A Tale Of Two Tanks

Monday, June 1, 2026

Best as I can tell, everybody has heard about the near disaster related to a tank in Garden Grove, CA.  The emergency is subsided, the evacuation over.  The predicted explosion or major release never occurred.  Yes a lot of people were inconvenienced in the related evacuation, but that is the only consequence.  Litigation now flies around like a swarm of locusts and the company owning the tank will have a major clean-up on their hands.  Meanwhile, at roughly the same time, a tank in a Longview, WA paper plant mill imploded, killing 9 people and producing a fish kill in the water bodies that feed directly into the Columbia River that was affected for a period of time.  But only news junkies know about it.

Best as I can tell, the Longview incident is the second deadliest industrial/chemical accident in American history.  The Texas City explosion back in the 1940’s is the deadliest.  And, of course, the Bhopal India incident in the 1980’s killed thousands.  (Some will claim Chernobyl has the “honor” of being the biggest ever, but acute/immediate deaths from that incident are blessedly low and the long term deaths are not reliably quantifiable.) But what happened in Longview, by any reasonable measure, is a big deal – barely covered.  What happened in Garden Grove was a nuisance, a big nuisance I grant you, but merely a nuisance nonetheless – massively and breathlessly covered.

I could do tech analysis of these incidents all day long.  They involved very different materials and conditions.  The hazards presented were very different.  Most importantly the locations were very different – Garden Grove being highly populous and Longview being pretty much the middle of nowhere.  ( I have been to both places.)  I have little doubt the presence of major media near Garden Grove (Hollywood is less than an hour away) and the huge numbers evacuated account for the difference in the amount of coverage.  But what I find fascinating is the breathless, horrified nature of the Garden Grove coverage as compared to the factual, straightforward coverage, what there was of it, of the Longview incident.  Moreover, why is litigation now swarming around the Garden Grove incident and there is no mention of litigation in Longview at all – at least not yet?

I think these incidents, the related coverage and litigatory action, illustrate the massive cultural differences between red and blue.  Now, before we dive in too deeply – Washington State is indeed a blue state, but its voting population is largely centered in Seattle/Tacoma.  The rural areas, where Longview is, are quite red, save for a few blue hotspots largely driven by union activity.  There are reports of the union at the Longview plant beginning to “demand answers,” but even they are working with local regulators, not filing litigation.  Two similar incidents, one very deadly, one just inconvenient, and yet radically different responses from local authorities, news media and surrounding communities.  The cultures are quite, quite different.

I spent 40 years in Southern California.  I know the culture well.  I have a lot of family-in-law in southern Washington state.  I know the culture well.  Voting patterns notwithstanding, Californians have a deeply entrenched sense of entitlement.  Washingtonians still know, at least outside Seattle/Tacoma, that they have to work for a living.  So, in Longview the politically blue union wants answers, but they still want the plant there because they want jobs and work.  Manufacturing in California is closing or moving as rapidly as it can – even before this incident.  I am quite certain the plant in question will not survive this incident – the only question is will they rebuild out-of-state or simply shutter.

California’s sense of entitlement is not grounded in reality.  Anymore, no risk is acceptable and money is supposed to just magically appear without effort or stress.  Rebuilding permits after the 2025 fires cannot be granted because it would involve risk on the part of those granting the permit .  Jobs are leaving the state faster than people, but they don’t seem to care.  Washingtonians, on the other hand, acknowledge the unfortunate nature of what happened, but are ready to roll up their sleeves and get back to work.

One culture built America – there other seems to want to tear it down.