Lawsuit filed against La. air monitoring law alleges first amendment violation

The plaintiffs claim that the law infringes on free speech by censoring air quality data that does not originate from the specific equipment mandated by the law. They argue that the monitors required by the law are too expensive for most community organizations.

The law, signed by Gov. Jeff Landry on May 23, 2024, restricts the types of air monitoring equipment that can be used as evidence of air pollution against alleged polluters.

The law states that anyone seeking to monitor air pollutants to violate or not comply with the federal Clean Air Act, the Louisiana Environmental Quality Act, or any other applicable law or regulation must use an EPA-approved emission test or monitoring method.

According to activists, the law threatens to impose up to $32,500 per day for violations, plus up to $1 million for intentional violations.

A press release states that one of the low-cost monitors community groups commonly use costs $289, while one of the monitors required by Louisiana law costs $58,691.

“Despite its name, CAMRA has nothing to do with making air monitors more reliable,” said Nandan Joshi, an attorney with the Public Citizen Litigation Group. “It’s about censoring Louisiana residents who want to talk to their neighbors about air quality in their communities and preventing them from taking action on poor air quality.”

Joshi said the legislature wrote into the law that it would police the accuracy of sensor data disseminated by community groups. He said the law does not restrict the state or industry leaders from disseminating their information to the public.

“This is a constitutional red flag,” Joshi said. “The First Amendment doesn’t allow the government to silence voices that the government thinks are wrong.”

Joshi said the law does not allow the use of these sensors to state that air quality is good. Only the allegation of bad air quality can be restricted.

Joshi said the EPA has endorsed and funded the low-cost air monitoring systems that community groups are using. He said they provide important information on air quality in areas of the country not served by expensive monitoring devices.

Peter DeCarlo, a professor of environmental health and engineering, said regulatory monitors are often not the best for measuring air pollutants in an area. He said the scientific community has and continues to develop new instrumentation to measure chemicals faster and with more accuracy than regulatory instrumentation.

“Community needs should be met by the regulatory agencies and when they are not researchers such as myself and the communities should not be threatened for seeking to understand what is in the air that they breathe,” DeCarlo said.

Joy Banner, co-founder of the Descendants Project, said her community in St. John the Baptist Parish sits across the Mississippi River from an aluminum smeltery plant. She said this plant releases toxic chemicals such as mercury. Banner claims neither the government nor industry leaders adequately monitor air quality and that her community relies on low-cost monitors to keep track of it.

Kate Hunter, director of research and policy at RISE St. James, said many communities near these petrochemical facilities rank in or over the 95th percentile nationwide for risk of developing cancer due to toxic air pollution.

Cynthia Robertson, the executive director of the Micah 6:8 Mission, said the law has already affected their ability to communicate information about air quality.

“Here in southwest Louisiana, we were posting our information on Facebook, and we were putting out flags in front of our office with the different colors of what the particulate matter was and when we realized that we could be fined for that we stopped doing it,” Robertson said.

Amy Stelly, executive director of the Clairborne Avenue Alliance Design Studio, said the law would also prohibit the publication of data related to car pollution on urban highways. As a result, Stelly said they had to remove the air quality data they had collected on New Orleans roads from their website.