By: Lani Wean, West Virginia Field Organizer, Moms Clean Air Force
Date: March 10, 2026
About: EPA Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OLEM-2025-0313
To: Environmental Protection Agency
My name is Lani Wean, and I am the West Virginia Organizer for Moms Clean Air Force. I urge EPA to maintain the requirements of the Risk Management Program to protect the health and safety of families and communities near RMP facilities.
In Charleston, West Virginia, located in the Kanawha, or "Chemical," Valley, 70% of area residents live within a 3-mile radius of a high-risk chemical facility—this is 80% higher than the national average. This area, where I have lived for the last five years, was one of the birthplaces of petrochemicals; from the invention of antifreeze to the production of Agent Orange, our communities bare the weight of nearly a century of chemical industry operations.
In fact, the Kanawha Valley has faced decades of chemical disasters and emergencies from these facilities. The Union Carbide chemical facility in Union, West Virginia, has been known to release significant quantities of ethylene oxide, benzene, and other hazardous air pollutants. In 1985, residents near this facility were exposed to a gas leak that mirrored that of the disaster in Bhopal, India, which killed more than 2,000 people. In 2008, a fire and explosion at an Institute facility led to several deaths and injuries, as well as a shelter-in-place order for nearly 40,000 people. In 2010, the formerly Dupont, now Chemours, chemical facility in Belle, West Virginia, released more than 5,000 pounds of methyl chloride into the surrounding communities. Then, in 2020, a deadly fire and explosion at the same facility killed one employee and injured several others. The list of deadly disasters goes on, and on, and on.
Chemical emergencies and disasters at industrial facilities have disrupted thousands of lives nationally. Since 2004, over 20,000 people have been injured or had to seek medical treatment, and 113 lives lost. More than 760,000 community members, including children, have faced toxic threats and had to evacuate or shelter in place. You would be hard-pressed to find one person in West Virginia who hasn’t faced the consequences of chemical facilities like these in the Kanawha Valley.
Not to mention, more than one in every three school children in the U.S. attend a school within the vulnerability zone of a hazardous chemical or petrochemical facility. In the Charleston area, similar statistics show that more than half of Charleston schools and almost 30% of medical facilities are located within three miles of an RMP facility. In my work as an Organizer here, one of my community’s most pressing concerns is for our children, whose developing lungs and bodies are more susceptible to serious health consequences from petrochemical pollution and disasters. EPA’s Risk Management Program is meant to provide safeguards requiring more than 11,000 chemical facilities to plan, prevent, and mitigate the harm and risks of industrial disasters. What would my neighbors and volunteers tell their children should these protections be dismantled, especially when so many of them live within a stone’s throw of an RMP facility?
I urge EPA to maintain the strong, comprehensive, and enforceable Safer Communities by Chemical Accident Prevention rule to help protect the health and safety of communities living near Risk Management Program facilities. Furthermore, it is vital that the EPA addresses the cumulative health impacts from multiple polluting facilities in an updated and strengthened Risk Management Program rule. Our lives, and the lives of our children, depend on it.
Thank you.