By: Vanessa Lynch, Pennsylvania State Coordinator, Moms Clean Air Force
Date: September 28, 2022
About: Environmental Protection Agency Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OLEM-2022-0174
To: Environmental Protection Agency
My name is Vanessa Lynch, and I am a Pennsylvania State Coordinator for Moms Clean Air Force, living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Moms Clean Air Force is a community of more than 100,000 moms and dads across the commonwealth united against air pollution—including the urgent threat of our changing climate—to equitably protect our children’s health.
The EPA’s Safer Communities by Chemical Accident Prevention rule will strengthen the Risk Management Program to help protect the health and safety of communities living near chemical and petrochemical facilities, and I support it. We know exposure to harmful chemicals can worsen respiratory and other health conditions making all efforts to strengthen safeguards vitally important.
As a new petrochemical facility is opening just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and a number of other projects are being considered for the greater Ohio River Valley, communities like mine are excited to see EPA taking seriously their responsibility to protect those living within the vulnerability zone of these industrial sites.
For communities like ours, with tens of thousands of fracked wells, pipelines, compressor stations, cryogenic plants, and now a petrochemical plant, the cumulative impacts of industrial processes across communities must be considered.
Before and after siting new facilities, it is critical the Risk Management Program requires analysis of consequences to local communities. With underserved and overburdened populations making up 57% of the population near chemical accident sites between 2004 and 2020 and over one in every three school children in the US attending a school within the vulnerability zone of a hazardous chemical or petrochemical facility, communities must be comprehensively protected.
In order to fully protect families, prevention, accountability, and transparency must be prioritized. Since many of the chemical releases leading to adverse effects for communities are preventable, a mechanism must be in place to require corrective action to prevent incidents and accidents. Frequent and independent facility inspections create accountability for communities. Additionally, to create transparency, families need access to real time and accurate information about what materials are housed in these facilities and how they can best protect themselves in case of a disaster.
Over the last few years, EPA has made a concerted effort to protect families and create meaningful safeguards. All of us on the frontline of industrial facilities thank you for that hard work. As we move forward, communities need to see real enforcement of standards to feel truly prioritized and protected. Safer communities mean healthier, happier families who can breathe clean air. A true happy ending for families like mine.