Remember Hurricane Harvey? Chemical company Arkema indicted for toxic cloud

[pnwmom]

https://app.dao.hctx.net/arkema-indicted-toxic-cloud

Press release from the Office of the District Attorney, Kim Ogg, Harris County, TX

ARKEMA INDICTED FOR TOXIC CLOUD
August 3, 2018

A grand jury today indicted Arkema North America, a French-made major chemical manufacturer, along with its CEO and a plant manager, prosecutors announced.

The grand jury concluded they were responsible for the release of a toxic cloud over the Crosby community during Hurricane Harvey, prosecutors announced.

Arkema North America, its CEO Richard Rowe, and plant manager Leslie Comardelle, are named in the indictment.

“Companies don’t make decisions, people do,” Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said. “Responsibility for pursuing profit over the health of innocent people rests with the leadership of Arkema.”

“Indictments against corporations are rare,” Ogg said. “Those who poison our environment will be prosecuted when the evidence justifies it.”

The indictment charges they all had a role in “recklessly” releasing chemicals into the air, placing residents and first responders at risk of serious bodily injury.

The charge carries penalties of up to five years in prison for the persons and up to a $1 million fine for the corporation.

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board released a report earlier this year on the fire at Arkema’s Crosby plant.

Chemicals had to be kept frozen to avoid bursting into flames, but temperatures rose after floodwaters knocked out the plant’s power. As a result, the chemicals exploded, causing a fire that burned for day and releasing the cloud.

Prosecutors allege the disaster could and should have been prevented.

Arkema’s plant is located at 18000 Crosby Gate Road.

The Harris County Sheriff’s Office, the Houston Police Department’s Environmental Investigations Unit, and the Harris County District Attorney’s Office Environmental Crimes Division contributed to the investigation.

“As the hurricane approached, Arkema was more concerned about production and profit than people,” said Alexander Forrest, chief of the Environmental Crimes Division at the Harris County District Attorney’s Office.

https://abcnews.go.com/US/arkema-chemical-company-indicted-plant-fire-hurricane-harvey/story?id=57029025

"These criminal charges are astonishing, especially since the U.S. Chemical Safety Board concluded that Arkema behaved responsibly," Arkema spokesperson Janet Smith said in a statement to Houston ABC station KTRK. "At the end of its eight-month investigation, the Chemical Safety Board noted that Hurricane Harvey was the most significant rainfall event in U.S. history, an Act of God that never before has been seen in this country."

The Chemical Safety Board panel found there was a lack of planning for how severe weather events like the unprecedented rain during Hurricane Harvey could affect facilities that store chemicals and that even though Arkema had emergency generators and other backup systems "all of these layers of protection failed due to flooding."

Smith said in a statement to ABC News in May after the release of the CSB report: "Arkema is pleased that after an eight-month-long investigation, the Chemical Safety Board (CSB) report accurately depicts the unforeseeable nature of the situation Arkema faced during Hurricane Harvey."