Greenpeace and the Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services (TEJAS) will hold a public forum to discuss the risks posed by Dow Chemical’s Texas Operations’ chemical facility in Freeport.

The forum follows the recent citizen inspection of the facility by Greenpeace and the submittal of an inspection report citing Dow Chemical’s for its failure to fully secure the facility against terrorists or catastrophic accidents. Greenpeace has also submitted a copy of the inspection report to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

WHERE:  Rice University, Sewall Hall, Room 309, adjacent to visitor parking.
http://www.rice.edu/maps/colormap.pdf

WHEN:    Saturday, September 11th, 3:00 – 4:00 p.m.

WHO:      Houston City Councilwoman Jolanda Jones; John Deans, Greenpeace Policy Analyst; Dr. Neil Carmen, Sierra Club Clean Air Program Director; Juan Parras, Executive Director of TEJAS; John Douglas, District Fire Chief and Coordinator for the Houston Fire Department Hazardous Materials Response Team

BACKGROUND: More than 100 million Americans are put at risk by just 300 of the nation’s “high risk” chemical plants. Although DHS plans to inspect ‘high risk’ chemical plants, they will only inspect 3 percent of the 5,333 plants by the end of 2010. Under a temporary law, the DHS also has no authority to require the use of safer chemical processes that would eliminate catastrophic poison gas risks at a chemical facility.

In 2004, the Homeland Security Council estimated that an attack on a chemical facility would kill 17,500 people, seriously injure 10,000 more people, and send an additional 100,000 people to the hospital. Since 1999, more than 500 plants have switched to safer and more secure chemicals or processes eliminating risks to 38.5 million Americans. The House of Representatives passed a bill (HR 2868) on Nov. 6, 2009 that would require the highest risk plants to convert to safer processes where commercially feasible. This bill is now under consideration by the Senate.

Contact:  Jane Kochersperger, (202) 680-3798 cell; jane.kochersperger@greenpeace.org