What You Don’t Have Can’t Leak

Please see your nearby Louisiana facilities in a new report, released today,

“Chemical Security 101 –
What You Don’t Have Can’t Leak, or Be Blown Up by Terrorists”
by Paul Orum, Reece Rushing
Center for American Progress

www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/11/chemical_security.html

"This report outlines how using safer and more secure chemicals or processes can make the most dangerous chemical facilities less attractive targets for terrorists" {and one might add, safer for our neighborhoods and the plant workers}.

The article states, "Solutions applicable to the top 101 facilities could improve safety and security at many other high-hazard facilities, including an additional 202 listed in this report."

{Both major refineries in St Bernard Parish are listed in this report. Exxon is in the top 101 and Murphy is ranked among the 202 high-hazard listed. Our community's only high school is located in between these two refineries. With only two east-west corridors, school buses, workers and residents traveling in the Meraux area have no choice but to travel through Murphy Oil's tank farm or processing-terminal area.}


Paul Orum continues: "Most of the top 101 facilities could convert to safer and more secure chemicals or processes already being used by similar facilities that do not endanger large numbers of people. In particular:

* Eight petroleum refineries could remove danger to 11 million Americans by substituting toxic hydrofluoric acid, used in refining crude oil, with sulfuric acid or emerging solid acid catalysts. This includes the ExxonMobil Corp. refinery in Chalmette, La., which puts over 1 million people in danger. " {A similar solution is suggested for the Murphy Oil Meraux refinery.}

Check out
Interactive Map:
101 Most Dangerous Chemical Facilities Can Convert to Safer, More Secure Alternatives

http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/11/chemical_security_map.html

And CAP's 2007 study Toxic Trains and the Terrorist Threat: How Water Utilities Can Get Chlorine Gas Off the Rails and Out of American Communities