The U.S. chemical industry is in the midst of a debate with environmental and right-to-know groups over whether information about accidental chemical releases should continue to be publicly available, the Wall Street Journal reported today (see GSN, March 12).

Some critics have argued that if the information is available, terrorists might be encouraged to attack a U.S. chemical plant.  Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the chemical industry has been able to limit some public access to information on chemical accidents, the Journal reported.  U.S. agencies have also begun removing such information from Web sites and public reading rooms.

Still, it is nearly impossible to completely block access to information once it has been released, according to the Journal.  The Right-to-Know Network, a group that advocates openness in governments, maintains a Web site that allows users to determine where an attack on a U.S. chemical plant would inflict the most casualties, the Journal reported.  Other groups have obtained U.S. Environmental Protection Agency descriptions of potential chemical releases at more than 15,000 chemical plants — information that remains available in its entirety at agency reading rooms throughout the country, the Journal reported.

The environmental activist group Greenpeace is expected in the next two months to release an online map illustrating that a terrorist attack on a Kuehne Chemical Co. bleach plant in New Jersey could release a cloud of chlorine gas across New York City that would kill and injure thousands, according to the Journal.

Kuehne Chemical Chief Operating Officer Peter Kuehne said that publishing such information increases the chance that his plant will become a target for a terrorist attack.

“I don’t think someone who wants to do us harm has a right to know this,” he said.  “In fact, we have a responsibility to make as little as possible available to them.”

Greenpeace has previously published information on worst-case scenarios and the number of people at risk for three Dow Corning Corp. chemical plants:  a Michigan plant with 330,000 people at risk, a Texas plant with 105,000 people at risk and a West Virginia plant with 155,000 people at risk.  Greenpeace has said it next plans to publish the worst-case scenarios for the Kuehne plant, as well as two DuPont chemical plants near Philadelphia and in Delaware, according to the Journal.  The group later plans to publish a list of 123 chemical plants in areas where a release would threaten 1 million people, the Journal reported.

Efforts to publish information on the potential consequences of releases from U.S. chemical plants “aren’t the way an adult would deal with a national security challenge,” said C.T. Howlett, executive director of the Chlorine Chemistry Council, which is part of the American Chemistry Council.

Environmental activists, however, said that even though such information could make a terrorist attack easier, the consequences of a potential industrial accidental release would be the same.

“You could hide the information, but the threat is still there,” said Gray Bass, head of the Right-to-Know Network.  “What’s shocking is how few people know about dangers in their own neighborhoods.”

Fight Moves to Congress

Senator Christopher Bond (R-Mo.) is expected to announce a bill today that would prohibit most public access to chemical accident scenarios — except for censored information that would keep the plant’s name and location secret.  The bill also would make it illegal for anyone who has access to the uncensored version of the scenarios to make the information public.  Bond has obtained the support of the Justice Department for his bill, according to the Journal.

Senator Jon Corzine (D-N.J.), however, is expected to submit a revised version of a bill that faced chemical industry opposition last fall, the Journal reported.  The bill would require chemical plants to study the use of alternative, less dangerous chemicals and technologies.  If the plants fail to use alternative measures, they must explain why the alternatives are not practical or else face penalties that could range up to closure.

Industry Views

The chemical industry opposes measures that would force companies to either reduce the amounts of dangerous chemicals they use, or to use less dangerous alternatives, according the Journal.

“We’re not doing research on different processes,” said Chlorine Institute President Robert Smerko.  “Whether companies can or should change is a business decision on their part.”

The chemical industry has made some concessions though, the Journal reported.  The American Chemistry Council has agreed to require companies to conduct assessments of their plants’ potential vulnerability to terrorist attacks in order to gain membership.  The council has also agreed to let an independent third party review the assessments to ensure that companies are making improvements to chemical plant security, according to the Journal.  The EPA is circulating a set of guidelines within U.S. agencies, including the Office of Homeland Security, that include guidelines for companies to examine the use of safer alternatives and a requirement that plants assess their vulnerability to attack.

While the EPA is still hesitant to force changes upon the chemical industry, the Sept. 11 attacks demonstrated a need to at least examine them, according to an EPA official.

“The world changed on Sept. 11, and everybody is looking at things in ways they may not have looked at them before,” the EPA official said (Ann Davis, Wall Street Journal, May 30).

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