Five New Jersey chemical plants are among the nation's 101 most "dangerous" facilities because terrorist strikes or innocent accidents could release poisonous gases killing or harming millions of people, says a report issued Wednesday.
"New Jersey has the top facility, and that is the one in South Kearny," said Orum, described by the report's authors as a chemical-safety consultant, referring to a Kuehne Chemical Co. plant, which uses chlorine gas to produce liquid bleach.
It looks like we're going to need all the money our Senators can get for security with some of the risks we have. You can view an interactive map put together by the Center for American Progress of the locations for these plants, but they also identify 4 others in NJ:
Infenium USA plant in Linden, which uses chlorine gas to make industrial additives
DuPont Chambers Works plant in Deepwater, which uses chlorine gas to make polymers
Valero Refining Co. petroleum refinery in Paulsboro, which uses hydrofluoric acid to turn crude oil into gasoline
The Thorofare plant in West Deptford, which uses hydrofluoric acid to make other chemicals
They also note that two more plants which are high on the list sit just across the river in Delaware and Philadelphia. The report focuses on how changing many of the chemicals that are produced at these plants could greatly reduce safety and talks about how the method of transporting those chemicals can increase risk. Clammyc wrote a good diary at Daily Kos on the transporting of chemicals back in '06 talking about the threat from toxic chemicals and deteriorating railways in which he cited a GAO report and a previous Center for American Progress report dealing with increasing railway security.
The industry groups seem to recognize the security risk and say they would go along with national security guidelines, but they would oppose ones that dictate the chemicals and products they can use. Since there is agreement on the need for security guidelines, maybe we should start there rather than wading first into what appears to be the more controversial issued of products these companies can use and produce. It's time we make progress on these issues before the risk becomes a reality and people look back to say if only we knew.
