health and safety

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, January 17, 2015

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.

The following news items feature issues, discussions, campaigns, or information potentially relevant to green unionists:

Lead Stories:

• The Robots Are Coming! Let's Make Them Work for the Workers - By Thomas Matt, Truthout, January 15, 2015

Carbon Bubble:

• BP, ConocoPhillips to cut 530 jobs in the North Sea - By Collin Eaton, FuelFix, January 15, 2015
• Schlumberger to cut 9,000 employees, including in Houston - By Collin Eaton, FuelFix, January 15, 2015; [related]: Schlumberger axes 9,000 workers - By Michael Allan McCrae, Mining.Com, January 16, 2015
• Wage growth for oil workers slowed in 2014, data firm says - By Joshua Cain, FuelFix, January 15, 2015

Green Jobs and Just Transition:

• By focusing on collaboration, not competition, teachers can save civilization - By Lizanne Foster, Rabble.ca, January 18, 2015
• Offshore Wind in the Atlantic Would Provide Twice the Number of Jobs, Energy as Offshore Drilling - By Jaime McClain, Oceana, January 15, 2015
• Solar Jobs Boom: US Industry Adds 31,000 Workers as Installations Surge - By Pete Danko, Breaking Energy, January 15, 2015
• There are now twice as many solar jobs as coal jobs - By Tim McDonnell, Grist, January 15, 2015

Other News of Interest:

• Bhopal Cloud Hovers Over Industrial Safety in India - By Neeta Lal, Truthout, January 20, 2015
• Five Die After Crash In South Texas Oil Field - by Katie Valentin, Think Progress, January 16, 2015
• Forced labor on Thai fishing vessels - By Farah Obaidullah, Greenpeace Blogs, January 16, 2015
• Global union alerts Bougainville about Rio Tinto - Adam Lee interviewed by Radio New Zealand, Papua New Guinea Mine Watch, January 20, 2015
• Oil-by-Rail Reality: Watch What Industry Does, Not What They Say - By Justin Mikulka, DeSmog Blog, January 15, 2015
• Peruvian Youth To Protest Against New Labor Law - Telesur, December 22, 2014
• RCMP union: Solidarity forever? - By John Baglow, Rabble.ca, January 17, 2015
• Report urges injury, death coverage for farm workers - By Karen Kleiss, Edmonton Journal, January 15, 2015
• Soma, Ermenek, Yirca: Can Anti-Coal Activists Defend Coal Miners and Olive Farmers? - By Ethemcan Turhan, Jadaliyya, January 17, 2015
• Textile Workers’ Strike Stirs Discontent In Sisi’s Egypt - By Hossam el-Hamalawy, al-Araby, January 16, 2015
• Women Garment Workers Organize Against Inhumane Conditions in India - By Pushpa Achanta, Waging Nonviolence, January 12, 2015
• Worker dies at Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant - By Justin McCurry, The Guardian, January 20, 2015

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, January 17, 2015

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.

The following news items feature issues, discussions, campaigns, or information potentially relevant to green unionists:

Lead Stories:

• Hundreds Rally Against Proposed Propane Terminal at Planning and Sustainability Commission Hearing - By Yoko, Rising Tide Portland, January 13, 2015
• The climate is ripe for social change: Forget the UN, social justice movements offer the only viable solution to global warming - By Vishwas Satgar, The Mail & Guardian, December 17, 2014

Carbon Bubble:

