Toxic-Free Communities News

WASHINGTON, October 14, 2009 — The House Energy and Environment Subcommittee passed the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Act of 2009 (H.R. 2868) and the Drinking Water System Security Act (H.R. 3258).

U.S. PIRG Public Health Advocate Liz Hitchcock had the following statement:

"We applaud Chairman Markey and the subcommittee for taking strong action to protect American communities from dangerous chemical plants. One hundred facilities endanger more than a million people in the event of an accident or attack; more than 7000 facilities endanger thousands.

"Together, the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Act of 2009 and the Drinking Water System Security Act begin to take a common sense approach to the deficiencies in chemical plant safety and security, long identified by experts as a national security lapse.

"Safer and cost-effective alternatives are already in use for many of the most dangerous chemicals. We should not tolerate unnecessary risk to millions of Americans when we know that we can do better, and we should not tolerate further delay in passing this already long overdue protection for America’s communities.

"We applaud the subcommittee for rejecting amendments that would have weakened the bills by eliminating the requirement that the most dangerous facilities implement safer technologies.  It would do American communities no good to know that there are alternatives to the hazards at these facilities unless we actually put these common sense solutions to use.

"We look forward to working with the sponsors and the Obama Administration to further improve this legislation as it moves forward in Congress. The American public deserves a chemical security law that protects communities by replacing dangerous chemical operations with feasible safer technologies, integrates employee participation in safety and security initiatives, and protects the ability of state and local governments to implement more stringent health, safety and security requirements."

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U.S. PIRG, the federation of state Public Interest Research Groups, is a non-profit, non-partisan public interest advocacy organization.
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