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Report: Tampa Bay Area Chemical Facilities At Risk

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By CHRISTIAN M. WADE | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 21, 2008

TAMPA - The scenario goes something like this: Under the cover of darkness, a terrorist slips into Tampa's Howard F. Curren Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant undetected.

He places a bomb under one of the plant's chlorine gas tanks and sets the timer.

The tank explodes, sending a deadly plume of toxic gas out over the Tampa Bay area.

Before authorities can figure out what happened, hundreds of thousands are dead.

It could happen, at least according to a report released this week by the Center for American Progress, a Washington D.C.-based nonpartisan think tank.

"Millions of people remain unnecessarily vulnerable to toxic terrorism," said Reece Rushing, the think tank's director of regulatory and information policy.

The report identifies at least a half dozen water and chemical facilities in the Bay area, including Clorox's Tampa plant, the Hillsborough River Water Treatment plant, Chemical Formulators, Harcros Chemicals, DPC Enterprises and the Bayside Power Station.

Tampa's wastewater treatment plant made the list of top 101 most dangerous facilities.

The report said chemical security standards enacted two years ago, and set to expire in 2009, focus mostly on physical security measures, such as adding gates and guards.

What they ignore, the reports says, is the dangerous chemicals stored at these facilities.

"Adopting safer chemicals is the only certain way to protect American communities from a toxic gas release," said Paul Orum, a chemical safety consultant with the center. "Site security cannot assure protection against a attack, insider sabotage or a catastrophic release. Replacing hazardous chemicals with safer alternatives removes the danger."

The report can be found at

Reporter Christian M. Wade can be reached at (813) 259-7679.

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