• Oil prices and the devil's ransom - By Alexander Reid Ross, The Ecologist, January 15, 2015
• This Is Just the Beginning of the Great American Oil Bust - By Wolf Richter, Wolf Street, January 12, 2015
• How Wall Street Drove the Oil & Gas Drilling Boom That’s Turning into a Disaster - By Wolf Richter, Wolf Street, January 13, 2015
• Apache workers face layoffs as oil prices fall - By Ryan Honeywell, FuelFix, January 14, 2015
• BP cuts 200 North Sea staff, 100 contractors - Associated Press, FuelFix, January 15, 2015
  Canadian oil firm to cut 1,000 jobs, curb spending - By Colin Eaton, FuelFix, January 13, 2015
• Lewis Energy cuts jobs in wake of oil price crash - By Jenifer Hiller, FuelFix, January 14, 2015
• OPEC Wants to “Crush US Shale” - By Andy Rowell, Oil Change International, January 15, 2015
• San Antonio-based driller cutting 20 percent of workforce - By Jenifer Hiller, FuelFix, January 14, 2015
• Suncor cutting 1,000 jobs, taking $1 billion out of 2015 budget - By Lauren Krugel, The Canadian Press, January 13, 2015
• Texas job growth to slow as oil prices tank - By David Hendricks, FuelFix, January 13, 2015

Green Jobs and Just Transition:

• Because another energy is possible: Looking back at 2014 (video) - Trade Unions for Energy Democracy, January 14, 2015
• Offshore Wind More Profitable Than Drilling on U.S. East Coast, Report Says - Yale Environment 360, January 14, 2015
• Ohio’s Renewable Energy Freeze Threatens Growth of Solar and Wind Investments and Jobs - By Anastasia Pantsios, EcoWatch, January 14, 2015
• The Solar Industry Created More Jobs In 2014 Than Oil And Gas Extraction - By Katie Valentine, Think Progress, January 15, 2015
• Solar Is Creating Jobs Nearly 20 Times Faster Than Overall U.S. Economy - By Anastasia Pantsios, EcoWatch, January 15, 2015
• Solidarity, PA - By Abby Scher, Dissent, January 2015
• US Solar Jobs Climb 22 Percent as Clean Power Aids Economic Recovery - By Justin Doom, Bloomberg, January 15, 2015
• We Need Less Work, Not More - By Alexandra Bradbury, In These Times, January 15, 2015

Other News of Interest:

• Breast cancer: the workplace aspects are too often forgotten by researchers - By European Trade Union Institute, January 14, 2015
• Carbon Colonialism: How the Fight Against Climate Change Is Displacing Africans - By Nafeez Ahmed, Motherboard Vice, December 1, 2014
• The Killer Fog That United Labor and Environmentalists - By Anna Hiatt, New Republic, September 19, 2014
• Pushing through the pipeline - By Nicole Colson and Brian Ward, Socialist Worker, January 14, 2015
• Rio Earth Summit: From Red Scare to Green Scare - By European Trade Union Institute, January 14, 2015
• US Department of Transportation Delays New Rules on 'Bomb Trains' - By Peter Rugh, Vice News, January 15, 2015

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, January 12, 2015

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.

The following news items feature issues, discussions, campaigns, or information potentially relevant to green unionists:

Lead Story:

• Is Obama Really Going to Stop the Keystone XL? - Earth First! Newswire, January 6, 2015

IWW Campaigns:

• The world's first union for harm reduction workers [audio file] - By Scott Neigh, Rabble.Ca, January 7, 2015

Carbon Bubble:

• BP details job cuts, capital spending declines in latest economic impact report - By Joshua Cain, Fuel Fix, January 6, 2015
• CAT cutting 120 jobs in Peoria - By Frik Els, Mining.Com, January 7, 2015
• Fracking’s future is in doubt as oil price plummets - By Kieran Cooke, Climate News Network, January 6, 2015
• Layoff notices coming to 175 workers at Grande Cache Coal - CBC News, January 7, 2015
• Shell Canada cutting back oilsands workforce - The Canadian Press, January 9, 2015
• Shell to cut 5 to 10 percent of 3,000 oil sands jobs - By Ryan Holeywell, FuelFix, January 9, 2015
• Small Texas oil company files for bankruptcy protection - By Collin Eaton, FuelFix, January 7, 2015
• U.S. Steel 'Idles' Lorain Plant, Announces More Than 600 Local Layoffs - By Eric Sandy, Cleveland Scene, January 7, 2015
• U.S. Steel to lay off 142 in Houston - Associated Press, January 6, 2015
• Fact Sheet: Renewable Energy Job Numbers - By Laura Small and Yi Xu, Renewable Energy World, January 7, 2015
• Russia Blamed, US Taxpayers on the Hook, as Fracking Boom Collapses - By  Ben Ptashnik, Truthout, January 8, 2015

