Three serious fossil fuel incidents occurred the week of February 10, 2014, making it the most devastating health and safety week in recent U.S. memory.
On Tuesday, February 11, incidents in three states polluted water, damaged property, and injured workers. First stop: West Virginia. A coal slurry line operated by Patriot Coal burst, spilling more than 100,000 gallons of toxic muck into a creek that feeds the Kanawha River. In January, a massive chemical spill oozed 10,000 gallons of toxic fluids into the Elk River near the state capitol of Charleston, poisoning the drinking water of more than 300,000 people. The public health ramifications of both are being evaluated.
Next stop: Pennsylvania. A fire broke at a Chevron natural gas well pad in Dunkard Township, sending one worker to the hospital. One of the wells continued to burn for days after the incident. Another worker was still missing at the end of the week.
Next: North Dakota. A Hiland Partners natural gas pipeline exploded, damaging company property. Thankfully, no human was injured.
And the hits just kept on coming. Two more incidents occurred on Thursday, February 13. In Kentucky, another gas pipeline exploded, injuring at least two people. The fire could be seen from a 20-mile distance. And the same day, 19 rail tanker cars hauling crude oil derailed in Vandergrift, Pennsylvania, and spilled up to 4,000 gallons of tar sands oil on the ground. Two tankers with propane gas also derailed but did not explode.
Expect more incidents like these. Why? Because we have an aging infrastructure (both public and private) that has been starved of adequate investments; inadequate oversight of the production, storage, and transport of hazardous substances; and a patchwork regulatory system that is eroding from constant attack by industry lawyers and lobbyists.
To protect our water resources alone, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) estimates that we need to invest $17.25 billion over seven years to repair and upgrade wastewater systems. Almost 14,000 high-hazard dams are located above population centers and only 66 percent of these have emergency action plans. The average dam is 52 years old. The same is true of public transportation. Despite investing over $20 billion a year in railroad infrastructure improvements since 2007, the ASCE gives our railway system a grade of only C+. We need a major upgrade of our national infrastructure -- and doing so would have the added benefit of providing economy-boosting jobs.
Workplace health and safety advocates and local communities have long complained that facilities are not disclosing the hazardous chemicals they produce or store in stationary facilities or transport through communities. Many facilities that handle hazardous materials are supposed to produce risk management plans and share them with local emergency personnel. But too often, the failure to do so is only exposed after a tragedy strikes. The real solution to this problem is to mandate that companies shift to safer chemical alternatives when they are available. Clorox Corporation has done so -- without hurting its bottom line.
Finally, we need a regulatory system that doesn't allow potentially cancer-causing and health-harming products to enter our markets and workplaces. Many of the laws establishing our most important public protections are at least 40 years old. The standards implementing them need to be upgraded and modernized as we learn more about the health effects of air pollution, water contaminants, and various kinds of chemicals and drugs. But our standard-setting processes have become more and more biased toward the financial concerns of large corporations instead of the health and safety of the public.
To avoid future tragedies, we need a regulatory system that works for people again. A key part of that system is state and federal agencies with the authority and resources that they need to provide the oversight we need.
McFate is the President and CEO of the Center for Effective Government and a member of the OpenTheGovernment.org steering committee.
