Site Specific Information for Ethylene Oxide (EtO) for: Union Carbide Corp., St. Charles Operations, Taft, La EIS Facility ID 7202911, AI 2083

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 across the nation with potentially elevated risk from continuous exposure 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. EPA and the State air agencies are working together to better understand emissions in areas that NATA identified as potentially having elevated risk. State air agency partners are in discussions with individual facilities to identify opportunities for reducing EtO emissions from those facilities. EPA is reviewing its national regulations for industrial facilities that emit EtO.  Actual risks today may be lower or higher than NATA estimated due to several factors, including updated or more refined facility emissions information or recent facility changes including the installation of pollution controls.

This page contains links to documents that may be downloaded that describe efforts to understand better the emissions from the specific site identified in the Title of this page.  We will update this page as new reports and developed.  EPA is providing this information to address, in part, the EPA Office of Inspector General’s Management Alert (dated March 31, 2020) for the site.

Seventy five page English transcription of the audio from the video recording of the August 26, 2021 Community Meeting concerning Ethylene Oxide emissions from Union Carbide (pdf) (306.13 KB, August 26, 2021)

A video of the Community Meeting held on August 19, 2021 can be found at the following youtube link:  https://youtu.be/vmEuXtjGcuE

Announcement of and How to Participate in a Community Meeting via Zoom or by Phone On Thursday, August 19, 2021 6 pm to 8 pm (pdf) (469.02 KB, 08/03/2021)
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will hold a virtual community meeting (via phone or Zoom Cloud online) to provide members of the community, community leaders, public officials, and leaders of community organizations near the facility with information about ethylene oxide and its health effects.  During the virtual meeting, EPA and State staff and facility representatives will provide information and answer questions about ethylene oxide, how it is managed by the facility and associated risks in the communities near the facility. This document describes the event and how to participate.  English, Español.

EtO Technical Assessment Report Cover Letter to Dow- Union Carbide (7/26/21 2 pp) (pdf) (138.19 KB, July 26, 2021)
This cover letter conveys the Technical Assessment Report dated June 24, 2021 for the subject site. 2 pages.

EtO Technical Assessment Report for Union Carbide (June 24, 2021 rev July 28, 2021 3pp) (pdf) (704.43 KB)
The information in this document describes the technical analyses conducted since October of 2020 concerning the site and provides an update to and documents the work conducted since NATA was issued in August 2018. Originally published on June 24, 2021, revised to correct a typographical error on July 28, 2021.​