HOUSTON-Texas Department of Transportation records show no highway routes designated for transport of hazardous chemicals in the Houston area have been updated over the past 20 years and government officials appear befuddled over who has the authority to do so, the Houston Chronicle reported Sunday.
The newspaper also said that 40 years after the wreck of a truck carrying 7,500 gallons of anhydrous ammonia killed six people and injured 178 others along the city's Interstate 610 Loop, the city's population has doubled in size and is more vulnerable to another catastrophic accident.
About 400 trucks a day loaded with tons of hazardous chemicals travel Houston's inner loop freeway and pass within a mile of NRG Stadium, Memorial Park and the Galleria shopping center.
"You have every kind of chemical in the world coming through Houston," said Kenneth MacKenzie, Houston's former air pollution control chief. "We've been very fortunate with the amount of problems we've had."
The Chronicle found other Houston-area cities and towns, like Conroe and Mont Belvieu, have even more dangerous situations because their main thoroughfares have been designated for transporting hazardous chemicals.
And roughly 150 miles to the west, Austin has no designated route at all, even though state law requires all cities with populations greater than 850,000 to have such routes. City Council records showed Austin remains in the process of choosing a route.
A Texas Department of Transportation spokesman told the newspaper it's up to municipalities to designate hazardous materials routes.
Houston officials said the state also has the power, but Houston's Office of Emergency Management doesn't know why the city's designated route hasn't been updated in decades. The agency said Houston Fire Department officials are responsible for oversight of hazardous materials, including transportation. Fire department officials didn't respond to the Chronicle.
Data from the U.S. Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration shows that since 2000, Texas leads the nation in fatalities, injuries and evacuations related to moving hazardous chemicals on roads or rails. Nineteen accidents have resulted in fatalities.
The federal government, however, doesn't track what's coming and going on the highways and rails, and while it has the authority to demand manifests it largely relies on companies to operate safely.
According to federal regulations, truckers are supposed to avoid heavily populated areas even if no hazardous materials route is designated, but the rules rarely are enforced. Texas Department of Public Safety troopers issued three tickets from 2013 to June 2015.
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which also enforces hazardous material transportation rules, has issued no fines in Texas since 2010, the newspaper said.