Oklahoma Chemical Storage Site Locations Available Online

The Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality has put on the department’s website the locations of chemical storage sites and other facilities in the state.

The map also shows the locations of oil and gas wells, manufacturing plants and cellphone towers with large acid batteries.

DEQ spokeswoman Skyler McElhaney told The Oklahoman that the agency has received several inquiries during the past two years about where potentially hazardous sites are located.

McElhaney said the records had been available only to disaster response workers, but because of the interest officials decided to make the records available to the public and are meant to show residents where potential hazards in their communities are found.

The location of a site in a community should not be a cause for alarm, she said, and does not mean residents are in any danger of being exposed to a hazardous chemical.

“We don’t want residents to be alarmed,” McElhaney said. “We do want to make this information available to them if they want to use that information in their emergency planning.”

Online: http://www.deq.state.ok.us/lpdnew/saratitleiii/ChemicalsStoredinyourCommunity.htm