Does a Chemical Plant in your State Threaten a Million or More People?

Find out if YOU live in a vulnerability zone near a chemical plant.

The good news is that there were 123 of these "worst of the worst" facilities only two years ago. For example, one of these, the Blue Plains sewage treatment plant in Washington, D.C., was removed from the list because it switched from chlorine to safer substances. The sewage treatment plant accelerated by one year an end to their use of highly toxic chlorine gas due to its potential use by terrorists. The plant is only four miles from the U.S. Capitol. According to the National Transportation Safety Board and the Coast Guard, a large leak of chlorine gas can travel two miles in only 10 minutes and remain acutely toxic to a distance of about 20 miles.

Greenpeace recommends a set of short and long-term steps to truly eliminate these unnecessary and preventable disasters. In the short-term these include the immediate: adoption of S. 157 by Congress, implementation of a program to end the transport of large quantities of poisonous chemicals, reduction in storage of similar substances to quantities that cannot threaten area populations, and decentralized production of these substances to eliminate the need for large container transport and storage.

In the long-term, virtually all of the ultra-hazardous chemicals used in the U.S. have safer substitutes and conversion to them should begin today. The U.S. needs many things to function, but what it does not need is to continue producing obsolete and ultra-hazardous chemicals that pose enormous risks to the public-with or without the threat of terrorist attack.

Unfortunately, the chemical industry is furiously lobbying Congress to avoid even moderate regulations that could help prevent these disasters before they happen. Furthermore, even though the Bush Administration touts security among its top priorities after September 11th, it refuses to impose new requirements on the chemical industry to reduce and eliminate these threats.

On November 17, 2003, Greenpeace provided the White House with a list of the 112 facilities that threaten one million or more people. This list accompanied a letter to President Bush, charging his administration with two years of neglect on this crucial homeland security issue, and calling for a series of measures to diminish and eliminate these threats.

The 112 Facilites Can be Found in the Following States:

More Than 30 Cities with One Million or More People Threatened

• Akron, Ohio
• Baltimore, Maryland *
• Boston, Massachusetts
• Chicago, Illinois *
• Cincinnati, Ohio
• Cleveland, Ohio *
• Dallas, Texas
• Dayton, Ohio
• Denver, Colorado
• Detroit, Michigan *
• Houston, Texas *
• Las Vegas, Nevada
• Los Angeles, California *
• Manchester, New Hampshire
• Memphis, Tennessee
• Miami, Florida
• Milwaukee, Wisconsin
• Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota *
• New Jersey (Northeastern) *
• New Orleans, Louisiana
• New York, New York
• Niagara Falls/Buffalo, New York *
• Philadelphia, Pennsylvania *
• Phoenix, Arizona
• Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
• Providence, Rhode Island
• Salt Lake City, Utah
• San Francisco, California
• St. Louis, Missouri*
• Tacoma/Seattle, Washington

* Cities with multiple facilities

The sources for the map and cities listing are:

• U.S. EPA's reading rooms
• New York Daily News
• Philadelphia Inquirer
• Working Group on Community Right-to-Know