http://www2.startribune.com/stOnLine/cgi-bin/article?thisStory=81148182

Published Friday, December 3, 1999

Many U.S. plants are ticking chemical bombs, consumer groups say

Greg Gordon / Star Tribune

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- On the 15th anniversary of the chemical leak in Bhopal, India, that killed at least 4,000 people, two consumer watchdog groups declared Thursday that countless U.S. chemical facilities are "accidents waiting to happen."

Despite the lessons of Bhopal, "industries in the United States continue to put communities at risk, storing hazardous chemicals in amounts far greater" than the 90,000 pounds of toxins released in that disaster, said Jeremiah Baumann, an environmental advocate for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG).

U.S. PIRG and the Working Group on Community Right-to-Know also warned that Y2K computer problems could trigger chemical accidents, perhaps disabling leak-detection systems or devices that control the pressure in storage tanks.

A Senate Y2K committee warned in late October that more than 85 percent of small and midsized chemical facilities were not prepared for potential difficulties associated with the rollover of computer systems to the year 2000, nor had they coordinated emergency plans with local officials.

"The fact is that we don't know if chemical plants are ready for Y2K," said Paul Orum, coordinator of the Working Group.

The two groups said in a report that nearly 5,000 U.S. chemical facilities store "Bhopal-scale" amounts of highly dangerous chemicals in "a single process," such as a series of tanks or pipes.

In the 1984 Bhopal catastrophe, a Union Carbide pesticide factory released about 90,000 pounds of methyl isocyanate and hydrogen cyanide when layers of safety systems failed, sending a toxic cloud over the sleeping city. More than 2,000 people died the first night and about 300,000 were injured, 80,000 of them permanently. Thousands more have since died of their injuries, pushing the toll past 4,000.

In Minnesota, the consumer groups said, 290 facilities store more than 100,000 pounds of extremely hazardous substances in a single process -- mainly ammonia, which is used by farmers as a springtime fertilizer. The two largest facilities are terminals in Rosemount and Glenwood owned by Illinois-based C.F. Industries Inc., an interregional cooperative that makes fertilizers.

Each of the terminals stores ammonia in two 30,000-ton tanks, buffered by about 15 "layers of protection," including containment dikes to collect any leakage, said Dan VanTassel, a C.F. Industries spokesman.

He said the co-op has "had an extraordinary safety record" at its 26 facilities nationwide, that neither Minnesota terminal has had an incident as defined by the Environmental Protection Agency in the last five years. Both facilities are Y2K compliant, he added.

Baumann said the U.S. Chemical Safety Board reported last spring that there were 600,000 chemical incidents in the United States between 1987 and 1996, or an average of more than 150 incidents per day involving the release of at least 100 pounds of a chemical. An average of about 250 people die each year in chemical accidents, he said.

) Copyright 1999 Star Tribune. All rights reserved.

-- Uncle Bob (UNCLB0B@Tminus28&counting.down), December 03, 1999

Answers

85%!!!!! Yikes! Having just skipped down the board to catch-up, I have come from that taskforce 2000 post which says the Gartner Group's estimate of 20 Bophal's was "conservative".

So when is FEMA passing out our gas masks?

-- Still waiting in (nn@va.com), December 04, 1999.