Congress Debates Chemical Safety
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LIVES AT STAKE—Congress is debating a bill that would require chemical plants, such as the Smurfit-Stone container plant in Fernandina Beach, to use safer alternatives to dangerous toxins. |
Across the United States, thousands of chemical plants, manufacturers,
water utilities and other facilities store and use extremely hazardous
substances that could injure or kill workers and residents of nearby
communities.
Nationwide, approximately 450 of these facilities
each put more than 100,000 people in harm’s way. Here in Florida, the
Buckeye Paper plant in Perry is a prime example of the type of facility
in question. Yet more than six years after the September 11 attacks,
the federal government has yet to take meaningful action to reduce the
risk to American workers and communities from a catastrophic accident
or attack at one of these facilities.
That could change,
though, if Congress takes action on new legislation. In February, House
Homeland Security Chair Bennie Thompson (Miss.) and Transportation
Security Subcommittee Chair Sheila Jackson-Lee (Texas) introduced the
Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Act of 2008. As marked up in the
subcommittee, the bill contains language calling for the use of safer
chemicals and processes, or reduction of the amounts of high-hazard
chemicals stored on site at chemical plants. Florida PIRG is working
with our environmental and labor coalition partners to convince key
committee members, such as Florida Reps. Gus Bilirakis and Ginny
Brown-Waite, to further strengthen the bill to truly protect Floridians.
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