There’s still reason for concern about how dangerous chemicals are stored in the state.
There’s still reason for concern about how dangerous chemicals are stored in the state.
In the small agricultural town of West, north of Waco, life was pretty much returning to normal three years after a horrendous fertilizer-plant explosion killed 15 residents and left disrupted lives and millions of dollars worth of damage. Houses and businesses have been rebuilt, a new high school is set to open and at the downtown Village Bakery warm kolaches and coffee still get the day started for loyal local residents.
Last week, though, the return to normal in the historically Czech town got upended by an official announcement from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, an announcement that the lethal fire at the West Fertilizer Company was deliberately set. Special Agent in Charge Robert Elder said in a news conference that AFT investigators spent more than $2 million and interviewed more than 400 people during the course of their nearly three-years-long investigation before reaching their conclusion that the fire had been set in the seed room. Elder said no arrests have been made and the investigation remains open.
As the Chronicle’s Mark Collette reported, the announcement “immediately opened old wounds … reignited rumors, frustrated residents trying to move on with their lives and threatened to complicate a mound of litigation against the plant and its suppliers.”
We can appreciate the pain and consternation the people of West are experiencing. For the rest of us, the startling news should prompt a review of what’s been done post-West to make sure similar facilities around the state are as safe as they can possibly be.
There’s reason, still, to be concerned. As Collette noted, the first story in a yearlong Chronicle investigation, published May 8, revealed that facilities with dangerous chemicals still get relatively little public or government scrutiny. A May 5 fire at a Spring Branch chemical-- packing facility was an unsettling reminder that Texans still live with danger three years after the West tragedy. In Spring Branch, for example, homes and schools were told to shelter-in-place or evacuate, even though firefighters had no idea what chemicals they were dealing with. (Neither did the West first-responders, and their courage and their lack of knowledge turned out to be a lethal combination.)
Three years ago then-Gov. Rick Perry and other state officials were notably — and notoriously — reluctant to order changes in how dangerous chemicals are stored, where plants are located and how first-responders are trained to deal with chemical fires. Officials still are balking. A recent report from the U.S. Chemical Safety Board found that more than a dozen Texas facilities that store five tons or more of fertilizer-grade ammonium nitrate are within a half-mile of a school, hospital or nursing home. The West plant — near homes, a school and a nursing home — was storing up to 270 tons.
Except for an order from the Obama White House to improve transparency and cooperation among agencies dealing with the chemical industry, the federal government hasn’t done much better. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has refused to update decades-old regulations, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has kowtowed to industry pressure.
If Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and other state lawmakers can get their heads out of toilet regulations targeting transgender Texans, we would suggest they turn their attention to other regulations, those designed to monitor and control the handling and storage of the hazardous chemicals that devastated West. When they head back to Austin in January, that’s surely a better use of their time and ours than seeking to regulate who goes to the bathroom where.