“But every time a storm hits, the dice are thrown and there is the potential for some kind of release or explosion that could harm them and their families,” he said. “They have to worry about a double disaster.”
Facilities are not currently required to have backup power, and emergency responders are often not given sufficient information about on-site chemicals to combat leaks and fires. Environmental groups are also calling for weather monitoring and multilingual alerts along the fences surrounding the facilities to alert nearby neighborhoods of any threats to safety.
These neighborhoods tend to be disproportionately low-income and communities of color. Nearly half of those who live within a mile of EPA-regulated hazardous industrial zones are black, Hispanic, and other non-white people. agency data shows.
The Obama administration had taken action to strengthen emergency preparedness in those areas that were required to submit Risk Management Plans to the EPA, but President Donald J. Trump suggested weakening regulation instead.
President Biden is currently in the process of reviewing rules that will apply to more than 12,000 industrial facilities in the United States, including chemical manufacturers, oil refineries, water treatment plants, fertilizer plants, and pulp and paper mills. More than 2,500 chemical plants in the United States already lying in flood-prone areas.
Flooding and widespread power outages also hampered the EPA’s efforts to investigate damage at 23 Superfund toxic cleanup sites in Louisiana. As of Tuesday, agency staff said they were assessing 10 and found no chemical releases or other issues. Up to 60 percent of these sites are subject to flooding, storm surge, wildfire and sea level rise. A Congressional audit found in 2019.
The combination of widespread power outages and leaks is particularly worrying, said Wilma Subra, a Louisiana chemist who helps communities fight industrial pollution.
“When most of the community can’t access electricity or the internet, they don’t get these warnings,” he said. “It could be in their backyard or side garden and they have no way of knowing.”