NY Times: Bayer trying to limit disclosure on explosion
CBGnetwork
Trying to Limit Disclosure on Explosion
INSTITUTE, W.Va. - Last August, an explosion tore through the Bayer
CropScience chemical plant here, killing two employees and raising
the fears of residents in what has long been known as Chemical
Valley.
Now, a federal agency wants to hold a public hearing to lay out its
preliminary findings about what caused the accident. But Bayer,
citing a terrorism-related federal law, is trying to limit what the
agency can disclose.
Bayer contends that because it has a dock for barge shipments on
the adjacent Kanawha River, its entire 400-acre site qualifies under
the 2002 federal Maritime Transportation Security Act. It has asked
the Coast Guard, which has jurisdiction under the act, to review
the public release of "sensitive security information."
The agency that wants to hold the hearing, the Chemical Safety and
Hazard Investigation Board, says it is the first time in its 11
years of operation that a company has tried to limit what could be
discussed publicly, and the first time the maritime act has been
invoked this way.
"I don't like the idea that if we went to a meeting in West Virginia
and someone asked a question, we'd have to say, 'Sorry, we can't
talk about it,' " said John S. Bresland, the board chairman. "We
don't think any other agency should have the right to tell us what
we can put in our reports."
In particular, Bayer appears to want to limit discussion about the
potential hazards posed by a chemical produced and used by the plant
- methyl isocyanate, the same chemical responsible for the deaths
of thousands of people in Bhopal, India, after a Union Carbide plant
leaked there in 1984.
Until 1986, Union Carbide owned the plant here, which was considered
the sister plant.
The chemical safety board believes that if Bayer is successful, it
will set a precedent for other companies to limit the release of
information.
The board was modeled on the National Transportation Safety Board.
And like the transportation board, it has no regulatory power, so
it cannot fine a company or order changes in operations. Its power
comes from revealing its findings and making recommendations.
"We have a bully pulpit," Mr. Bresland said, "and we use it by going
out in public and talking about what we've found."
After Bayer invoked the maritime act in February, the chemical
safety board canceled a March 19 public meeting in West Virginia
while it sought to resolve the dispute. It has tentatively rescheduled
the hearing for April 23 while awaiting the Coast Guard's decision,
which it could appeal to the Transportation Security Administration.
Bayer's action also caught the attention of Representative Bart
Stupak, Democrat of Michigan and chairman of the House Subcommittee
on Oversight and Investigations. Mr. Stupak scheduled an April 21
hearing to review the company's action, saying, "We are concerned
about the way that Bayer may be misusing terrorism laws to suppress
information related to the incident."
Bayer believes it has a strong case for suppressing public discussion
of its operations in West Virginia, said a company spokesman, Greg
Coffey.
"In security matters, the site comes under the jurisdiction of the
Coast Guard," Mr. Coffey said. "We have and will continue to comply
with the spirit of the regulations" of the maritime act.
And Bayer appears to have the support of the Coast Guard. A spokesman,
Lt.
Cmdr. Chris O'Neil, said that the service considered the entire
plant, not just the dock, a "regulated facility," and that "it might
only be prudent to protect that information" Bayer does not want
discussed.
But Mr. Bresland said the chemical board contended that the maritime
act applied only to transportation of the chemicals, not the onsite
storage and processes. Methyl isocyanate, a chemical used in the
production of carbamate pesticides, was not directly involved in
the August explosion, which the company has said was caused by human
error in a unit that contained the less toxic chemical methomyl.
But an above-ground storage tank that can hold up to 40,000 pounds
of methyl isocyanate was just 50 feet to 75 feet from the blast
area, and a much larger underground tank in a different part of the
plant site can store an additional 200,000 pounds. In the Bhopal
disaster, 50,000 to 90,000 pounds of the chemical leaked.
It is the onsite storage of the methyl isocyanate (or MIC) that has
long concerned West Virginia environmentalists. After the Bhopal
disaster, professors at West Virginia State University, which is
next to the plant, and residents started People Concerned About MIC
to monitor the plant.
"One of the ironies is that in the 1980s, one of the demands we had
was that Carbide should act more like Bayer did in Germany and not
store MIC at the plant and just make it when it needed to use it,"
said Prof. Gerald E.
Beller, chairman of the department of political science at the
university, who helped start the local group.
There are many other issues related to the accident that the chemical
safety board wants to talk about, including the amount of overtime
Bayer employees had been working before the accident; how poor
communications were between the plant and outside emergency crews
the night of the accident; and how one of the two men who died,
Barry Withrow, had a toxic level of cyanide in his blood that no
one has been able to explain.
But a large part of what the board wants to talk about is the risks
posed by the tanks of methyl isocyanate. If the explosion had damaged
the smaller above-ground tank in particular, "the consequences of
the accident might have been worse," Mr. Bresland said. By SEAN D.
HAMILL
This article appeared in print on March 29, 2009, on page A19 of
the New York edition.
www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/us/29chemical.html?_r=3&emc=eta1
To the Editor:
It is clear from the article "Trying to Limit Disclosure on Explosion
,"
that the Chemical Safety Board cannot adequately do their job of
making recommendations that lead to a safer chemical industry if
they are not allowed to publicly address the real issues of the
Bayer explosion.
Ignoring these issues is the reason why my community is the only
place in the US that has been living under the threat of another
Bhopal disaster for over 25 years now. We are seemingly considered
acceptable risk factors because we are an Appalachian community
made up of predominantly minority and poor white folks. Alternatives
to methyl isocyanate (MIC) have been available since prior to Bhopal.
Bayer should be required to implement the most inherently safest
technology available to not only eliminate national security threats
it poses, but also to set a precedence for the health and safety
of workers and communities surrounding toxic chemical plants.
Sincerely,
Maya Nye, Spokesperson People Concerned About MIC
A Collection of Materials on Bayer4s Institute Plant
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