Other News of Interest:

• Coal India unions call off strike in relief for govt - By Krishna N. Das and Jatindra Dash, Reuters, January 7, 2015 [related]: India coal miners end nationwide strike - By Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.Com, January 8, 2015
• "The Day When Change Will Come": It's Time To Break the Vicious Circle of Capitalism - By Steve Rushton, Occupy.Com, December 23, 2014
• Deep Questions Arise Over Portland's Corporate Water Takeover - By Victoria Collier, Truthout, January 7, 2015
• IOC playing hardball over small mistakes, union leader says - CBC News, January 7, 2015
• Mine accidents in Turkey claimed 361 lives in 2014 - By Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.Com January 7, 2015
• Occupational health services in need of emergency care - European Trade Union Institute, January 7, 2015
• Rio Tinto far from ethical, says global union - Bougainville Freedom Movement, Papua New Guinea Mine Watch, January 7, 2015; [related]: Rio Tinto has violated our rights for nearly 60 years and we are seeking $900 million in compensation - By Derrick, West Coast Native News, January 8, 2015
• U.S. Forest Service Cancels $10 Million Plan for National Public Relations Campaign - By Jeff Barnard, Associated Press (reposted on the Earth First! Newswire), January 8, 2015

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, December 31, 2014

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.

The following news items feature issues, discussions, campaigns, or information potentially relevant to green unionists:

Lead Stories:

• There is No Drought: California’s Twisted Water Ways - By EastWest, FireWorks Anarchist Counterinformation Project for the Bay Area, December 26, 2014

Railroad Workers, Safety, and the Environment:

• Aging Railway Infrastructure Raises Safety Concerns As Bay Area Readies To Receive Dramatic Increase Of Bakken Crude Oil, Part 1 Of 3 - By Jeffrey Shaub and Giancarlo Rulli, KCBS, December 29, 2014
• Investigation: federal railroad officials ignore regulations on fatigue - By Bill Lambrecht, CTPost.com, December 27, 2014
• Oil Trains: The Industry Speaks for Itself - By Eric de Place, Sightline Daily, December 30, 2014
• Railroads, unions to begin collective bargaining talks next month - By Russell Hubbard, Omaha World-Herald, December 26, 2014

Other News of Interest:

• [Appeal]: Help Capital Bikeshare Employees Unionize!
• Bosnian Workers who Started February Demonstrations are Leaving the Country on Foot - Revolution News, December 26, 2014
• 'Change the System, Not the Climate!' - By Asoka Bandarage, Huffington Post, December 20, 2014
• Green Neocolonialism, Afro-Brazilian Rebellion in Brazil - By Santiago Navarro F., Renata Bessi and Translated by Miriam Taylor, Truthout, December 28, 2014
• How 13 Complaints Against McDonald’s Could Help Millions Unionize - By David Moberg, In These Times, December 23, 2014
• Morton Salt facility partially collapses; further building inspections to come - By WGN Web Desk and Gaynor Hall, WGN TV, December 30, 2014
• Oil-field lodging company slashes jobs, curbs spending - By Collin Eaton, FuelFix, December 29, 2014
• Rio Tinto ‘representative of the destructive and devouring process of colonization’ - By Steven Newcomb, Papua New Guinea Mine Watch, December 30, 2014
• Trafficking, Child Labor May Be Growing In Global Chocolate Industry: Labor advocates say failure to address the root causes of poverty among cocoa farming communities may be leading to both human trafficking and child labor along the chocolate industry’s supply chains - By Carey L. Biron, Mint Press News, December 26, 2014
• Unsustainable growth can’t be wished away: When it comes to explaining destructive growth, many green writers confuse cause and effect - By Ian Angus, Climate and Capitalism, December 30, 2014
• Up to 700 jobless as Patriot Coal idles mines in western Kentucky - By Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.Com, December 29, 2014

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, December 30, 2014

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.

