Louisiana cracks down on oil tanks almost two years after explosion killed 14-year-old girl
State regulators are giving oil companies notice that they'll soon be cracking down on storage tanks that may trigger accidents like the one that killed a teenager in southwest
The state
The new rules, which took effect early this year, require fencing, locked gates, warning signs and sealed tank hatches at sites in populated areas, which the state defines as within 500 feet of a home or highway, 1,000 feet of a church or school, or anywhere within the limits of a city or town.
State officials admit they weren't keeping close tabs on the sites.
"For more than a century, these tank battery facilities were not being tracked individually," said
"It is never easy to take on a project like this, when you are doing something that probably should have been done decades ago, but when we see a safety issue, we have to do what we can to address it," Ieyoub said.
Notices are now going out to the owners of the 1,400 sites that fit the criteria for the new rules. An owner must now prove that the rules either don't apply to their site or demonstrate with photos and other evidence that they are complying with the rules.
Tank batteries are oil well storage sites that are not connected to a major pipeline. The tanks are large metal containers that may hold thousands of gallons of crude oil. The oil releases fumes that a mere spark can turn explosive.
Day-Smith and other neighborhood children frequented an oil tank battery a few hundred feet from Day-Smith's mother's house in
It's unclear what triggered the explosion that killed Day-Smith, whose family said she dreamed of studying at
One resident who lived near the site said the blast sent a "fireball" into the air and knocked him to the ground.
The tank battery's owner,
The dangers of tank batteries have been well documented. A
The sites are often away from public view, unfenced and lack warning signs, the report said.
Last year's
The act directed about
Staff writer
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