The Environmental Protection Agency has decided not to go through with a plan to put worst-case scenarios on the Internet describing what would happen in the event of a terrorist attack at any of the 66,000 chemical plants in the U.S.
Jim Makris, the director of the agency's emergency preparedness office, "had been eager" to put disaster scenarios on the Internet, a move environmental groups said would help people identify threats in their communities. But the agency came under "intense pressure" from the FBI, CIA and some members of Congress who "worried" about making such information broadly available (Greenwire, 11/2).
The EPA on Nov. 6 made the decision not to include the most extreme scenarios of chemical releases online, but the decision was not widely reported until yesterday. Under the 1990 Clean Air Act, the agency will post some data about chemicals online, such as which chemicals are being stored and emergency-response plans.
Some environmentalists have indicated they might try to put the worst-case scenario information online themselves, arguing that the public has a right to know. But EPA official Steve Mason said to do so "would be asking for severe liability problems" if something happened (Seth Borenstein, Philadelphia Inquirer, 11/19).
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