Steve Quayle News Alerts

July 14, 2002
By RICHARD T. PIENCIAK, Daily News Senior Correspondent

Dozens of factories with multi-ton inventories of toxic and flammable chemicals dot the metropolitan area, representing potentially vulnerable and lethal targets for terrorists, according to a Daily News investigation.

Amid growing national security concerns and calls for tough new legislation, documents on file with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency show vapor cloud explosions and toxic gas releases — deliberate or accidental — could imperil millions of New York and New Jersey residents.

A review by The News of hundreds of pages of official EPA records shows the safety systems cited in each plant's Risk Management Plan focus on equipment failure, accident prevention and mitigation.

The plans — most of them filed three years ago and never updated — make no mention of the threat of terrorism or of any extra safeguards put in place to prevent such attacks.

"Worst-case scenario" analyses, required to be filed under the Clean Air Act as part of the risk management paperwork, show that:

* A toxic cloud of 100,000 pounds of hydrogen chloride released from Matheson Tri-Gas Inc. in East Rutherford, N.J., would put 7.3 million people at risk within a 14-mile radius, taking in much of New York City and northern New Jersey.

* A vaporized release of sulfur dioxide from the Kuehne Chemical Co. in South Kearny, N.J., could threaten 12 million people in a 16-mile radius.

* The Tosco Bayway Refinery in Linden, N.J., lists 20 different flammable mixtures in its inventory, some containing as many as 19 ingredients, for a total on-site inventory of 117 million pounds. A release of 180,000 pounds of chlorine from the adjacent Infineum Bayway Chemical plant could imperil 4.2 million people in a 14-mile radius.

"Chemical plants are obvious targets for terrorists, endangering millions of Americans who live and work around them," said Sen. Jon Corzine (D-N.J.), who has introduced legislation that would direct the federal government to identify priority chemical facilities and require those plants to reduce hazards and improve security. "The risk of terrorist attacks on industrial facilities that store large quantities of hazardous chemicals is a pressing homeland security issue."

15,000 Facilities

Risk Management Plans, known as RMPs, must be filed by any facility with an inventory of a regulated chemical above a prescribed threshold.

All existing plants had to file RMPs by June 21, 1999. The EPA says about 15,000 facilities are registered nationwide. Critics say at least another 3,000 are violating the law.

The RMPs contain a wide range of information about each plant, including address; emergency contact numbers; accident history; number of employees; each specific process covered under the regulations; each specific chemical used, and the quantities on hand of each of those chemicals.

The most critical information required involves the worst-case scenarios — incidents involving chemicals that could cause serious risk to human life and health if released into the atmosphere.

Using approved modeling software, plant owners were required to map the reach of a release in a non-windy, stable atmosphere, taking into account the type of chemical and the amount that could be released.

Using 1990 Census information, the facilities also listed the population within the maximum exposure zone, as well as schools, hospitals, prisons, recreation areas and the like.

The News investigation found many of the RMP documents were outdated, contained errors and understatements regarding the potential extent of damage that could be caused by a major toxic release.

More than anything, it is clear the RMP process did not consider the possibility of terrorism.

The reports mention accidental explosions of a single storage tank, of pipe leaks and of ruptured valves. They note passive mitigation systems like dikes, berms, firewalls, enclosures and drains. There's a section for process controls, like vents, relief valves, alarms and purge systems.

In the prevention program section of the EPA's RMP manual, potential major hazards to be concerned about include toxic release, fire, explosion, runaway reaction, loss of cooling, loss of heat, tornadoes and hurricanes.

"The Risk Management Plans were specifically designed to address accidental releases," said a senior EPA official in Washington. "They were not designed to consider a criminal act or a terrorist act. When we talk about vulnerability for a terrorist act, we are obviously talking about a much different animal than vulnerability for an accidental release."

The official said the agency is examining whether it can require plants to conduct extensive vulnerability assessments and institute substantive security improvements under existing provisions of the Clean Air Act. In the meantime, a set of principles addressing these concerns is working its way through the new homeland security bureaucracy.

