Chemical plant safetyNew Jersey chemical plant vulnerable
Chemical plants must submit a report to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) detailing what they — the plants — consider a “worst case disaster scenario”; Kuehne Chemical said that for its South Kearny, New Jersey, chemical facility the worst that could happen would be the catastrophic release of one 90-ton rail car of chlorine gas which would put 12 million people at risk within a 14-mile radius of the plant in the New York-New Jersey region; trouble is, the company keeps more than one chlorine-filled rail car on the site, in addition to on-site storage of 2 million pounds of chlorine gas, so a worst-case disaster at the site could be far worse than the company’s scenario
A South Kearny, New Jersey, chemical facility has failed to reduce the risk of a catastrophic accident or terrorist attack on the plant and has grossly underestimated to the government what the worst case scenario would be in such an event, the environmental activist organization Greenpeace argued.
Northjersey.com’s James M. O’Neill writes that Greenpeace sent a letter to DHS and to the company, Kuehne Chemical Co., complaining about lax security after the organization conducted its own “citizen’s inspection” of the facility, which is bordered by the Hackensack River and extends under the Pulaski Skyway.
“Greenpeace was able to move freely around the perimeter of this plant in daylight without interruption or contact with any plant security or other security personnel,” Greenpeace legislative director Rick Hind said in the letter.
Greenpeace was able to take pictures of the plant from Greenpeace boats on the Hackensack, from above the plant on the Pulaski Skyway, and in front of the plant’s main gate, Hind said.
In a worst case disaster scenario that it was required to report to the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Kuehne estimated that the catastrophic release of one 90-ton rail car of chlorine gas would put 12 million people at risk within a 14-mile radius of the plant in the New York-New Jersey region.
The Greenpeace photos indicated the presence of more than one rail car labeled with chlorine, and the company has reported on-site storage of 2 million pounds of chlorine gas, Hind said. “Our inspection shows that the chemical disaster scenario that Kuehne has given to the EPA is as unrealistic as the estimates BP first gave about the size of their Deepwater oil rig blowout,” Hind said.
O’Neill writes that Donald F. Nicolai, president and chief executive officer of Kuehne, was unavailable to comment. The chemical company was cited in 2008 for thirty-one safety violations and fined nearly $50,000 by the federal government for mishandling chlorine.
Other companies that routinely handle chlorine are moving to a just-in-time on-site generation of chlorine gas to reduce the risk of a catastrophic accident or terrorist attack, but Kuehne has not done so, Hind said.
Kuehne and dozens of other facilities along waterways are exempted from a temporary federal law regulating chemical facilities because they fall under the Maritime Transportation Security Act, which Hind said provided less stringent rules.
In Washington, the House has passed a more comprehensive bill which seeks to improve security and reduce the risk at such facilities. Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-New Jersey) has announced plans to introduce a Senate version of the bill within the next few weeks. “Many of the highest-risk facilities have not taken even the least expensive and already available steps to reduce their attractiveness to terrorists by using safer chemicals or processes,” Lautenberg said in March when announcing that he would introduce the bill.
