Chemical incidents occur every other day in US

On July 20, almost 30 cars were damaged and hundreds of propane tanks were scattered around a neighborhood near Sky Harbor Airport in Phoenix, Arizona, after an explosive fire at a nearby propane business.

The incident caused a college campus to be evacuated. It took more than 150 firefighters a couple of hours to put out the flames.

On July 18, 62 campers and 12 staff were exposed to fungicide veltyma when a dusting plane sprayed a cornfield adjacent to the adventure camp in New Freedom, Pennsylvania. All 72 people were advised to take multiple showers to get rid of contamination from the chemical.

On July 15, a fire triggered explosions at a Dow Chemical plant on the Mississippi River south of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It was reported that the explosions shook homes several miles away and sent flames and smoke billowing into the air, prompting authorities to urge a few hundred nearby residents to shelter indoors for several hours and to turn off their air conditioners.

Those are some of the most recent incidents involving hazardous chemicals that frequently occur in the US. On average, there is a chemical fire, explosion or toxic release every two days.

Chemical incidents including fires, explosions and toxic releases are occurring far too frequently every year, harming workers and communities, according to the Coalition to Prevent Chemical Disasters (CPCD), a coalition of organizations concerned about environmental justice. It supports risk management program reforms and other actions to prevent chemical disasters.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data show that roughly 150 serious chemical incidents occur each year in the US. The number is derived from more than 11,000 facilities that are under the regulation of EPA's risk management program. Those facilities used to store highly hazardous chemicals to prevent chemical disasters.

A study by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) last year showed that about a third — more than 3,200 chemical facilities — are in areas with certain natural hazards like wildfires and storm surges that may be worsened by climate change.

The CPCD has maintained an incident database, sourced from news, industry and government reports since 2020, to document all incidents including fires, releases of chemicals and explosions that occur at facilities not regulated by the EPA.

It found that 177 chemical incidents occurred in 2021, 186 chemical incidents in 2022, and more than 100 incidents this year and counting.

Texas is the state with the most chemical incidents so far this year, with 25 chemical emergencies. For example, in July, in a space of three days between July 12-15, a massive fire occurred in a plastic packaging facility in Humble, north of Houston; another petrochemical pipeline fire occurred at another plastic factory in Alvin, and a third fire occurred at a massive scrap metal recycling facility that sent thick black smoke into the air in Katy, west of Houston.

Cleanup for one hazardous chemical incident is continuing nearly six months after it happened — the Feb 3 derailment of a Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous chemicals along a stretch of homes and businesses in East Palestine, Ohio.

The derailment near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border caused thousands of people to evacuate when officials decided to blow open several tank cars filled with vinyl chloride because they believed they could explode.

The resulting fire sent a towering plume of black smoke over the town three days after the derailment that spilled several other hazardous chemicals when the tank cars carrying them ruptured.

Costs associated with the fiery derailment have more than doubled to $803 million as the railroad works to clean up the mess and deal with related lawsuits.

Most of the costs are related to the cleanup of the hazardous chemicals that were released, but $222 million is a combination of legal fees and the $63 million of assistance it has offered to the community.

The $803 million cost estimate doesn't include funds to compensate the East Palestine community for any long-term health effects, decrease in home values or drinking water issues because those are still being negotiated, so the total will grow.

Agencies contributed to this story.