(page 2 of 2)
View as a single page

"They bring with them a wealth of talent in that area," he said. "That is their niche in life. They came in unvarnished and unbiased, and they left with that image."

Mark Tolbert, the public safety chief in Morgantown, N.C., said he can understand how local authorities would be wary of a little-known federal agency. Like many state and local officials here, Tolbert said he had never heard of the Chemical Safety Board until it showed up in his town of 17,300 people on the day of the blast.

But he said authorities worked out jurisdictional issues among the 53 agencies that descended on Morgantown after a chemical plant explosion Jan. 31 killed a worker and injured a dozen.

"Let's just say we had some issues (with the Chemical Safety Board) early on, and they were resolved," Tolbert said. "They got what they needed and we cooperated. We entered into a gentlemen's agreement. We sat down and opened up the lines of communication a little bit and did a better job of trying to pull from the agencies as to what they needed and the timetable."

Kevin Butler, the emergency management director for Smith County in Mississippi, said local authorities had no problems with the Chemical Safety Board investigating an explosion June 5 at an oil field in the small town of Raleigh, Miss., that killed three people.

"They wanted to interview all the people involved, and we set up the interviews for them," Butler said. "They were very accommodating. They didn't just come in and exert authority and push people around. They came in and did their job."

<< Prev 1 2