The following news items feature issues, discussions, campaigns, or information potentially relevant to green unionists:

Lead Stories:

• Did Somebody Say Direct Action? What’s Missing from the Victory Narrative - By Alexander Reid Ross, Earth First! Journal, December 22, 2014
• Everything’s Coming Together While Everything Falls Apart - By Rebecca Solnit, Tom Dispatch, December 23, 2014
• Protest too much? 2014 was a big year for rabblerousing - By Heather Smith, Grist, December 23, 2014

Other News of Interest:

• BHP, Rio, Anglo fear effects of Chile’s new labour bill - By Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.Com, December 23, 2014
• Busting the Myth of “Job-Killing EPA Regulations” - By Ken Kimmell, President, Union of Concerned Scientists, Renewable Energy World, December 28, 2014
• Canadian Pension Funds To Invest In Renewables To The Tune Of $2 Billion - By Joshua S Hill, Clean Technica, December 24, 2014
• A Dollar a Day Keeps the Smokestacks Away [Fundraising appeal for a project involving IWW members] - By Josh, Energy Justice Network, December 23, 2014
• Electricity suppliers are shedding jobs, despite renewables growth - By Melissa C. Lott, Scientific American, December 23, 2014; [related]: Employment Drops in All Segments of the Power Sector—Except Renewables - By Julia Pyper, Greentech Media, December 24, 2014
• Environmentalists Are Gearing Up for the Next Phase of New York's Fracking Wars - By Peter Rugh, Vice, December 18, 2014
• The 4 Day Week? - By Tegan Tallulla, Earth Baby Blog, September 30, 2013
• Innovations or Hucksterism? Three Little-Known Infrastructure Privatization Problems - By Ellen Dannin, Truthout, December 22, 2014
• Marathon evacuates personnel from two North Sea platforms - By Robert Grattan, Fuel Fix, December 23, 2014
• Dave Kerin on Workers’ Cooperatives and the Climate Emergency - By Dave Kerin, Anarchist Affinity, November 12, 2014
• Phoenix warns of bus disruptions as union negotiates - By Brenna Goth, Arizona Republic, December 24, 2014
• Railroads seek permission to put a single person in charge of miles-long freight trains [Quotes IWW members] - By Josh Funk, Star Tribune, December 22, 2014
• Railroads, unions to begin collective bargaining talks next month - By Russell Hubbard, Omaha World-Herald, December 26, 2014
• Talcher workers up against coal mining privatization - Nyooz, December 2014
• TTIP: Chemical corporations against safety protections - By Patrick Gleeson, The Ecologist, December 24, 2014

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC

By Reid Southwick - Calgary Herald, December 26, 2014

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.

Crews were scrambling on Friday to clean up the scene of the latest train derailment that spilled ash and grain into a Banff creek and caused the water to become cloudy just upstream from the Bow River.

The derailment on Canadian Pacific’s main line through Banff National Park has reignited concerns about railway safety and the speeds at which trains travel through sensitive habitats.

The spilled ash and grain each pose their own potential problems for wildlife, one that could lower acidity levels for aquatic life, another that could attract bears to unsafe territory.

Parks Canada doesn’t expect any long-term impacts on the local environment, though its officials planned to continue monitoring water quality.

Fifteen Canadian Pacific cars loaded with lentils and fly ash — a component of cement and a byproduct of coal-fired plants — fell off the tracks on a bridge crossing over 40 Mile Creek near Banff townsite at 2 a.m. Friday.

Seven rail cars fell into the creek spilling some of their contents, which turned the water into a murky colour, though it doesn’t appear to be affecting the Bow River, which is about 200 metres downstream.

“The bridge is a wreck,” said John Cottreau, a spokesman for the Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the crash.

Alberta Environment, which has dispatched crews to the scene to help make sure the site is properly cleaned, said its greatest concern is the fly ash, which can create sedimentation problems and decrease acidity levels.

