LAKE CHARLES, LA – The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) is taking years to respond to pollution violations and is failing to require petrochemical industries in the Lake Charles region to take actions to fix the causes of the violations, putting the local community at risk of dangerous air pollution.
These are the conclusions of an analysis that the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) and Micah 6:8 sent in a letter to LDEQ leadership today. EIP analyzed state compliance and enforcement records for 23 petrochemical facilities in the Lake Charles region between January 2021 and August 2026.
The analysis found that none of the LDEQ enforcement actions required the companies to investigate the root causes of the violations and implement specific solutions. In particular, LDEQ did not direct the companies to make specific changes to equipment or operations, improve monitoring, develop corrective-action plans, or verify a return to compliance.
Instead of taking strong enforcement actions that remedy violations and make sure they don’t happen again, LDEQ tends to only require companies to submit reports, information or test results, according to the letter to the state agency from the Environmental Integrity Project and Micah 6:8 mission.
“Air pollution violations should not be allowed to linger for years,” said Lauren Fleer, Director of Science and Engineering at EIP. “Louisiana is not doing enough to make industry clean up their operations and comply with the Clean Air Act. The result is that people living downwind are breathing unhealthy air.”
“Our communities are breathing the consequences of an enforcement system that responds too slowly and demands too little,” said Cynthia Parker Robertson, Executive Director of Micah 6:8 Mission. “LDEQ must require industries to correct the causes of their violations and prove they are protecting the people who live downwind.”
LDEQ often identified and addressed violations years after they occurred. In about 60 percent of the formal enforcement cases that EIP examined, the initial violations occurred more than five years earlier. The state proposed penalties in about a third of the cases to date, with penalties averaging only $66,300.
The state agency relied heavily on self-reported violations by companies to assess the extent of noncompliance, and did not review or respond to problems in a timely way. In addition, the companies often included violations from years prior – creating chronic delays in any kind of response from the state.
For example, LDEQ in issued a compliance order to Indorama Ventures Olefins ethane plant in July 2025 to address violations that were identified by the agency five years earlier for failures to report benzene – a carcinogen – in wastewater in 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021, according to state records. Despite the seriousness of these violations and the well-established risks of benzene to public health and the environment, LDEQ did not issue the order until four to seven years after the underlying events occurred.
Similarly, LDEQ issued a compliance order to the Phillips 66 Lake Charles Refinery in November 2025 for repeated exceedances of permit limits for multiple air pollutants. But some of the violations were five years old or more, dating back to July 2020.
In a 2021 report, the Louisiana Legislative Auditor examined LDEQ’s enforcement of air quality issues and found timeliness one of the most significant weaknesses in the agency’s enforcement program. The auditor found that violations were often identified years after they happened and that enforcement actions frequently were not issued until years later still.
EIP’s review found this problem persists and continues to make the local community in Lake Charles vulnerable to excess emissions of health-damaging air pollutants.
Download a copy of the letter here.
The Environmental Integrity Project is America’s environmental watchdog. We hold polluters and governments accountable to protect public health and the environment.
At Micah 6:8 Mission, we envision a Southwest Louisiana where every community is informed, prepared, and empowered to thrive. We strive to create a region where environmental stewardship, disaster resilience, and social equity go hand in hand.
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Media contact: Ari Phillips, Environmental Integrity Project (202) 263-4456 or aphillips@environmentalintegrity.org
