Another in our continuing look at what happens after the funerals are over and all the TV lights go out, and Anderson Cooper has found another disaster over which to preside. We return to West, Texas, or what's left of it, after the unregulated fertilizer plant blew up.
Dallas Morning News analysis of more than 750,000 federal records found pervasive inaccuracies and holes in data on chemical accidents, such as the one in West that killed 15 people and injured more than 300. In fact, no one at any level of government knows how often serious chemical accidents occur each year in the United States. And there is no plan in place for federal agencies to gather more accurate information. As a result, the kind of data sharing ordered by President Barack Obama in response to West is unlikely to improve the government's ability to answer even the most basic questions about chemical safety. "We can track Gross National Product to the second and third decimal, but there is no reliable way of tracking even simple things like how many [chemical] accidents happen," said Sam Mannan, a nationally recognized expert on chemical safety who recently testified before a congressional hearing on West. "This is just scandalous."
Gee golly whiskers, I wonder why that is.
Recent criticism has focused on the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, an agency launched in 1998 with a mission to investigate chemical accidents that caused or risked fatalities, serious injuries and major property damage. According to a series of reports by the Government Accountability Office and various inspectors general, the board was supposed to have created a database to help gauge chemical safety trends. But it hasn't yet done so. Board officials dispute that such an effort is mandatory under statute and say that, even if it were, the board lacks the resources to carry it out.
The National Toxic Substances Incident Program gathers data from multiple state and local agencies, in combination with federal resources such as the NRC. "That's as good a data surveillance program as you will get currently," Mannan said. But Congress has appropriated only enough funding for 10 states to participate on a cost-sharing basis. A previous accident surveillance program, similar but less comprehensive, had funding for 14 states, one of which was Texas. After the congressional budget cuts, Texas declined to share the cost and dropped out of the program.
Business-friendly! Job creators!
"We're trying to get states to buy into it," said Maureen Orr, an epidemiologist with the National Toxic Substances Incident Program. "Unfortunately, we don't have the funding to do every state."
You see, here in this great democracy, we can't afford to monitor chemical accidents so that dangerous unregulated fertilizer plants can be identified before they blow up and take half a town with them, but we can afford to spend god alone knows how much money on a massive NSA surveillance operation because...FREEDOM!