The impact that the spill will have on fish in 40 Mile Creek will depend on the amount of ash that was spilled, which has not yet been determined, spokeswoman Katrina Bluetchen said.

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, December 17, 2014

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.

The following news items feature issues, discussions, campaigns, or information potentially relevant to green unionists:

Lead Story:

• Pipe Dreams? Labor Researchers Say Keystone XL Project May Kill More Jobs Than It Creates - Sean Sweeney, director and founder of the Global Labor Institute at Cornell University, and Bruce Hamilton, vice president of Amalgamated Transit Union interviewed by Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!, December 12, 2014

Urgent Action:

• Philippines sugar organizer murdered - Act Now!

Dispatches from Lima COP20:

• 'Get the FF Out': Campaigners Reject Fossil Fuel Influence at Climate Summit - By Lauren McCauley, Common Dreams, December 8, 2014
• Lima COP20 Climate Summit Marked By Protests, Publicity Stunts and PR Promises - By Brendan DeMelle, DeSmog Blog, December 10, 2014
• Lima's UN climate talks aren't even focusing on keeping down temperatures - By Simeon Tegel, Global Post, December 10, 2014
• People’s Summit in Lima Envisions Bottom-Up Movement for Global Climate Justice - By Sarah Lazare, Common Dreams, December 9, 2014
• Resistance and Solidarity at COP20, Lima - By Chris Eaton, Rising Tide North America, December 12, 2014
• Scenes from Climate Change Summit in Peru - By Lara Norkus-Crampton, National Nurses United, December 11, 2014

Other News of Interest:

• Cultivating Climate Justice through Compost: the Story of Hernani, Spain - By Beverly Bell, Global Justice Ecology Project, December 11, 2014
• Greetings from the Frontline Shale Fields of Pennsylvania - By Spencer Johnson, Talk Fracking, December 11, 2014
• Native Americans challenge construction of Mojave Desert solar plant - By Louis Sahagun, Los Angeles Times, December 12, 2014
• New strike hits Peru's largest copper mine - By Cecilia Jamasmie, Mining.Com, December 11, 2014
• North Dakota's Meaningless New Bakken Oil Regulations Will Keep Bomb Trains Rolling - By Justin Mikulka, DeSmog Blog, December 11, 2014
• NRC cites Palisades for worker radiological safety violations, record number of failures during Component Design Basis Inspections - Beyond Nuclear, December 11, 2014
• Seven injured, two seriously, in explosion at rail car repair facility near Atchison - By Michelle Pekarsky, Megan Dillard and Eric Burke, Fox4 Kansas City News, December 11, 2014
• Todos Somos SAWETO - By Michael Williams, Blue-Green Blog, December 10, 2014

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC

By Jenny Brown - Labor Notes, December 3, 2014

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.

Paul Proudlock went to bed at midnight to calibrate his sleep for a freight train he was to drive at 2 p.m. the next day. At 2:15 a.m., a Canadian Pacific dispatcher called him and asked him to take a passenger train in three hours.

“I’m not rested,” Proudlock is heard explaining in a company recording. The dispatcher threatened to discipline him and cancel his 2 p.m. train. “You’re obligated to go. If you answer the phone, you have to go.”

“No, I’m not,” said Proudlock. “I’m obligated to do the safe thing first… I drive a train.”

This kind of pressure is commonplace, according to railroad and airline workers. They say managers push workers to pilot planes, trains, and buses when they are too tired to safely do so. The stakes are high for the workers—and for the general public.

3/4 FELL ASLEEP

In a survey of freight train operators conducted by the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference, 96 percent said they had gone to work tired. More alarmingly, three-quarters said they fell asleep while working—in the previous month. Among those who, like Proudlock, turned down jobs because of fatigue, 43 percent said they faced investigation or discipline.

“They’ll pressure people… and people don’t know what leg to stand on,” said CSX locomotive engineer J.P. Wright, who is based in Kentucky. “There are so many gray areas in the contract, if you could see a flow chart, it’s like a Merrie Melodies crazy cartoon.”

