Dangerous chemicals are stored all over the U.S.
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Photo illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Photo: E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
There are thousands of facilities that house large quantities of hazardous chemicals in communities across the U.S. Most Americans may not know they're there.
Why it matters: Accidents at these facilities have seriously injured — or even killed — people who work there.
By the numbers: As of July, roughly 12,000 facilities with hazardous chemicals on site were registered with the Environmental Protection Agency, according to public records obtained and released by the Data Liberation Project.
- Since 2003, facilities have reported nearly 4,000 accidents to the EPA — some minor, some severe. The number of accidents each year is declining, although some experts say the improvement may not be as big as it appears.
Since 2003, facilities owned by Tyson Foods, one of the country's leading meat processors, and its subsidiaries have reported 90 accidents, the most among all companies in that time period. Many of those involved ammonia, which is used in refrigeration.
- Tyson did not respond to a request for comment for this story.
- Facilities owned by Dow Chemical reported the second-most, with 55 incidents, followed by Marathon Petroleum Company, according to an Axios analysis.
How it works: Any company storing a certain amount of certain chemicals must register with the EPA and file a risk management plan. Those plans detail what the effects of an accident would be; what the companies are doing to prevent them; and an emergency response plan if an accident does occur.
- Having a risk management plan on file doesn't mean a facility has experienced an accident, or that it's at any higher risk than any other facility — only that it has potentially dangerous chemicals on hand.
What we're watching: The Data Liberation Project, a data-transparency initiative, used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain a list of facilities that have filed risk management plans with the EPA.
- Using those records, Axios has mapped all of the facilities and their associated data.
- Our hope is that experts and the general public can use this data to conduct their own analyses and see the facilities located in your community.
This data set doesn't include every chemical accident — only those at facilities that are required to file a risk management plan with the EPA. That's triggered by storing certain quantities of one of 250 specific substances.
- Chemicals that fall outside of that specific regulatory scheme aren't covered here. Neither are accidents that occur in transit — like the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment.
What they're saying: Paul Orum, an independent researcher who's worked extensively with EPA data says that the accidents in this dataset are a "subset of more serious accidents where there's harm -- environmental, property, harm to humans."
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