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In February, citizens of Norco, Louisiana finally saw some action taken by the EPA to mitigate the long list of air pollution violations at the Shell Oil refinery in their town. The list of violations originated during the Obama administration, and just reached a settlement of $350,000 in fines.1 Local environmentalists felt that the settlement was barely a “slap on the wrist” though and said that the government should have been enforcing the pollution laws 20 years ago.
Since 2009, local environmental advocates have been testing and documenting the pollution expelled by the refinery. They consistently found benzene, a carcinogen that can cause central nervous system and bone marrow damage that is linked to an increased risk of developing lymphatic and hematopoietic cancers, acute myelogenous leukemia, as well as chronic lymphocytic leukemia.2 Unfortunately, even though the settlement was reached and Shell was also instructed to spend $10 million on new pollution control equipment, activists are concerned that due to the lack of regulatory enforcement, the pollution will continue.
The fines, penalties, and spend required to clean up pollution have all drastically decreased from administration to administration, and environmentalists do not feel that the drip is due to better behavior among polluters.
Source:
2 https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/benzene#section=Top
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