The railroads claim they don’t push people to work tired. Regulators scolded Canadian Pacific in the Proudlock case.

The main problem with freight railroads, said Wright, is that “they’ve short-staffed everything to the bone.” So when somebody takes time off, others have to unexpectedly fill in, creating cascades of scheduling complexity.

While rest times were increased in a 2008 rewrite of railroad scheduling rules, fatigue problems persist.

And regulations don’t help if the penalties are low, along with the chances of being fined. “I was just told, on a recorded CSX line, that they knew specifically they were violating the rest law but they would just go ahead and pay the fine,” said Wright, who is co-chair of the cross-union caucus Railroad Workers United.

From Sightline Daily - November 20, 2014

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.

Ecology.iww.org web editor's note: shortly after this article was published, it was deleted. The reasons for its deletion are not given. Did somebody higher up in the union bureaurcracy closely tied with management freak out? We'll let you know as soon as we find out more.

If you’re following the debate about the development of large-scale crude oil-by-rail sites in Washington, you should be paying close attention to what labor unions are saying.

Sightline has cataloged a range of serious concerns about the rise of oil trains— from lax tank car safety standards to industry intransigence to severe under-insurance—but the perspective of actual rail workers is even more troubling. In response to a recently published Washington Department of Ecology study on rail oil transport, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen submitted formal comments to the State that are frankly damning.The remarks illustrate an industry prioritizing profits and efficiency over health and safety and, by doing so, jeopardizing the very workers we rely on to  move 15,000-ton trains of hazardous goods through our communities safely.

Ecology will not be making the comments publicly available until March 2015, but with permission from the union I’m publishing portions of them here. What follows are direct excerpts from  Chairman Sharaim C. Allen’s letter to the Department of Ecology:

There is an imminent risk to public health and safety by the number of inexperienced, “new hire” railroad employees entering the railroad workforce inadequately trained and/or familiarized with the workplace environment.

There is an imminent risk to public health and safety by the proposed use of Single-Person Train Crews in freight rail operations.

Transport Canada took steps to bridle the North American rail industry’s “profits first” approach to safety by requiring all trains carrying hazardous materials in Canada to have a minimum Two-Person Crew. The Canadian government has also put a strict timeline of three years on the phasing out of the aging DOT-111 tank cars. For a country that is supposed to be setting the example for the rest of the world, so far, the USA still has not taken the sensible safety steps our neighbors to the north now require of railroads operating in their country.

By Bryce Covett - Think Progress, November 17, 2014

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are not the official position of the IWW (or even the IWW’s EUC) and do not necessarily represent the views of anyone but the author’s.

On Saturday morning, four workers died at a DuPont chemical plant that manufactures the pesticide Lannate in La Porte, Texas after a leak of the poisonous gas methyl mercaptan. A fifth was hospitalized but later released. The plant hasn’t been visited by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration since 2007.

Such a deadly accident without an explosion or fire is unusual, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Methyl mercaptan is subject to a number of federal environmental and safety regulations. But those regulations did not ensure that the plant was a safe place to work. It was last inspected by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) seven years ago, when it was issued two serious violations for the safe management of highly hazardous chemicals, which could result in toxic or explosive risks. It was fined $1,700 for one and $1,800 for the other, although the latter was later reduced to $1,700.

The plant is also out of compliance with hazardous waste management and air emissions standards from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), according to records reviewed by the Wall Street Journal. The agency brought formal enforcement actions against it for violations in 2012 and 2014, resulting in $117,375 in penalties. DuPont is also in discussions with the EPA and Justice Department about these issues at the La Porte plant, which began after a 2008 inspection.

And over the last five years, the plant was cited for violating state law at least two dozen times by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, according to a review of state records by the Texas Tribune, for failures related to performing routine safety inspections, keeping equipment in working order, and preventing pollution leaks. Most recently, it released 36,500 pounds of sulfur dioxide over the course of three hours in September, well above the allowed limit, and in August last year it leaked 40 pounds of chlorine. Some of the more serious citations resulted in fines of a few thousand dollars.