Mysterious blue haze over Charleston, WV

Ammonia and chlorine appear to have the same odor to many people. The ammonia smell comes from the oxidation catalyst beds in the stack 'scrubbers'.

The scrubbers were apparently installed (or upgraded) recently at the power plant, as I mentioned in my previous post. They are intended to remove sulphur trioxide, by converting it and capturing it in the catalyst beds. If the plant is restarted, or cools too much, the scrubbers become inefficient and give off suphuric acid mist and ammonia gas.

So, there's no mystery about the blue haze... it's common from coal-fired power plants under calm weather. The real mystery is why AEP didn't immediately admit to it and keep people from wondering and panicking for so long! And why didn't local authorities know about this?!

But the smokey mountains are right around the corner.

en.wikipedia.org...

As well as many of the powerplants you have been talking about,

Sounds like its prolly all three.

I was out in the haze during the whole episode. Whatever it was it did not smell like chlorine but just a faint non-descript chemical odor. I never felt sickened by it at any time. One local radio station was making light of it by playing songs like Purple Haze, The Smell of Death, Smoke on the Water, Teen Spirit, etc. They called it their "Armageddon end of the world metal block or something like that.

I didnt take the time to read all the replies but I live in Charleston and things like this happen all the time. Well maybe not the "Blue Haze" part but we often have small chem leaks. I never even smelled the chlorine smell people were reporting.

visual observation from helicopter narrowed the problem to the John Amos power plant...
along with other smokestack plumes in the Kanawah Valley

Valley is a real important point here.
depending on things like thermal inversions the air in the valley acts like its
trapped in a bowl ...
all the cruddy air that normally excapes into the higher atmosphere
is pushed down into the natural bowl that a valley replicates.



I've seen Phoenix (in the valley of the sun) often get that diesel pollution
brownish-gray haze, concentrated below my elevated position on camelback mountain or squaw peak where i did my morning walking trails



one prohibitive solution 'community' air scrubbers...or build smokestacks 100' taller than the surrounding mountains, much like a fireplace chimney must be above the surrounding topography or you won't get a proper up-draft

Yeah i was gonna mention that . There are many weird cloud variations .
I think they just got there first glimpse .

The way I see it is it is the likely cause of an accident at a chemical plant nearby. The city and state would be aware of an industry capable of such an event, accidental or not given the smell of Chlorine.

As someone mentioned- the auspicious reports reminiscent of 9/11 are truly frightening. One can easily run with the thought of chembomb testing and public reaction. This could be the next red flag op test. It really could be.

I do not want to scare people with woulds or coulds- but whatever this is- its major news- which has disappeared from the media as quickly as it was introduced.

Its time to call friends, family and acquaintances in that area and get back in touch!

I know no one in that region, so I must rely on honest reporting. Hope some of you will have fresh local public opinion on this strange event.



[edit on 26-1-2008 by dk3000]

Of course Jimmy Hendrix comes to mind but in all seriousness, After the 911 "air is safe" debacle, who would ever trust the media when they say it is okay to breath in a blue chemical cloud. Go ahead - its actually good for you. And even more ridiculous - no one knows the source of a gigantic friggin chemical cloud that probably shows up on doppler radar and is not far from the nations capital??? This is ridiculous.

Have you guys seen this yet? The blue cloud could be seen by a NASA satellite.

I really think we need an explaination of what it is, before we listen to the talking heads tell us it is OK to breath.





Edit to add enlargment.





It appears as though it is concentrated in three different locations.

[edit on 26-1-2008 by seawolf197]

It's just a fog folks, lol.

[edit on 26-1-2008 by TheoOne]

This could be the first sign of Super Smog.

It could be a combination of several pollutants mixing and causing a new molecule to be made. Imagine the possibilities if we get new chemicals being made in our sky from god knows what combining in our air.

It's like chemical Russian roulette. It could take out populations some day or make people sick maybe weeks later.

I bet is is several incidental pollutants released from factories and such that just happened to find the right conditions. Some catylist reaction happened.

It will take weeks or months to figure this out as the EPA is fairly ignorant of such events as yet.

[edit on 1/26/2008 by ZeroGhost]

reply to post by TheoOne

hmm a fog that is only in the charleston area?

look at that satellite photo again.. fog in this area never looks like that.
if it were fog, it would be all along the river.

thank everyone who posted links.. and thank you for that satellite photo.
that really brings the terrorist 'test' bomb theory to light.. it really does look like someone just flew over and let three drop... hmmmm

sulfur trioxide is common enough that every industry in this valley probably uses it for something or produces it as exhaust. would be hard to pinpoint a location..

Not to be an ats paranoidal anarchist but wasn't W in WV yesterday?

Sorry it was me. I just ate at Taco Bell in Charleston and well, I had to make a run for the border....

reply to post by Black_Fox


Ok that is hilarious at the very end... "Now back to Oprah"

Complete and Utter LOL!

I just started scanning the thread and it took me back to my earlier years growing up in South Charleston, going down memory lane, wow.

This blue cloud reminded me of when I was 9 around 1963 and the Union Carbide plant had a tank explosion, we had to evacuate the area around the Kanawha river as well as most of South Charleston.

They make or made the tear gas used in the military and you can only imagine what it was like, packing up and moving away for about a week until the area was safe to breath, I went to my grandmas on the Elk river at the time, great childhood days.

When we returned we received flyers from our local city council to show damage to any of the paint on our cars and houses, even my bicycle was a victim, we received a meek payment for any damages, so its my guess that Union Carbide plant is a good suspect for this crime, it was a blue cloud.

By the way the damage from this fallout appeared on all the metal products we owned like car exteriors, aluminum siding on the houses & trailers, metal prefab buildings, you name it, anything metal in general, the closer you lived to the Union Carbide chemical plant the more major damages occurred.

If you looked at any of the metal byproducts, there appeared very small curroded spots etched into the paint or aluminum or whatever, everything had damage, it was like a quick case of rust, but the payback for the damage from the plant, was very little. The cars that were abandoned in the parking lot of the plant rusted to the ground, amazing sight at 9 years old.

All of this was caused by the blue clouded mist covering the area for the week long evacuation, I received 10 bucks for my damages to the bike, lol.
gwhint

[edit on 26-1-2008 by gwhint]

[edit on 26-1-2008 by gwhint]

Massey Energy to Pay Largest Civil Penalty Ever for
Water Permit Violations

(Washington, D.C. – January 17, 2008) Massey Energy Company, Inc. has agreed to pay a $20 million
civil penalty in a corporate-wide settlement to resolve Clean Water Act violations at coal mines in West Virginia
and Kentucky, the Justice Department and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced.
This is the largest civil penalty in EPA’s history levied against a company for
wastewater discharge permit violations.

EPA Press Relaese

It's quite funny how just last week Massey gets fined 20M for
discharge and this week a big blue cloud covers the valley.

reply to post by jpm1602


looks like karmas finaly catching up with my good friend!!!

reply to post by welivefortheson


Just so you know, I did receive your U2U and I forwarded your information to Springer. He reviewed it, and his claim was it couldn't happen in the air. Plus there was no radiation.

I will gladly post the info if you can shed some light on that.

Thanks for U2U, and your post.