Harvey: "Filing Shows Spill At Arkema Plant Before It Caught Fire"

"The chemical plant in Crosby, Texas, that caught fire in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey experienced a chemical spill more than a day before the fire broke out, according to a regulatory filing.

The spill happened Aug. 29, according to an emissions report that Arkema Inc. filed with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. It raises fresh questions about how much regulators knew about the dangers at the facility and whether the company was completely forthcoming about the incident.

It's unclear when the report was actually filed — it wasn't available on the TCEQ website until this week. That means local firefighters and sheriff's deputies may not have known about the spill when they responded to the plant two weeks ago, said Elena Craft, a senior health scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund who reviewed the report.

'They were making decisions based on information that might not have been accurate,' she said."

Mike Lee reports for EnergyWire September 14, 2017.