This map shows the 9,000 chemical plants across the U.S. where, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, a “catastrophic chemical release” could occur. It helps us answer an unsavory question—whether you live near a potentially dangerous chemical plant.
Mother Jones put this map together a year after the fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas that killed 15 people and injured 200. The 9,000 plants, shown as yellow dots on the interactive map, handle one or more of the 140 toxic or flammable chemicals that are “potentially hazardous to nearby communities.”
Chemical safety experts say this is the most comprehensive national-level chemical safety data out there. So it may be worth checking out if one of those dots is close to you by zooming in on the full map. [Mother Jones]