No Apparent Security

The stretch of Paterson Plank Road that Matheson Tri-Gas calls home is stereotypic New Jersey. The Shanghai Garden Chinese restaurant is next door; across the street sits the Cave Club, which offers Mediterranean cuisine and entertainment under the auspices of the Ali Baba Club Inc.

All of the following are within half a mile: a Holiday Inn Express, a Fairfield Inn, an entrance to Route 17, a high school, a Charlie Brown's Steakhouse, the Stiletto gentlemen's club — and an entrance to the Meadowlands Racetrack.

The driveway to Matheson leads to a rundown empty parking lot. A rusty chain-link fence cuts the lot off from the main property.

Looking through the fence, a visitor last week could see scores of large pressurized cylinders standing in the yard in clusters of several dozen each, some holding 2,000 pounds of gas. There was no sign of human activity — security guard or otherwise. A couple of faded signs read "No Smoking" and "Trespassing Prohibited." Another told truckers and visitors to use the 13th St. entrance.

Around back, the wide-gated fence was open — and unguarded.

The doors to three of seven loading docks were open, revealing the presence of large numbers of cylinders inside.

50 Tons of Acid Gas

According to EPA documents, Matheson's worst-case scenario would involve the toxic-gas release of 100,000 pounds of hydrochloric acid. The company also handles large amounts of hydrogen fluoride, carbonic dichloride and trichlorosilane.

But in its filings with the EPA, Matheson stated that because of numerous rigorous federal "codes and standards applied to compressed gas container service and Matheson Tri-Gas' internal standards, the likelihood of this scenario occurring is almost zero, and should not be considered a credible release situation."

Matheson's RMP makes one mention of security, though it is made in the context of accident detection: "A security officer monitors the site during non-working hours. If an abnormal condition is detected, the officer immediately contacts the appropriate site personnel."

Efforts to reach Matheson officials were unsuccessful.

Ammonia, used most often in refrigeration processes, and chlorine, used in industrial processes as well as for treating drinking water and wastewater, present the greatest danger to large populations.

But those chemicals also pose serious threats in local neighborhoods — from ammonia used at food warehouses and dairies throughout the region to the chlorine used to treat drinking water at New York City's Jerome Park Reservoir in the Bronx and Hillview Reservoir in Yonkers.

Chlorine gas, which is considered to be "immediately dangerous to life or health" in concentrations of 10 parts per million, can travel 2 miles at 100 ppm in 10&Mac195; minutes.

An ammonia release at Blue Ridge Farms on Atlantic Ave. in Brooklyn would put 147,000 people at risk, records show. And a release at Saxony Ice Co. in Mamaroneck, which also uses ammonia, could endanger 3,555 people.

To a smaller extent, local neighborhoods are potentially at risk from the methane used at 10 New York City sewage treatment plants. For example, a release of the methane inside the Coney Island Water Pollution Control Plant on Knapp St. in Brooklyn could endanger 922 area residents.

New Laws Proposed

Corzine's Chemical Security Act, introduced last October, would presumably reduce the odds of a terrorist attack by requiring companies to reexamine the chemical ingredients that make the facilities potential targets to begin with. For example, many industrial companies and municipal sewage treatment plants have switched to safer non-chlorine processes.

The legislation, slated to be voted on in committee this month, also would require that vulnerability assessments be performed at each site, and, where necessary, facilities would be required to upgrade to state-of-the-art security systems.

The chemical industry wants a voluntary program, and Sen. Christopher (Kit) Bond (R-Mo.) has introduced a bill that would remove all RMP worst-case scenario information from public view.

"When it comes to homeland security, we can't rely on voluntary programs," Corzine said. "These facilities should be required to assess their vulnerabilities, use the safest possible technologies and improve their security. To me, that's just common sense."

A Horrifying 'What If'

Facilities storing chemicals are required to file risk management plans that describe a possible worst-case scenario involving the largest single container of the most dangerous chemical onsite. Each scenario includes the quantity of the chemical released, the rate of release, the duration, wind speed, etc. Then it estimates the number of people at risk.