EPA Proposes Stifling News on Chemical Accidents

As a safeguard against terrorism, the Environmental Protection Agency has proposed limiting information it will provide on the Internet about potential toxic chemical accidents at chemical plants, the agency said Thursday.

The proposal, which is expected to go into effect later this year after a public comment period, is aimed at settling a dispute with some members of Congress and law enforcement officials over how much information about chemical plants should routinely be made available by the EPA over its Web site.

By law, chemical companies must provide “worst case” accident scenario information to the EPA, but it is up to the agency’s discretion on how such information is made public. Last year Congress directed the agency to weigh the threat of possible terrorism against the public’s right to know in making that determination.

The chemical industry, the FBI and some lawmakers had complained that the EPA was planning to make so many details available that terrorists could use the information to single out a chemical plant and cause an accident.

This week, the EPA proposed a compromise that would allow some general information about what chemicals are produced and expected duration of a chemical release, to be made available.

It also proposed a unique system where someone could enter a street address and be told if that address is within “a vulnerable zone” in case of an accident at a facility. The indicator, however, would not provide the name or location of any chemical facility.

Information that “could significantly assist someone in targeting a chemical facility and causing a large release” would be available on the Internet, the EPA said in a summary of the proposed regulation.

Among the information that would not be made available through the EPA Web site are such items as the names of chemicals and quantity of chemicals that would be involved in a worst-case release, the expected duration of such a release and how far a chemical cloud might be expected to travel. Also held back would be details about the population surrounding a chemical plant.

While this information would not be readily available on the Internet, it would be accessible at 50 federal reading rooms scattered around the country and through local authorities, including police and fire departments, according to the EPA proposal. People would have to show identification and their names would be recorded when seeking to see the information.

The proposal, which was worked out by the EPA in conjunction with the Justice Department, didn’t appear to satisfy either side.

“While terrorists may not be able to have easy, anonymous access to the information, they will still have access,” said Angela Logomasini, director of risk and environmental policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. She said the EPA rule also would not prevent anyone from posting the information online, although it would make it difficult to assemble it.

People using the reading rooms would be prohibited from making copies of the documents.

Paul Orum, director of the Working Group on Community Right to Know, said the rules impose too many restrictions that will prevent citizens from learning about the potential toxic chemical threats from nearby plants.

“It severely restricts the public’s right to know if toxic spills and fires at chemical plants can harm people who live, work or go to school in surrounding communities,” Orum said.