Dear Mr. Johnson,
As hurricane Katrina continues to move through the United States
adversely affecting everyone in its path, Greenpeace would like to
express its concern over the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's
(EPA) emergency response to all impacted areas. As you know,
Louisiana, Mississippi and the other states in EPA Regions 4, 5 and
6 devastated by hurricane Katrina are also home to hundreds of
petro-chemical plants that manufacture, store and use tons of
highly dangerous substances ranging from gasoline to chlorine and
vinyl chloride.
Beyond a normal release of pollutants, a major storm such as
Katrina can trigger additional hazards posed by these facilities.
This is especially troubling as many facilities are located
adjacent to residential communities, farms, rivers, lakes and
drinking water sources. These hazards may include:
- planned or unplanned release of toxic effluent from settling
ponds and lagoons where chemical waste is stored;
- fires, explosions and other unplanned releases caused by
extreme weather conditions;
- contamination of surface water (rivers, lakes and streams),
ground water and drinking water from flooding and other effluent
releases;
- open burning of debris and waste following a storm clean up
that will release unregulated pollutants into the atmosphere and
create large volumes of contaminated ash;
- leaks from thousands of underground storage tanks containing
gasoline and heating oil;
- derailments and leaks from rail cars and other storage vessels
containing highly volatile substances such as chlorine, propane,
ammonia and hydrogen fluoride, which poses catastrophic risks under
normal circumstances - storms and flooding can undermine track beds
and foundations rendering them even more vulnerable to disastrous
releases of deadly chemicals.
Under the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act (112r), Superfund
(CERCLA) and the Resource Conservation Recovery Act, these
facilities are required to prevent hazardous releases.
Furthermore, under the Clean Water Act regulated facilities are
required to have a spill prevention plan and under the Clean Air
Act they are required to have a plan to prevent a catastrophic
release of chemicals.
Although EPA Region 6 Administrator Richard Greene announced
yesterday that EPA and FEMA preparedness experts are currently
poised to monitor and respond to oil and chemical spills as a
result of hurricane Katrina, Greenpeace has serious public health
concerns for everyone affected by this devastating storm. On
behalf of our members and the victims of hurricane Katrina, please
respond to the following inquiries concerning the EPA's emergency
response and preparedness:
1. In your capacity as administrator, please describe EPA
collective actions prior to Katrina to ensure that there were no
unregulated releases of hazardous substances from the
petro-chemical industry located in the hurricane's path.
2. Did the EPA consider or issue any waivers and/or agreements
to allow releases of regulated pollutants into the environment from
these plants either before or during hurricane Katrina's arrival?
Furthermore, please describe in detail any communications from
petro-chemical facilities requesting permission to release
regulated pollutants into the environment.
3. Please describe EPA rules and procedures regarding the open
burning of debris or structures damaged during the hurricane. In
particular, please outline EPA plans to monitor the release of
dangerous pollutants, such as dioxins and furans from such
unregulated burning.
4. As you know, the EPA currently suggests that people clean
their homes and boil water before drinking following a flood or
hurricane. Subsequently, please explain EPA plans to conduct
comprehensive testing of local drinking water (private wells and
public drinking water systems) for toxic chemical contamination as
well as EPA plans for testing the soil of communities and flood
waters that will likely contaminate soil, ground and surface
water.
In the interest of public health, we would appreciate a response
to this request as soon as possible.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
Rick Hind, Legislative Director
Greenpeace Toxics Campaign
cc:
Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA)
Senator James Jeffords (I-VT)
Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA)
Senator David Vitter (R-LA)
Representative John Dingell (D-MI)
Representative Frank Pallone (D-NJ)
United States Coast Guard
Federal Emergency Management Agency