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Probe Human Error in Leak

People should not be forced from their homes because someone did something wrong at a chemical plant miles away. Yet it happened Saturday in Wetzel, Marshall and Monroe counties.

A chlorine leak at the Axiall Plant north of New Martinsville orced the evacuation of hundreds of homes near the plant. Many of them were in New Martinsville, miles south of the facility. Traffic on W.Va. 2, Ohio 7 and the Ohio River was stopped for a time.

One plant employee and a contract worker had to be treated at a hospital, but both were released.

Axiall officials said the leak occurred in a railroad car used to transport chlorine, which is has been produced at the plant for decades.

Both state and federal agencies should investigate the accident. Knowing exactly what went wrong will be important in guarding against similar leaks in the future.

Almost by definition, one or more human beings is at least partially to blame. If equipment on the rail car was not in safe condition, why was that not detected before a failure occurred? If some other piece of equipment malfunctioned, the same question should be asked.

Axiall and other companies that have operated the plant have been good neighbors in that area of the Ohio Valley for more than half a century. There have been other accidents at the facility. One killed a man in 2014 and another injured 11 workers in December.

If government regulators find preventable human error was to blame for Saturday’s leak, severe punishment should be meted out. People should not have to live in fear they will have to leave their homes — or that worse will occur — because something went wrong at a chemical plant.

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