Chlorine Gas Cloud in North Carolina

This cant be good for the environment, much less the humans around the plant.

Some Fires and explosions but nothing too deadly as of yet.

APEX, N.C. -- Town officials declared a state of emergency early Friday and evacuated about half of the town after a cloud containing chlorine gas spewed from a volatile industrial fire.

Fewer than a dozen Apex residents went to the Rex Hospital emergency room in Raleigh, complaining of respiratory difficulties, officials said.

Source

Hopefully not too many will get hurt and/or die from this.

Seems these guys have been fined for sloppyness before.

State environmental officials fined EQ $32,000 in March for failing to minimize the possibility of a release of hazardous-waste materials or implement a contingency plan for a possible release.

[edit on 6-10-2006 by S1LV3R4D0]

Lots of news coverage this morning on Channel 5, WRAL, out of Raleigh.
According to the news, the plant was recently fined for not having a contingency plan in place and local officials do not have a full list of chemicals involved in this incident.

Right now, the firefighters are in a holding pattern, waiting with HazMat officials to figure out what the chemicals are and how they would be affected by attempting to put the fire out. Which, of course, means it is all still on fire. The fire department has let it burn overnight because they don't know what's in it. They know there is some Chlorine, and they talked about “oxidizers” and sulfur-based pesticides as some of the potential chemicals that could be burning and mixing right now. One scary thought is that if they are concerned about the effect of water on the fire, they are going to find out real soon. It has been raining all morning.

I also read this morning, that this company had to pay out a settlement in Michigan recently for something just like what’s happening now.

The company has also recycled deicing fluid in Michigan and Ohio. In 1994, the company entered into a voluntary consent judgment with Michigan after a fire at a waste treatment plant. That judgment included a $500,000 penalty.

News & Observer

The news has also suggested that this problem could last through the weekend, and then residents could be treated to a bunch of ash falling everywhere. I’m hoping the rain puts a lot of it down before it spreads everywhere. There is also some concern about how this will affect local streams, ponds, and such as it runs off.

For the record, so far the “evacuations” are not really that bad. They’ve asked a bunch of residents (17,000 so far) to move like 3 miles away to some elementary schools. It’s not like they’ve quarantined the town. Some dummies have even refused to move out of their homes.

Finally, I like this bit of wisdom from the above-cited article best.

"If you see the smoke, run away from it," Radford said.

LOL, DUH!

Almost everybody who was affected and went to the hospital is being released. It seems that the rain is helping some too to keep the particulate matter out of the air.

Well, I got up this morning and cut on the radio while I was getting ready for work...

They were talking to people and saying things like "the rain could make it worse", "people are being evacuated"and "police are saying that sightseers will be arrested"....I didn't know what the heck to think...

Of course, you always think the worst.....I was thinking something had happened at Shearon Harris... due to the recent stories about it...

www.newsobserver.com...

I, too, cut on WRAL and saw what was going on...

Oh well, It seems like everything will be ok....It sucks for the environment though...

It's just another example of how corporations aren't bothered by fines and environmental codes...They kept being negligent, and this is the result...

You a local, JSqaured?

I'm south of Raleigh....Central NC...

Thousands told to flee US blast



Involves chlorine gas and 3 petro tankers.... plant also manufactured pesticides and herbicides...



Sri Oracle

I know it's just paranoia, but I have spent the day waiting for the chlorine fog to descend on Richmond County. It seems my trust in elected officials is waning these days and don't forget the media as well.

Lots of good info from the locals, thanx guys. I spotted this right before i went to bed last nite. Glad to see the North Carolina ATS'ers are still with us.

Dangit, there was a paragraph in that article i linked to last night stating that company did chemicals for EG&G, DOD, Dupont and a few others. I shoulda pasted it in here when i was thinking about it but was too tired and wasnt thinkin straight. Now that article mentions nothing about it. Anyone else got any info about what im talkin about??

NOAA ozone concentration

I'm not sure how to post the current image as it changes daily... but check out the ozone levels over NC.

You almost never see values in the RED

Sri Oracle