InterviewUS towns unprepared for plant hits

13 August 2007 21:59  [Source: ICIS news]

WASHINGTON (ICIS news)--Population centres near US chemical plants are not adequately prepared to deal with major toxic emissions from accidents or terrorist attacks, a noted expert on chemical safety said on Monday.

 

Carolyn Merritt, who completed on 2 August a five-year appointment as chairwoman of the US Chemical Safety Board (CSB), said that efforts by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to contend with site security risks are commendable but they do not do enough to protect population centres in the event of an attack.

 

“I think that while all of that is good, more than one avenue has to be pursued,”she said in reference to the new DHS mandate to set and enforce security standards at high-risk chemical production sites.

 

She noted that US intelligence services focus on identifying and thwarting those who might carry out such attacks and that the department is working to harden defences at chemical plants. 

 

“But there is only so much you can do to protect a site with dogs and fences and the like,” she said. “We cannot guarantee 100% security.”

 

“The third leg of our security effort must be protection of the population,” she said. “And in this area, our emergency preparedness is not complete.”

 

She said she found in her five years as head of the safety board that preparedness for local populations is lacking. “Often there is no planning, no preparation,” she said, “and community leaders and emergency responders often do not know if the population should shelter in place or evacuate.”

 

“Sometimes local authorities will order evacuations that send people right through a contaminated area,” she said, referring to some of the accidental chemical plant explosions or other unplanned emissions the board has investigated.

 

She said many local police and fire departments lack co-ordination and sometimes are in competition for limited resources.  “I think there is a lot of work that needs to be done,” she said.

 

Merritt said policymakers may need to revive the sort of local population response effort that was characterized in the World War II and Cold War periods by the US Civil Defense organization that broadly trained citizens on how to respond to and shelter from attacks.

By: Joe Kamalick
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