Washington, DC, Sept. 20, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Today, Coming Clean and the Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform launched a report that profiles three chemical incidents that occurred inside two weeks this January, and recommends particular security measures that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ought to require so as to forestall future chemical disasters.
On August 31, 2022, the EPA revealed proposed revisions to the Risk Management Program (RMP), which regulates roughly 12,000 high-risk amenities within the U.S. that use or retailer sure extremely hazardous chemical compounds. EPA was particularly directed by Congress to use this program to forestall disasters, but greater than 140 dangerous chemical incidents happen on common yearly.
Three such incidents in January, 2022 which are the main target of the report embody: a hearth on the Winston Weaver Fertilizer plant in North Carolina that brought on 6,500 individuals to evacuate and practically triggered a lethal ammonium nitrate explosion; an explosion on the Westlake Chemical South plant that brought on 7,000 college students to shelter in place within the Lake Charles space in Louisiana; and a large hearth that unfold to the Qualco chemical plant in Passaic, New Jersey and got here dangerously shut to igniting an estimated 3 million kilos of hazardous chemical compounds.
Preventing Disaster gives actionable suggestions the EPA ought to embody in its remaining rule that would forestall related incidents from occurring sooner or later, together with:
- Requiring all RMP amenities to contemplate, doc, and implement safer chemical compounds and applied sciences;
- Expanding the Risk Management Program to cowl ammonium nitrate and different hazardous chemical compounds which stay excluded within the proposed rule;
- Requiring RMP amenities to not solely contemplate the dangers posed by pure hazards, as proposed within the draft rule, however to take significant steps to put together for these dangers, comparable to implementing backup energy for chemical manufacturing and storage processes.
“Overall,” the report concludes, “EPA’s draft rule, rather than adopting common-sense prevention requirements, continues to rely on voluntary actions by high-risk facilities. This approach has failed to prevent many chemical disasters over the last 25 years. If the draft rule is not strengthened, facility workers and neighbors across the country will continue to bear the human, environmental, and financial costs of more preventable disasters.”
“The EPA still has time to get this rule right,” mentioned Steve Taylor, Program Director for Coming Clean, who contributed to the report. “Communities at the fenceline of these hazardous facilities, and the workers inside them, are sick of industry stonewalling and EPA excuses. A stronger rule is needed to ensure that hazards are removed, or we will continue to see more chemical disasters.”
“We’re glad that EPA recognizes the need to reconsider the RMP rule; preventing disasters is a longstanding priority for EJHA. Unfortunately the draft rule is full of more voluntary measures, which decades of incidents have proven do not work.” mentioned Michele Roberts, National Co-Coordinator of the Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform. “We are depending on EPA to have the moral and political courage to keep the promises President Biden has made to our communities— that means a final rule that requires the transition to safer chemicals and processes wherever possible. Removing hazards before disasters can occur is the best way to protect workers and communities.”
Coming Clean and EJHA are a part of a broad coalition that features fenceline group members, well being professionals and members of Congress that has urged the EPA to undertake a stronger RMP rule for a few years. Members of this coalition might be vocalizing their priorities and issues on the draft rule at digital public hearings held by the EPA on September 26, 27 and 28, 2022.
# # #
Coming Clean is a collaborative community of frontline group activists, environmental well being and justice organizations, and coverage, science and market consultants, dedicated to reworking the chemical business in order that it’s not a supply of hurt. For twenty years, now we have fought to finish legacy air pollution in communities of colour, ban poisonous pesticides that hurt farmworkers and their households, regulate hazardous amenities, and finish the sale of unsafe merchandise in greenback shops and different retailers throughout the nation. Learn extra about our Chemical Disaster Prevention Program.
The Environmental Justice Health Alliance for Chemical Policy Reform is a nationwide community of grassroots Environmental and Economic Justice organizations and advocates in communities which are disproportionately impacted by poisonous chemical compounds from legacy contamination, ongoing publicity to polluting amenities and health-harming chemical compounds in family merchandise. EJHA helps a simply transition in the direction of safer chemical compounds and a pollution-free economy that leaves no group or employee behind.
