The Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee will mark up chemical storage facility oversight legislation on April 2, panel Chairman Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) announced last week.
The EPW Committee will consider S. 1961, the “Chemical Safety and Drinking Water Protection Act,” which West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin introduced in the aftermath of January’s chemical spill in Charleston, West Virginia. The spill contaminated the community’s drinking water supplies with the chemical MCHM and left Charleston residents unable to drink or bathe in their tap water for several days.
S. 1961 would require regular state inspections of any chemical storage facility that “poses a risk of harm” to a nearby public water system. Chemical facility owners would have to meet minimum leak detection, spill control and employee training standards, and would have to provide information to nearby water utilities about the potential toxicity of each chemical held on-site and “safeguards or other precautions … to detect, mitigate, or otherwise limit the adverse effects” of a chemical release.
AMWA has not taken a formal position on S. 1961 but is in the process of meeting with staff of Sen. Manchin and EPW Committee members to discuss improvements to the bill. These suggestions include requiring chemical facilities to immediately notify downstream water systems after discovering chemical spills and clarifying that a water utility’s receipt of information about chemicals stored upstream confers no new responsibilities or liabilities on the utility.