Federal investigators said Wednesday they’ve seen no signs that a Houston-area chemical plant that flooded and partially exploded during Hurricane Harvey considered moving its highly unstable compounds offsite as a precaution. Much of Arkema Inc.’s facility in Crosby, just outside Houston, was placed into the 100-year flood plain in 2007. “The facility was not prepared for such heavy rainfall,” U.S. Chemical Safety Board Chairwoman Vanessa Allen Sutherland said during a news conference Wednesday. The National Hurricane Center warned two days before the plant was flooded out that spots around Houston could get about 50 inches (130 centimetres). In the last decade, state and federal regulators have penalized Arkema’s Crosby plant multiple times.

Source: National Post November 15, 2017 18:11 UTC