The long-awaited change to federal safety regulations will, for the first time, require tons of of chemical plants and refineries in Louisiana to assess how hurricanes and floods could trigger explosions, oil spills and the release of toxic gases into nearby communities.
However, the new regulations do not oblige firms to take any motion regarding this risk.
On March 1, o US Environmental Protection Agency finalized a series of changes to a program that regulates nearly 12,000 facilities across the country that use or store large amounts of hazardous substances in populated areas. Under the program, these facilities must submit a Risk Management Plan (RMP) to the Environmental Protection Agency that outlines worst-case scenarios for chemical disasters.
The proposed changes, which were supported by environmental groups, would also require firms to cut back risks from extreme weather with stronger chemical storage tanks, levees to guard against flooding and other measures. But industry groups opposed it, calling such mandates costly and unnecessary.
Over the past 20 years, storms along the Gulf Coast have caused oil spills, chemical fires and toxic gas releases, forcing evacuations and hospitalizing dozens of individuals. Few deaths have been linked to the events, but experts say the risk is growing as climate change causes more intense storms.
The regulations, which have been in the works for greater than two years, do not adequately address the most pressing issues facing communities in danger from each extreme weather and chemical releases, said Robert Taylor, executive director Concerned Residents of the Parish of St. John the Baptista bunch that opposes the development of the petrochemical industry in the largely low-income and Black communities along the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
“If [the rules] don’t protect us from the poison in the air, when the storm comes, what’s the purpose?” he said. “It makes no sense to suggest risks but then not require these companies to protect us.”
In Louisiana, 2022 RMPs show petrochemical plants can release toxic gases in areas of New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lake Charles and the Mississippi River industrial corridor often called “Cancer Alley.” Several of the 535 RMPs for Louisiana plants, including the Chalmette refinery outside New Orleans, already note that extreme weather conditions could cause what firms consider their worst case scenarios.
“With the accelerating climate crisis and storms like Hurricane Harvey and others impacting chemical plants, it is critical that plants assess these risks,” said Darya Minovi, an analyst at the company Union of Concerned Scientists.
The group published, amongst others: report in 2021, which estimated that just about one-third of U.S. RMP facilities are positioned in areas vulnerable to flooding, storms and wildfires. RMP facilities are likely to be concentrated in communities with high percentages of Black and Latino residents and low-income households, the study found. Environmental Protection Agency assessment in 2018.
The Union of Concerned Scientists and other environmental groups praised EPA for making several incremental changes to the RMP regulations, including new requirements for the use of safer technologies, increased worker involvement in safety planning, and higher community notification of toxic emissions.
Minovi had hoped the regulations would require firms to construct more robust storage tanks, taller levees and other protections in areas vulnerable to hurricanes and flooding, but she said the EPA’s push to get firms to a minimum of consider the risks of utmost weather is counterproductive. a step in the right direction. direction.
“Overall, we are pleased with the EPA final [rules] it included requirements for natural hazard assessments,” Minovi said.
But communities in Cancer Alley already know the many dangers they face. They need rules that protect them, Taylor said.
“The information we are already receiving from the government is appalling,” he said, referring to the amount of toxic chemicals stored and sometimes by chance released from the St. John and neighboring parishes. “The most terrifying thing is that the government is doing nothing about it.”
According to its 2020 RMP, the Denka Performance Elastomers plant in Reserve, a half-mile from Taylor’s home, could release chlorine gas in an area of greater than 100,000 residents or cause an explosion large enough to wreck a close-by elementary school. The plant that produces the chemical used to provide synthetic rubber is positioned in a flood hazard zone, but the RMP makes almost no mention of floods and hurricanes.
A Denka spokesman said the facility is on higher ground than the surrounding area and weathered the storm without causing major damage. The facility’s RMP is scheduled to be updated next yr.
The Chalmette refinery’s 2022 RMP listed floods and hurricanes amongst potential disasters that might trigger the release of hydrofluoric acid, a fast-moving and highly toxic gas. While refinery operators emphasize that such an event is extremely unlikely to occur, the facility’s RMP notes that enormous volumes of gas could spread anywhere in the New Orleans metropolitan area in minutes.
Power plant and refinery operators in Louisiana say the new regulations place an undue burden on an industry that has spent many years improving storm preparedness and facility safety. According to the American Chemical Council, the variety of chemical-related incidents has decreased by 80% since the RMP program was created in 1996.
Taylor hopes the EPA will tighten regulations even further, forcing firms to do greater than just assess climate risks.
“Until then, all these rules are giving people a false sense of security,” he said.
