Chemical Plant Oversight: Fed or State Issue?
Which government level should oversee chemical disasters?
6/3/20262 min read
After a chemical leak at the Ames Goldsmith plant in Kanawha County, West Virginia, killed two workers and injured dozens more last month, federal investigators quickly arrived to begin piecing together what went wrong. Now, the federal agency tasked with determining the root cause of the accident is in danger of elimination. To which I ask…
Just who should be in charge of chemical leak investigations? The federal government or the state government? According to the Constitution I have, the Tenth Amendment would suggest it’s a state issue.
President Trump is proposing to cut funding for the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, a small federal agency that examines chemical disasters and suggests safety fixes. The board was created via the Clean Air Act in 1990, and has a minuscule budget of $14 million with fewer than 50 employees. If it’s that small, I say dump it.
The White House said CSB duplicates work already done by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, arguing eliminating it would help shrink the federal government. If true, dump it. Every penny of waste is part of the reason the national debt exceeds $38 trillion.
Worker advocates and former CSB members warn dismantling the agency could leave states like West Virginia — with long histories of deadly industrial chemical incidents — more vulnerable to future disasters. A long history? Seriously? The board has only looked into eight (8) chemical incidents in West Virginia since 2008 – not even 1 every 2 years. I think the EPA and OSHA can handle the extra workload.
Congress created the board after growing frustration that existing federal agencies were not adequately investigating major industrial chemical disasters. So, like any typical idiotic government would do, when one agency isn’t doing its job properly, let’s create another one… instead of fixing the one that isn’t working. If one square peg won’t fit into a round hole, why would another square peg fit? The D.C. in Washington D.C. apparently stands for Den of Crazies.
Some argue OSHA and the EPA primarily determine whether companies violated existing regulations, while the board conducts broader investigations, such as the root cause. Wouldn’t discovery of root cause be necessary when determining whether a company violated existing regulations?
The article then goes on to present beggar-type arguments for maintaining the board and how elimination would represent “a significant step backwards” in preventing catastrophic chemical accidents. Hmm! Here’s an idea. Everyone do your job correctly, replace parts when needed. Problem solved.
The Trump administration has proposed cuts to other agencies that protect workers. He proposed a 7.5% cut to OSHA’s budget and a 10% cut to the federal mine safety agency’s budget. I’ve talked to several people over the years on job related safety issues. I can’t speak for mine safety, but I can state that several OSHA regulations are idiotic. A simple realignment of OSHA priorities would solve a lot of problems.
Constitutionally, this should be a state issue, not a federal issue, unless… the leak effects bordering states, in which it becomes an interstate issue.
Source used: Associated Press
