Augusta, GA -- Augusta's distinction as a chemical manufacturing hub also makes it an area of concern for safeguarding hazardous materials against transportation accidents.
"It's fairly easy to track rail shipments, but there are lots of trucks that go through here without us ever knowing where they're from or what they carry," said Virgil Fowler, a member of Augusta's Local Emergency Planning Committee.
The group, which studies hazardous material issues in efforts to improve emergency preparedness, estimated in 1999 that 133,000 cargo shipments enter and leave Augusta's industries by rail or truck each year, not including drive-through traffic.
"We weren't ever able to get our arms around exactly how much of that was hazardous, but we know it is still a huge amount of material," he said.
In all, Richmond County industries typically store 65 million pounds of the 94 "extremely hazardous substances'' listed under state and federal reporting requirements, according to the Georgia Public Interest Research Group, an environmental watchdog organization.
The watchdog ranked industry-laden Richmond County 35th among more than 3,000 counties nationwide in risks associated with toxic chemical accidents, including transportation-related spills, according to a 1999 study that also ranked Georgia 10th in the nation in terms of potential for a worst-case chemical spill disaster.
"No matter how safe you keep your manufacturing plants, once you put a dangerous chemical like chlorine on the road, there is no way to control all the many factors that could cause accidents," said Jill Johnson, an environmental advocate for the watchdog group.
Because it is impossible to protect every intersection from accidents, the best solution to protect public safety is to reduce the volumes of hazardous materials being transported, she said.
"There could be alternatives to chlorine, for example, and by using something less hazardous, you're doing a better job of protecting public health," she said.
The primary chemicals of concern in Augusta are chlorine, used in water purification, plastics and pharmaceuticals; ammonia, used in fertilizers and many manufacturing processes; and oleum, a concentrated form of sulfuric acid used in manufacturing.
Many of the worst chlorine spills occurred during rail car accidents, according to the United National Environmental Programme, a global education and watchdog organization that tracks transportation-related chemical accidents.
Some examples include a 1978 rail accident in Youngstown, Ohio, that killed eight people and injured 138; a 1979 derailment in Canada that caused the evacuation of 250,000 people; and a 1996 derailment in Alberton, Mont., that left 300 injured, according to the group's online database.
