FEMA disaster type · OpenFEMA declarations
Toxic Substances disasters in the United States
FEMA disaster declarations classified as "Toxic Substances" from 1963 to 2016 - which states are hit most often and how the count has changed over time.
- 8
- FEMA declarations
- 7
- States affected
- 1963
- Earliest year
- 2016
- Latest year
The verdict
According to FEMA's disaster declaration history, toxic substances ranks #18 of the 27 distinct disaster types the agency has declared, accounting for 0.2% of all 5,218 declarations on record. It is rarer than 65% of the other declaration types FEMA tracks, based on total historical volume.
- #18 of 27
- FEMA disaster types, by declaration volume
- 0.2%
- share of all 5,218 FEMA declarations
- 8
- toxic substances declarations, 1963–2016
Ranking reflects the count of Presidentially declared federal disasters per OpenFEMA, not event severity or economic loss; a rare declaration type can still be individually catastrophic.
How does Toxic Substances compare?
Toxic Substances vs. every FEMA declaration type
Declaration volume across all tracked incident types
8 33rd percentile higher than 33% of 27 disaster types
Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more disaster types. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 · 2026-08-03
What shapes the toxic substances record?
States with the most toxic substances declarations
Wider bars = more FEMA declarations of this type
- New York
New York
2 declarations
- Kentucky
Kentucky
1 declarations
- Louisiana
Louisiana
1 declarations
- Michigan
Michigan
1 declarations
- Mississippi
Mississippi
1 declarations
- Rhode Island
Rhode Island
1 declarations
- Wyoming
Wyoming
1 declarations
What this shows New York leads with 2 toxic substances declarations among the states shown.
Toxic Substances declarations by year
Federal declaration cadence for this incident type across the OpenFEMA record.
Peak year in this series: 1963 (2 declarations). A declaration is a federal assistance trigger, not a raw event count.
How common are Toxic Substances disasters in the U.S.?
With so few declarations on record, the year-by-year pattern is necessarily sparse. The peak year on record was 1963, with 2 toxic substances declarations issued that single year, a clustering driven by major multi-state events and the federal government's declaration cadence. The most recent year on record is 2016, with 1 declarations. Trends over the 53+ year history reflect how infrequently this disaster type crosses the federal declaration threshold at all.
FEMA has issued 8 federal disaster declarations classified as toxic substances between 1963 and 2016, affecting 7 states and territories. Each declaration represents a formal federal recognition that an event exceeded state and local response capacity, unlocking Public Assistance, Individual Assistance, or Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funding depending on the declaration class (DR, EM, or FM). Raw declaration counts therefore measure the federal response footprint, which is a lagging and thresholded indicator: smaller events handled entirely at the state level never appear, and declaration thresholds have been recalibrated over the dataset's multi-decade history.
This disaster type's footprint is thin and scattered across the map. The three states with the most toxic substances declarations on record are NY (2 declarations), KY (1 declarations), LA (1 declarations), consistent with how narrowly this hazard type is geographically concentrated. States with the fewest declarations, including MS (1), RI (1), WY (1), unsurprising given how rare a federal declaration of this type is anywhere in the country.
What is actually in FEMA's toxic substances file?
The complete OpenFEMA record is small enough to inspect title by title: 8 declaration rows resolve to 6 named records. A row is a federal administrative action, not necessarily a separate physical event.
- CONTAMINATED WATER: Michigan; Emergency (EM); 2016-01-16.
- WATER CONTAMINATION: Rhode Island; Emergency (EM); 1992-09-16.
- METHANE GAS SEEPAGE: Wyoming; Emergency (EM); 1987-09-04.
- SEWER EXPLOSION, TOXIC WASTE: Kentucky; Major Disaster (DR); 1981-03-17.
- CHEMICAL WASTE, LOVE CANAL: New York; Emergency (EM); 1980-05-21, 1978-08-07. OpenFEMA carries 2 declaration rows under this title.
- CHLORINE BARGE ACCIDENT: Louisiana, Mississippi; Major Disaster (DR); 1962-11-05, 1962-10-10. OpenFEMA carries 2 declaration rows under this title.
The repeated CHEMICAL WASTE, LOVE CANAL, CHLORINE BARGE ACCIDENT titles show why declaration totals should not be read as a literal incident count.
Which federal declaration does toxic substances actually get?
With only 8 declarations on record, this type is too thin to express as a reliable percentage split, so the raw breakdown is: 5 Emergency (EM), 3 Major Disaster (DR). Each federal instrument carries different assistance: a Major Disaster declaration can unlock Individual Assistance and Hazard Mitigation funding, an Emergency declaration is narrower and faster, and Fire Management Assistance covers firefighting costs during an active incident.
Declarations by State
| # | State | Declarations |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | New York NY | 2 |
| 2 | Kentucky KY | 1 |
| 3 | Louisiana LA | 1 |
| 4 | Michigan MI | 1 |
| 5 | Mississippi MS | 1 |
| 6 | Rhode Island RI | 1 |
| 7 | Wyoming WY | 1 |
Declarations by Year
| Year | Declarations |
|---|---|
| 2016 | 1 |
| 1992 | 1 |
| 1987 | 1 |
| 1981 | 1 |
| 1980 | 1 |
| 1978 | 1 |
| 1963 | 2 |
Recent Toxic Substances Declarations
Download all 8 declarations as CSV . Source data is public domain; our derived presentation is CC0. The table below lists the 8 most recent; the file carries every one.
| DR# | Title | State | Type | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3375 | CONTAMINATED WATER | MI | EM | 2016-01-16 |
| 3094 | WATER CONTAMINATION | RI | EM | 1992-09-16 |
| 3092 | METHANE GAS SEEPAGE | WY | EM | 1987-09-04 |
| 636 | SEWER EXPLOSION, TOXIC WASTE | KY | DR | 1981-03-17 |
| 3080 | CHEMICAL WASTE, LOVE CANAL | NY | EM | 1980-05-21 |
| 3066 | CHEMICAL WASTE, LOVE CANAL | NY | EM | 1978-08-07 |
| 139 | CHLORINE BARGE ACCIDENT | LA | DR | 1962-11-05 |
| 135 | CHLORINE BARGE ACCIDENT | MS | DR | 1962-10-10 |
What this means for Toxic Substances declarations
Toxic Substances is rarer than 65% of the other declaration types FEMA tracks, with 8 FEMA declaration records; New York leads with 2.
- New York accounts for the largest share of toxic substances declarations in this corpus. New York profile
- See how states compare on raw FEMA declaration volume across all incident types. Most disasters ranking
- Learn what a FEMA declaration does and does not measure relative to NOAA storm events. Disaster-data guide
A federal declaration is a legal assistance trigger, not a count of every storm event or a forecast. For current threats follow the National Weather Service and local officials; in an emergency call 911.
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Source: FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries v2 For informational purposes only
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Related
Verify declarations with FEMA → Verify storm-event context with NOAA →
Every figure on PlainHazard is rendered directly from FEMA federal disaster data, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or national statistics report, the data & editorial changelog, or report a data error.