(The following article recently appeared in the Bowling Green Daily News. Not only does the article itself call attention to this particular available information, but you would not have to be very intelligent to realize "readily available" records probably exist for every county!)
Seventeen locations in Bowling Green and Warren County contain a total of nine very hazardous chemicals, as substances are designated by the federal government, according to Bob Myatt, chairman of Bowling Green/Warren County Emergency Planning Committee.
The emergency planning committee maintains a list of those locations and chemicals, as required by the 1986 Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act.
About 5,000 chemicals are identified as hazardous whether flammable, carcinogenic or simply poisonous according to Ronnie Pearson, director of Warren County Emergency Management. Only about 60 of those are found in Warren County, and of those, only nine are classed as very dangerous.
The materials are distributed among factories, pipelines and government facilities, Pearson said. The three most common very dangerous substances, according to Myatt, are chlorine (of which Bowling Green Municipal Utilities keeps up to 14,000 pounds), anhydrous ammonia and sulfuric acid.
The majority of the chemicals, however, are much less dangerous things like gasoline, diesel fuel and paint thinner.
"If you took a bath in it or swallowed it, yes, they could hurt you," Myatt said. "But in normal use, they won't."
Operations that use extremely dangerous substances have their own fully equipped emergency response teams, he said. One company that uses anhydrous ammonia, for example, has a 16-member response team with specialized gear, and such teams can handle "99 percent of problems," Myatt said.
"But there's always that 1 percent, and that's what we have to plan for," he said.
Any facility that uses, manufactures or stores designated hazardous materials has to provide a breakdown of what it keeps, how it's stored, and how to deal with any emergencies. Pearson's office keeps a copy, and includes it in the Warren County emergency response plan; another is sent to the state Emergency Response Commission in Frankfort, he said.
For the moment, at least, the detailed records are public information.
"Records of the Planning Committee, including the county emergency response plan, material safety data sheets, and inventory forms, or any follow-up emergency notices as may subsequently be issued, are open for inspection, and members of the public who wish to review these records may do so, 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. Central Standard time, Monday through Friday, at the LEPC office, 429 1/2 E. 10th St., Suite B, Bowling Green, KY, as required by Kentucky Open Records Law," according to a recent public notice.
But fears of terrorism have added a caveat. The Department of Homeland Security asks Emergency Management to keep a "very tight rein" on the list of chemicals and facilities Pearson's office maintains, he said.
"I'd be glad to show it to (members of the public), they're open records at this time," Pearson said. "But I would have to see some credentials from each and every one of them."