It’s an uncanny echo — a sort of mirror image: Hazardous chemicals improperly secured, a lackadaisical response from people in authority.
As the people of Beirut and international responders work to clean up the devastation of the Aug. 4 explosion and uncover the causes, we’re reminded of our own recent past and lessons that somehow have still not been learned.
The blast in the port city of Beirut in Lebanon killed more than 170 people, injured over 6,000 and left many displaced. A storage unit at the port containing 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate exploded when heated by a nearby fire. Ammonium nitrate is a chemical compound commonly found in agricultural fertilizers as well as in many types of mining explosives, according to Scientific American. Ammonium nitrate pellets are safe to handle, according to Nature Research Journal, but the pellets absorb moisture over time and clump together into a big rock. If that compacted ammonium nitrate is exposed to intense heat, it can cause an explosion.
The 2,750 tons of potentially explosive material had been sitting in the port for around seven years — and multiple people had sounded the alarm. A U.S. contractor informed a Beirut port official about the unsafe storage as early as 2013, according to the Associated Press, and documentation has surfaced that shows high-ranking officials knew about the ammonium nitrate and did nothing about it.
The lack of safety enforcement for dangerous chemicals and the devil-may-care attitude of people in authority reminded us of an incident much closer to home: The 2014 Elk River chemical spill.
Many of us remember the devastation of weeks without potable water, and the flood of sick individuals to hospitals and clinics. For those whose memories may be hazy, in 2014, 10,000 gallons of crude MCHM and PPH (used to clean coal) leaked from a Freedom Industries tank into the Elk River, upstream of the West Virginia American Water intake, which provides drinking water to nine West Virginia counties.
The final report from the U.S. Commercial Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) found that Freedom Industries hadn’t inspected its tanks in at least 10 years; hadn’t repaired corroding tanks; lied about the initial amount of chemicals spilled; failed to mention the spill was a mix of two chemical compounds; and failed to report the spill in a timely manner — which led to WVAW not turning off its intake valve in time to prevent contaminated water from entering people’s homes and delayed the “do not use” order.
Immediately after the spill, West Virginia lawmakers passed legislation to strictly regulate aboveground chemical storage — then rolled back protections just as quickly. It’s not just West Virginia. Just this year, the Trump administration covertly cut regulations, funding and programs from the EPA.
It’s a familiar cycle: Deregulation — or unenforced safety regulations — leads to disaster. People get hurt or killed; property gets destroyed. Lawmakers and officials scramble to clean up the mess. They create new laws or policies or stricter practices. And then, as soon as the public’s attention has wandered, those same people who swore to us, “never again,” begin quietly stripping away protections or turning a blind eye when safety standards aren’t properly enforced. And then the next disaster happens, and we start again. When does it stop?
Morgantown Area News
'Friday, April 19, 2024'
