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On Thanksgiving, around 50,000 people are evacuating from a four-mile radius around the #TPCPlant in Port Neches. One man, reports @jdickjournalism, walked for hours to a shelter in Beaumont. https://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/SE-Texas-chemical-plant-fire-continues-14868966.php
The man's trailer, flooded during Tropical Storm #Imelda, was crumpled by the explosion, traced to a tank holding #butadiene, which is used to make rubber and plastics and causes cancer.
The #TPCPlant, reports @KiahCollier, “has been considered a high-priority violator by the @EPA for more than two years … and out of compliance with federal clean air laws since the agency’s last inspection in August 2017.” https://www.texastribune.org/2019/11/27/texas-plant-rocked-explosions-mandatory-evacuations-ordered/
“When you look at all these facilities and their compliance histories, it’s like a rap sheet,” Elena Craft, senior director for climate and health at @EnvDefenseFund, told Collier for the @TexasTribune.
But, reports Collier, “The two fines TCEQ handed down [to the #TPCPlant] this year were for $13,688 and $7,500.”
“TCEQ and EPA need to take much tougher enforcement actions and strengthen safety regulations, like the Chemical Disaster Rule, to build safer and healthier communities,” @cathwfraser with @EnvironmentTex clarified in a statement.
But the #TPCDisaster comes just one week after the @EPA moved to gut the Chemical Disaster Rule, implemented after the deadly explosion just about four hours away in West, Texas.
Just days before #TPC, Craft told @eilperin, “It is unconscionable that the Trump administration would gut key protections for emergency responders and people living near facilities that handle potentially dangerous chemicals.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2019/11/21/trump-reverses-safety-rules-adopted-after-deadly-chemical-explosion/
Regulations like the Chemical Disaster Rule, said @HeatherMcTeer, a regional administrator for the EPA during the Obama administration, are “critical to ensuring that we’re aware and are doing everything that we can to prevent these types of explosions.” https://www.texastribune.org/2019/11/27/texas-plant-rocked-explosions-mandatory-evacuations-ordered/
“We will be thankful," Craft said in a statement, "when state and federal officials take chemical safety more seriously.” https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/texas/article/The-latest-Explosion-at-Port-Neches-plant-14866093.php
