Ethylene Oxide: Technical Reviews and Outreach to Potentially Affected Communities

Status Report: Union Carbide Corp., St. Charles Operations -Taft, Louisiana

As EPA pursues its mission to protect public health and the environment, addressing ethylene
oxide (EtO) remains a major priority for the Agency. EPA's National Air Toxics
Assessment (NATA), released in August 2018, identified a number of areas (census tracts) with
potentially elevated risk from continuous exposure, over 70 years, to EtO in the outdoor air.
NATA estimated these risks based on EtO emissions from 2014, which were the most recently
available at the time.

NATA is a screening-level analysis that is intended to identify pollutants or areas for closer
examination. Because of this, additional work is needed to better understand emissions in
areas that NATA identified as potentially having elevated risk. EPA has been supporting its state
air agency partners as they conduct that work and identify opportunities for reducing EtO
emissions from individual facilities, while the Agency reviews its national regulations for
industrial facilities that emit EtO. Actual risks today may be higher or lower than NATA
estimated due to several factors, including updated or more refined facility emissions
information, or recent facility changes such as the installation of pollution controls.

The information below describes the technical analyses conducted for Union Carbide Corp., St.
Charles Operations (Union Carbide Corp.) in Taft, La., as part of the follow-up work conducted
since NATA was issued in August 2018. It also summarizes outreach to nearby communities
about the NATA results. EPA is providing this information, in part, in response to the EPA Office
of Inspector General's March 31, 2020, Management Alert which called on EPA to provide
information to the 25 communities that NATA identified as potentially having the highest risk
from EtO emissions.

Technical reviews conducted:

On October 15, 2020, EPA Region 6 sent letters to request assistance from the State of
Louisiana in gathering the most current information on the specific ethylene oxide emitting
facilities, including Union Carbide Corp., and to assist with the development of technical
assessments. Our letter outlines our proposed technical approach/steps to complete these
assessments, including the information needed from our state regulatory partners.

Additional information on Union Carbide Corp. will be provided on this website in future
updates.

Outreach conducted:

EPA Region 6 is currently focused on developing additional more refined assessments. EPA
Region 6 will then discuss with the state of Louisiana how to share information with nearby
communities. Additional information on Union Carbide Corp. will be provided on this website in
future updates.

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