The Christie administration keeps New Jersey residents in the dark about the frequency and content of rail car shipments that pass through our communities every day.
By Dan Fatton and Dominick Marino
A train derailed and sickened many residents of Paulsboro, exposing residents and emergency responders to a cloud of vinyl chloride, a known carcinogen.
It was a terrible illustration of the need for more effective emergency response planning and training. In that 2012 accident, residents were given confusing instructions and first responders were not told about the hazards of vinyl chloride nor provided personal protective equipment.
It can happen again because residents here in New Jersey are being denied access to emergency response plans by Gov. Christie Christie and his administration.
In his 2010 inaugural address, Christie and his administration promised "an era of accountability and transparency," offering to make finances, budgeting and other processes more transparent. Yet, the Christie administration continues to fight open-records requests from news media and watchdog groups.
The governor continues to shirk his responsibility by not respecting our right to know, denying access to emergency response plans.
The federal Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act (EPCRA) has established a framework to let the public know about the presence of large quantities of extremely hazardous chemicals and provides for emergency preparedness and response if there is a life-threatening release.
The problem is EPCRA does not specify how this information needs to be shared. County and municipal agencies are required to develop Emergency Response Plans (ERPs) for dealing with chemical releases and by law need to make these plans available for public review.
And yet, despite these legal requirements, our basic right to know about these emergency response plans continues to be ignored by the state.
In December 2014, The New Jersey Work Environment Council (WEC) authored a report, "Danger in the Dark," which documented how Christie failed to carry out this legal responsibility and had not instructed the State Emergency Response Commission (SERC), the agency charged with this function, to assure access to these plans.
WEC and other concerned labor, community and environment groups, including the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT) Local 877 that represents Phillips 66 workers, met with SERC in 2015 and informed the administration that the public was still being denied access to ERPs that the state is required by federal law to provide.
The reasons provided for denial vary and confusion about the law continues, leading one to question the efficacy of the training SERC provided. Access to these plans is critical given that New Jersey has more than 3,000 facilities that use large quantities of hazardous chemicals.
Just this month, WEC and Greenpeace co-released a report pointing out the danger posed by a worst-case release of chlorine gas. Tanker cars deliver this gas to plants and facilities across the country that store large quantities of chlorine. This puts the public potentially at risk for a ruptured tank car spewing deadly chlorine gas.
Since the Paulsboro chemical spill, thousands of trains have also hauled Bakken crude oil, another dangerous substance, through our communities each week, including densely populated municipalities in Union and Middlesex counties. Crude oil explosions have occurred in North Dakota and Quebec and in May, a North Dakota town was evacuated after a crude oil train derailed.
Yet New Jersey residents remain in the dark about the frequency and content of rail car shipments that pass through our communities every day. We need to avoid another Paulsboro, when some school children were sent home to walk right through a cloud of vinyl chloride.
Christie is required by federal law to ensure that every county and municipality has an up-to-date emergency response plan that is accessible to the public. Public access to emergency response plans is critical for first responders and community members to understand what to do during a disaster.
We have seen what can happen if they arrive at the scene of a disaster not knowing the dangers posed by a chemical release. Christie needs to direct his administration to release information and take action to protect our lives, jobs, health, schools and businesses.
Dan Fatton is executive director of the New Jersey Work Environment Council
Dominick Marino is president of the Professional Firefighters Association of New Jersey.