FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, June 29, 2026
Contact:
Jeff Ruch | (510) 213-7028 | [email protected]
Industrial Chemical Accidents Rise Amid Safety Rollbacks
Up More Than 50% Since 2021; Fatalities & Injuries Up 20% in Last Year
Washington, DC — The number of industrial chemical accidents, explosions, and fires in the U.S. is increasing, according to official statistics now being gathered as a result of a lawsuit by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and allied groups. At the same time, the Trump administration is proposing to weaken accident prevention requirements and eliminate the only federal agency charged with investigating the cause of these accidents.
Industrial accidents resulting in chemical releases grew from 83 in 2021 to 131 in 2025, according to reports filed with the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB). Accidents involving injuries or fatalities rose from 60 to 89 during the same period, up from 73 in 2024. These reports are likely underestimates, as CSB only requires plants to file a single report within four hours of the accident and does not require updates as more information becomes available. Further, CSB does not require reporting of accidents which spark shelter-in-place or evacuation orders without a chemical release.
“Like our public infrastructure, America’s industrial infrastructure is aging, making disastrous failures increasingly likely,” stated PEER Executive Director Tim Whitehouse, a former senior enforcement attorney with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), noting that most refineries currently operating in the country were built before 1985. “Serious chemical accidents are becoming an almost daily occurrence.”
The most recent emergencies have occurred at a chemical tank in Garden Grove, California, which caused the evacuation of more than 40,000 residents, and the collapse of another chemical tank at a plant in Longview, Washington, which killed 11 workers. Notwithstanding these high-profile incidents, the Trump administration is proposing to –
- Reverse recently adopted EPA safety requirements, including a third-party audit after a serious chemical incident, an analysis of safer technologies and alternatives, and worker-safety measures like the authority to stop work in hazardous situations.
- Zero out the entire $14 million annual budget for the CSB, a nonregulatory but highly influential independent agency, which investigates the cause of industrial accidents and makes resulting safety recommendations that have an almost 90% rate of adoption by industry.
“Penny-for-penny, the Chemical Safety Board is one of the most cost-effective agencies in government,” added Whitehouse, pointing out that approximately 40% of Americans or 124 million people live within three miles of at least one of the more than 12,000 high‑risk chemical facilities in the U.S. “Given the risks posed, the Trump administration’s disinvestment in chemical safety is simply appalling.”
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Review CSB accident reports (2012-2025)
See high rate of CSB recommendations adopted
Revisit PEER suit which resulted in requiring accident reporting
Look at proposed Trump chemical safety rollbacks
PEER protects public employees who protect our environment. We are a service organization for environmental and public health professionals, land managers, scientists, enforcement officers and other civil servants dedicated to upholding environmental laws and values. We work with current and former federal, state, local and tribal employees.