"When Mississippi environmental regulators checked the emissions of a large wood pellet mill operating a few miles from the Louisiana line, they found pollution levels two times higher than the legal limit.

In Louisiana, two mills nearly identical to the Gloster, Miss. mill operate under the same British owner and produce the same product with the same equipment. But whether these Louisiana mills, located in Bastrop and Urania, are also tainting the air with large quantities of formaldehyde, methanol and other chemicals is a question Louisiana’s environmental regulators can’t answer.

“The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality does not require testing for these pollutants,” said Patrick Anderson, an attorney for the Environmental Integrity Project advocacy organization. “But when Mississippi tested, they learned (the mill) was putting out 50 tons of hazardous air pollutants per year. That blows past the legal limit by almost two fold.”"

Tristan Baurick reports for the New Orleans Times-Picayune July 9, 2023 [2].