EPA to join investigation of DuPont Belle plant leaks
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials are planning to join the growing investigation of safety concerns at DuPont Co.’s chemical plant in Belle, W.Va., following a string of leaks including one that killed a worker.
Two teams of EPA inspectors plan to visit the plant next week. One will be looking into DuPont’s compliance with the agency’s Risk Management Plan regulations. The other will be looking into DuPont’s reporting of these recent incidents, to see if the company complied with requirements under the Environmental Planning and Community Right to Know Act.
Roy Seneca, an EPA regional spokesman, emphasized one point to me:
It’s not a facility-wide inspection. We’ll be looking at the three incidents and the units involved.
Readers might remember that EPA launched an investigation of whether Bayer CropScience properly followed reporting requirements after the company repeatedly stonewalled local emergency response officials the night of the August 2008 explosion and fire that killed two workers at the Institute plant.
Of course, we still don’t know the results of that EPA probe, and all Seneca would tell me this week is that it remains “ongoing.”
It’s also worth noting that EPA has been harshly criticized by its own Inspector General for its poor enforcement of the Risk Management Plan regulations. The last time EPA reviewed the RMP program at the DuPont Belle plant was more than six years ago. At the time, EPA concluded:
There were no recommendations of consequence. This facility is another example of an older plant with good PSM and RMP program management, probably reflecting responsible corporate guidance.
