the equipment that they want you to use,' said David Bookbinder, director of law and policy at the Environmental Integrity Project, which represents the plaintiffs. He added there was no need for community groups to purchase such expensive equipment when cheaper technology could provide 'perfectly adequate results ... to be able to tell your community, your family, whether or not the air they're breathing is safe.'
Community groups sharing information based on cheaper air monitoring equipment that did not meet these requirements could face penalties of $32,500 a day and up to $1 million for intentional violations, according to analysis from the Environmental Integrity Project.
'We're a small nonprofit, we couldn't afford to pay one day's worth of that,' Robertson said. 'And the way the law is written, it's so ambiguous, you don't really know what you can and can't do.'
There is no known instance in which the state has pursued these penalties, but community groups say the law has a chilling effect on their work.
'The purpose of this was very clear: to silence the science, preventing people from doing anything with it, sharing it in any form,' said Caitlion Hunter, director of research and policy for Rise St. James, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.
'I'm not sure how regulating community air monitoring programs 'violates their constitutional rights',' Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill countered in a written statement.
Industry groups are excluded from the law's requirements, the lawsuit notes.
The law presumes 'that air monitoring information lacks accuracy if disseminated by community air monitoring groups, but not by industry participants or the state,' the complaint states.
The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and the Environmental Protection Agency declined to comment, citing pending litigation.
___
Brook is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Bloomberg
20 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
Musk Says He Regrets Social Media Posts Lashing Out at Trump
Elon Musk, who served as a close adviser and confidante to President Donald Trump until a bitter public falling out last week in a series of social-media posts, issued his strongest sign of contrition yet over how he handled the rupture. 'I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week,' he said on his social-media platform, X. 'They went too far.'


Fox News
24 minutes ago
- Fox News
Musk says he regrets social media posts targeting Trump: 'They went too far'
Tech executive Elon Musk said Wednesday that he regrets making some of his recent social media posts attacking President Donald Trump, admitting they went "too far." "I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week. They went too far," Musk wrote on X. This comes after a recent public spat between the two as Musk began criticizing Trump for his "big beautiful" spending bill after the billionaire tech executive spent months working to cut wasteful spending as part of the Department of Government Efficiency, which Musk has since departed. At one point, Musk claimed Trump was in the Justice Department's files on its investigation into accused pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, saying that was why the president's administration has not made them public. "Time to drop the really big bomb: @realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files," Musk wrote. "That is the real reason they have not been made public. Have a nice day, DJT!" Musk later deleted the post. Other posts from Musk included a claim that Trump would not have won the election without his help while accusing Trump of "ingratitude." In another post, Musk suggested that Trump should be impeached and replaced by Vice President Vance. Trump said last week he is not interested in talking to Musk, telling Fox News that "Elon's totally lost it." The president also said while speaking with reporters in the Oval Office last week that he was "very disappointed" in Musk's vocal criticisms of his spending bill. Trump claimed Musk knew what was in the bill and "had no problem" with it until electric vehicle incentives were cut, an assessment Musk slammed as "false." Trump also criticized Musk on social media, saying in one post: "Elon was 'wearing thin,' I asked him to leave, I took away his EV Mandate that forced everyone to buy Electric Cars that nobody else wanted (that he knew for months I was going to do!), and he just went CRAZY!" But this week, Musk and Trump have appeared to soften their stances against one another. "We had a great relationship and I wish him well — very well, actually," Trump said on Monday. Musk, who had also been Trump's senior advisor before his recent exit from the federal government, responded to the clip with a heart emoji. The public spat between the two billionaires appeared to be losing steam after Musk seemingly issued support for Trump's response to the anti-ICE demonstrations in Los Angeles. "Governor Gavin Newscum and 'Mayor' Bass should apologize to the people of Los Angeles for the absolutely horrible job that they've done, and this now includes the ongoing L.A. riots. These are not protesters, they are troublemakers and insurrectionists," Trump said late Sunday in a post Musk shared. Musk also reacted to a post by Vance, who shared a screenshot of a post from Trump about how his administration would address the demonstrations in Los Angeles. "This moment calls for decisive leadership," Vance said along with the screenshot. "The president will not tolerate rioting and violence." Musk responded to the post with a pair of American flag emojis.


Bloomberg
25 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
Musk Backtracks on Trump, Says Posts 'Went Too Far'
Elon Musk, who served as a close adviser and confidant to President Donald Trump until a bitter public falling out last week in a series of social-media posts, issued his strongest sign of contrition yet over how he handled the rupture. "I regret some of my posts about President @realDonaldTrump last week," he said on his social-media platform, X. "They went too far." The dispute, which was triggered by Musk's opposition to the tax-cut bill Trump is pushing through Congress — posed a threat to Musk's wealth when the president raised the prospect of retaliating by cutting off his government contracts. That would have battered SpaceX, his rocket company, and Tesla Inc.'s stock price tumbled last Thursday, before recovering most of the loss. Bloomberg Anchor Tom Mackenzie joins Caroline Hepker and Valerie Tytel with the details. (Source: Bloomberg)