Harris County sues EPA over the rollback of regulations on chem safety
Lawsuit, with 14 state attorneys general, asks for judge to reverse Trump change
Harris County joined 14 attorneys general from across the country who oppose the Trump administration’s rollback of chemical safety rules they say will increase the risk of explosions and threaten public safety.
The county attorney’s office is asking a federal judge to overturn the Environmental Protection Agency’s new rules, reversing amendments that placed stricter requirements on companies over how they deal with chemical emergencies.
“The federal government is failing in its responsibility to protect us from dangerous chemical accidents,” County Attorney Vince Ryan said in a written statement Friday. “The EPA’s action gutted safety protections for chemical accidents and further endangers our neighborhoods in Harris County.”
The lawsuit was approved by Commissioners Court at its Feb. 18 meeting following a number of high-profile chemical plant disasters in Harris County in 2019. According to the Harris County Attorney’s Office, it has cases pending related to fires and explosions at Arkema in Crosby, KMCO in Crosby, Exxon Mobil in Baytown, Watson Grinding in the Spring Branch area and ITC in Deer Park. The lawsuits seek to recover expenses and to order the companies to implement procedures to prevent future incidents, county officials say.
In November, the Trump administration announced the reversal of a series of chemical safety regulations, citing potential security risks in disclosing chemical plant inventories and facility locations to the public,
the economic cost for companies to follow the rules and the need to reduce “unnecessary regulations.”
Under the new rule, companies will not have to complete third-party audits, explore the use of safer technologies or conduct a root-cause analysis after an incident.
They also will not have to provide the public information about what type of chemicals are stored in these facilities.
“Accident prevention is a top priority of the EPA, and this rule promotes improved coordination between chemical facilities and emergency responders, reduces unnecessary regulatory burdens and addresses security risks” arising from past changes to risk management rules, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said then.
Under the Clean Air Act, the EPA requires facilities storing specific chemicals above certain amounts to have risk management plans and to develop programs to prevent and mitigate accidents that could release those chemicals into the environment.
In 2017, the Obama administration had introduced rules designed to help prevent and mitigate chemical accidents by requiring more proactive incident prevention efforts, emergency response enhancements and increased public transparency and availability of information, in part as a result of a deadly 2013 explosion in West, Texas.
More than 80,000 pounds of ammonium nitrate caught fire at a distribution facility, killing 15 people, injuring 200 and flattening much of the farming community near Waco.
Debbie Berkowitz, safety program director for the National Employment Law Project, has told the Houston Chronicle the rules were “many years in the making.”
“The EPA had done this really robust outreach effort to industry, communities and firefighters,” said Berkowitz, who served as chief of staff at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration under President Barack Obama. “The rules were designed to protect those who protect us.”
In developing the rule, the EPA determined that prior protections failed to prevent more than 2,200 chemical fires, explosions, leaks and similar incidents over a 10-year period, according to Earthjustice, a nonprofit representing 13 groups, including Air Alliance Houston, that have also sued the Trump administration to stop the rollback.