The number of accidents involving releases of dangerous chemicals rose by 57 percent between 2021 and 2025, from 83 to 131, according to an analysis released Monday by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). Injuries or deaths from accidents also rose, from 60 to 89 over the same five-year period.
The Chemical Safety Board (CSB) incident reports show that more than 650 accidents occurred between April 2020 and May 2026, with 103 resulting in fatalities, 355 causing injuries, and 314 doing ‘substantial property damage.’ Close to 150 million people live within 3 miles of these facilities. Historically underserved and overburdened populations, including people who identify as Black and Latino, are at greatest risk of exposure to an accidental release.
Physicist Ronald Koopman’s presentation on hydrofluoric acid dispersion and water mitigation testing at a Southern California Air District meeting in 2018 has taken on a new urgency. The accident released more than 5,000 pounds of the chemical. Exposure to 170 parts per million of hydrogen fluoride for 10 minutes can cause death or serious injury.
The refineries are near population centers, and the release of the gas could be just a horrible tragedy. After the massive Philadelphia refinery explosion, PEER petitioned the EPA to ban hydrogen fluoride in 2019. The agency refused to consider the petition.
The new statistics were made public as a result of a lawsuit PEER and other groups filed to compel the Chemical Safety Board to disclose industrial chemical releases as required by the Clean Air Act. A federal judge ruled in 2019 that communities have a right to know what hazardous chemicals are released nearby. Yet Trump’s EPA removed a public data tool designed to inform communities of nearby risks last year.
The administration proposed to significantly weaken RMP rules finalized in 2024 ‘to reduce regulatory burden’ and accepted public comment on the rules until early May. The Biden administration’s strengthened RMP rules require a number of measures to reduce the risk of catastrophic accidents, including safer-alternatives analyses, independent analyses of accidents’ root causes, worker participation in accident-prevention plans, and preparations to adapt to climate change.
EPA spokesperson said the agency is reviewing public comments and continues to work toward completing the final rule in late 2026. ‘EPA’s proposal relies on a rigorous analysis of RMP reportable incidents between 2014 and 2023, which shows accidental releases unequivocally declined significantly over that period,’ the spokesperson said.
The Biden EPA used the same data and came to the opposite conclusion, said PEER’s Ruch. Plus, he added, ‘the conclusion that any decline is due to industry prevention plans is a supposition which the current EPA does not have the
Source: Original article