Back to LEANWEB Demographic Data Report (Prepared by LEAN April 7, 2004) The following demographic data analysis was done by the EPA in April 1998. This was done in response to an environmental justice complaint raised during the Shintech struggle. (For more information on Shintech go here .) The analysis studies the distribution of minorities living near chemical facilities in Louisiana’s chemical corridor, which is an area along the Mississippi River from Baton Rouge to New Orleans and was titled, TITLE VI ADMINISTRATIVE COMPLAINT, re: Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality/Permit for Proposed Shintech Facility, DRAFT REVISED DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION, April 1998, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Two of the ten chemical corridor scenarios evaluated by the EPA are shown here, there were thirty six scenarios evaluated in total by the EPA. The two shown here are: D11. All TRI, which gives the demographics of minorities living near all facilities in the chemical corridor that report emissions in the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI). D13. TRI SIC > 100K, which gives the demographics of minorities living near chemical facilities that emit over one hundred thousand pounds of toxic chemicals annually and which are in one of three SIC (Standard Industry Classification) categories, 2812, 2821 and/or 2869. Facilities in these SIC categories are large chemical and petrochemical plants. The results for each study contain two tables and a graph. The graph is for the data in the second table and has colored bars of red, green, blue, yellow and purple. When the red and green bars are large, it means that predominantly white populations are living near the chemical plants. When the yellow and purple bars are large it means that a disproportionate number of a minority population are living near the chemical plants. Results for case D11. All TRI show the green and purple bars to be the largest for the one mile category. This means that for 136 TRI facilities in this category 32 percent (the green bar plus the red bar) had a predominatly white population living within a one mile radius, 16 percent (the blue bar) had a larger minority population but one that is still less than the statewide average, while 51 percent (the yellow bar plus the purple bar) had a minority population larger that the statewide average living within one mile. The table shows that the largest minority population living within one mile of a TRI facility in the chemical corridor was 3.25 time the statewide average. A minority population of 3.25 times the state average is actually a 100% minority population, 30.8*3.25=100%. The facility names and the number of facilities with 100% minority populations were not given in the study. The graph also shows results for demographics expanded out to a two mile radius and to a four mile radius of all the TRI facilities in the corridor. At the four mile radius 71.6% of all the facilities were found to have minority populations larger than the statewide average with 55.3% of the facilities having minority populations greater than 45% , which is 1.5 times the statewide average, living within a four mile radius. Results for case D13. TRI SIC > 100K were much worse. This case analyses the minority populations near the 23 largest chemical plants that emit over 100,000 pounds of toxic chemicals into the air annually. Within the one mile radius 34% of the facilities had predominately white populations while 48% had minority populations greater than the statewide average. Within a four mile radius of these facilities no facility had a predominately white population while 87% of the facilities had minority populations greater than the state average, with 69.6% of the facilities having minority populations greater than 45%. These two cases are representative of the ten scenarios included in the EPA study for the chemical corridor. The study showed that the larger the chemical facility and the more toxic the emissions from that facility the larger the minority population living near that facility was.

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