DANVERS — With the two-year anniversary of the Dan-versport blast fast approaching, a bill to oversee chemical plants statewide is gaining steam on Beacon Hill, state Rep. Ted Speliotis, D-Danvers, said.
"The legislation is being reviewed very seriously," said Speliotis, who would like to have it signed into law by Nov. 22.
"Rep. Speliotis has been working with us on the bill, and it is something that is on the front burner," said Jim Eisenberg, chief of staff for House Committee on Ways and Means Chairman Robert DeLeo, D-Winthrop. "Our work on the bill is continuing, and we are working on what the cost applications are and how to allocate the funding."
Speliotis filed the bill about a month after the blast. It would create an office of experts to oversee chemical processors so local fire departments can be better informed during safety inspections.
"It's important to get a good bill that everyone can agree on, and that takes time," Speliotis said.
The fiery blast leveled the Water Street CAI Inc. and Arnel Co. Inc. ink and paint plant, tore through adjacent homes, damaged scores of boats in a nearby marina and displaced more than 70 families. It caused, by some estimates, $28 million to $30 million in damage. Fortunately, no one was killed.
A group of 250 residents and businesses called Safe Area for Everyone sees the bill as a way to keep other Bay State neighborhoods nestled next to chemical plants safe.
"It is imperative that we learn from this event and implement change so that other neighborhoods are safe," said a letter SAFE sent to DeLeo in July.
The bill calls for the State Fire Marshal's Office to write regulations on safety inspections of chemical plants. The regulations call for plants to get new certificates from the state, with the fee for such certificates not yet determined.
Speliotis said the bill's cost, $1.6 million to get the program up and running, may be a sticking point in a time of shrinking budgets.
"If you went through the blast I went through, you can't just sit back and do nothing," said Ed Sanborn, a board member of SAFE. Sandborn met with Speliotis last week along with another board member of SAFE, Susan Tropeano and Beverly attorney Jan Schlichtmann, who negotiated a settlement between the ink and paint companies, the Danversport Trust and insurers on both sides.
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