Washington state firefighters are urging Democratic senators to halt development of a novel dispersion modeling approach for assessing risks from toxic gas releases, arguing the federal agency and industry collaboration underestimates risks to the public in filings with EPA and other agencies, though an industry group says the method is based on sound science and may still be revised.
In an Aug. 2 letter to Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and other senators, Washington Fire Chiefs Executive Director Wayne Senter argues that chemical and railroad industries are pushing the new assessment approach -- developed in conjunction with the Departments of Homeland Security (DHS) and Defense (DOD) -- that downplays risks from potential disasters by dramatically reducing the distance toxic gases are projected to travel.
“The industry-initiated but federal agency-enabled and Congressionally-funded effort . . . has all along explicitly aimed at significantly modifying in a risk-minimizing direction the downwind toxic cloud estimates in all of the major national emergency response guidance documents, including . . . chemical facility submissions to the US EPA's Risk Management Program,” Senter writes....