The Wrong Complexion for Protection: How the Government Response to Disaster Endangers African American Communities

7. Living and Dying on the Fenceline: Response to Industrial Accidents

156 | 7 Living and Dying on the Fenceline Response to Industrial Accidents Industrial accidents tend to impact poor communities, communities whose residents are people of color, and environmentally overburdened communities over time. Industrial accidents change the lives of fenceline communities because the residents are always speculating about or waiting for the next chemical spill or toxic contamination that they fear will be the one that destroys the entire community. Many fenceline communities face daily threats from industrial explosions, spills, leaks, and possible terrorist attacks. Accidents and explosions at chemical and industrial facilities are common. Enforcement of safety laws is desperately needed to reduce the frequency, severity, and effects of industrial accidents. This chapter presents case studies of government response to industrial accidents and other incidents that have affected African Americans dating back to the early 1930s.The cases include the Gauley Bridge, West Virginia, mine disaster in 1930; the Gaylord Chemical tank car accident in Bogalusa, Louisiana, in 1995; the Norfolk Southern Railway train wreck that released toxic chlorine gas in Graniteville, South Carolina, in 2005; the ExxonMobil Baytown, Texas, refinery gas spill in 2006; the 2008 Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) coal ash spill cleanup in mostly white East Tennessee and the disposal of the waste from that cleanup in 2009 in heavily poor and majorityblack Perry County, Alabama. We also discuss the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. The analysis spans eight decades—with case studies presented from the time before and after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the signing of Environmental Justice Executive Order 12898 in 1994.The analysis examines the role of race and race-based decision making and industrial practices in addressing threats from locally unwanted land uses (LULUs) and risky facilities in African American communities. Living and Dying on the Fenceline | 157 The Risk of Toxic Chemicals Approximately eighty thousand different chemicals are now in commercial use in the United States, and nearly six trillion pounds of such chemicals are produced annually in the United States. And nearly two thousand new chemicals are introduced annually; more than 80 percent of these have never been screened to learn whether they cause cancer, much less tested to see if they harm the human nervous system, immune system, endocrine system, or reproductive system. Many of the nation’s chemical facilities present an unnecessary risk to their surrounding communities. All across the United States, petroleum refineries, chemical plants, and other industrial plants use and store massive amounts of hazardous chemicals that, if subject to an accident , would release dangerous toxins.1 The nation is still grappling with securing chemical plants, refineries, water treatment plants, and other vital facilities. Some progress has been made, but more needs to be done to improve safety and security inside and outside the plants. The public is also vulnerable to accidents involving the railways that run in and out of densely population areas. Our railways transport more than 1.7 million shipments of hazardous materials every year, and one hundred thousand tank cars filled with toxic gases like chlorine and anhydrous ammonia travel along rail lines.2 Many of the trains are rolling time bombs waiting to explode. The explosion of a single car carrying chlorine near a densely populated area could kill as many as one hundred thousand people. Gauley Bridge, West Virginia (1930) Gauley Bridge is a town in Fayette County, West Virginia. In 1930, Union Carbide and Carbon Corporation awarded the Rinehart and Dennis Corporation of Charlottesville, Virginia, $4.23 million to complete a tunnel, dam, and powerhouse for a hydroelectric plant on the New River to help boost West Virginia’s economy.3 The company was given two years to complete the project, which was designed to harness the powers of Gauley River, directing the waters through a tunnel and converting the water into electricity. The tunnel was of singular importance to Union Carbide and Carbon Corporation , making possible what would later be known as the “Chemical Valley of the World.”4 The total tunnel investment was $9 million. During the early 1930s, more than three thousand men were involved in the project to dig a tunnel through Hawk’s Nest in West Virginia. They 158 | The Wrong Complexion for Protection worked six days a week in ten-hour shifts, while living in a life-threatening environment.5 Blacks were assigned the dirtiest and most dangerous jobs...