Thread: Company: No Chlorine Gas In Apex Chemical Fire

http://www.wral.com/news/10035096/detai ... 92006&ts=H

POSTED: 12:48 pm EDT October 9, 2006
UPDATED: 6:51 pm EDT October 9, 2006

Company: No Chlorine Gas In Apex Chemical Fire



APEX, N.C. -- About half of Apex was included in an evacuation last week because officials feared a fire at a hazardous-waste handler had released a cloud of toxic chlorine gas over the town. But a company executive said Monday there was no chlorine gas at the site.
Scott Maris, vice president of regulatory affairs for EQ Industrial Services, said no chlorine gas was stored at the Investment Boulevard plant, and no air samples taken by state monitors at the plant and around Apex have shown any elevated levels of chlorine in the air.
"We don't know precisely what happened," Maris said. "We run a safe operation, but we have had an unfortunate accident."
About 17,000 Apex residents were ordered to leave their homes late Thursday and early Friday because officials feared chemical contamination from a fire at the EQ plant. All residents were allowed to return home by late Saturday.
Officials still are unsure about the cause of the fire. Representatives of the federal Chemical Safety Board said they likely would be in Apex until the end of this week investigating the incident, but they probably wouldn't issue a report for several months.
Maris said the plant stores paints, oils, thinners, antifreeze, detergents and cleaners. He said some of the cleaning products or pool chemicals might have contained chlorine bleach, but he said he doesn't have the chemistry background to know whether bleach could release chlorine gas if ignited.
"Once the investigation is done, there won't be any evidence of wrongdoing," he said, adding that the company plans to rebuild on the site.
Apex Town Manager Bruce Radford said he still wants to obtain a written list of the products inside the EQ facility at the time of the fire so he can get the word out to all local residents.
Two dozen workers were at the EQ North Carolina plant site Monday morning, and trucks moved in and out of the site, clearing away the debris and ensuring no contaminated water seeped from the site.
Maris said the site should be cleaned by next week. An open-air chemical storage building was the only structure involved in the fire, he said, noting EQ's local offices were untouched.
The storage building had no fire suppression system nor 24-hour security, he said. The facility was built before EQ acquired the Apex site, and regulations at that time didn't require either fire suppression or security, he said.
Investment Boulevard, where the building was located, remained blocked off Monday, although nearby businesses were allowed to reopen and bring in their employees and customers.
"I was wondering if we were actually supposed to be here -- police on both ends of the street, lines you have to cross," one man said. "You have to come in and escort them through to show you're a business in this area."
Tests conducted by state environmental officials and by EQ have shown no contamination in the air or in nearby lakes and streams.
But some business owners said they aren't taking any chances.
Jean Sciacca, who owns Apex Gymnastics next door to the EQ plant, hired an independent testing company to check for lead, mercury or other chemical contamination and brought in a cleaning crew to scrub down her gym.
"I just want to make sure the gym is safe for all the children and the parents feel safe in coming back," Sciacca said.
EQ has received about 800 calls to its toll-free assistance line, Maris said. Many people were just seeking more information, he said, but the company plans reimburse Apex residents who can document hotel, meal and incidental expenses incurred because of the evacuation.

Well, I'll be. The reason they thought chlorine gas had been released was because one or some of the firefighters thought they could smell it. It was probably the spent chlorine in the pool chemicals which definitely contain chlorine...that's how they sanitize the water...and kill the bacteria.

So...they may have evacuated for nothing?

Well...better safe than sorry I suppose and they did a heck of a job at it.

Thanks for posting this article ruthiela.

We'll see what else the investigators come up with.

Apparently, this company was sited for violations six months ago too.

D.W.

Originally Posted by DavidWidman

Apparently, this company was sited for violations six months ago too.

D.W.

Yes, DAVID
and also approx 1.5 yrs ago as well.

http://www.wral.com/news/10045864/detai ... 02006&ts=H

Apex, Firm At Odds Over Chemicals In Fire

POSTED: 4:43 pm EDT October 10, 2006
UPDATED: 7:50 pm EDT October 10, 2006

APEX, N.C. -- Mayor Keith Weatherly blasted an official of a hazardous-waste handler Tuesday, saying he downplayed the presence of toxic chemicals in a fire at the site last week.
Four days after a the Thursday night fire, which prompted an evacuation that involved about 17,000 local residents, Environmental Quality Industrial Services turned over a 19-page list of chemicals stored at the site to state environmental regulators and Apex officials late Monday.
Scott Maris, EQ's vice president for regulatory affairs, said Monday that the site was storing only paints, oils and detergents.
Weatherly said Tuesday that statement was a bit misleading, and he announced that the town had hired its own environmental consultant to to help determine the damage done to the community.
"Reports indicated only benign substances (were on site)," he said. "Upon review, frankly, there were some substances stored there that should give real concern to any prudent person living in the Apex vicinity."
Weatherly listed cynanide, mercury, benzene, arsenic and lead among the toxic chemicals inside the facility at the time of the fire.
Maris defended his characterization of the chemicals, saying he "tried to provide general information in a way people could understand." He said the chemicals Weatherly is concerned about were present in small quantities in products like thermometers, laboratory supplies and diluted manufacturing sludge.
Toxicologist Paul Nony said Apex residents faced little or no threat from the chemicals in the fire.
Nony works for the Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health, a Little Rock, Ark., firm brought in by EQ to monitor air quality. The firm has taken about 221,000 air samples at 11 monitors around Apex since Friday morning and has found no abnormal levels of chemicals, he said.
"We don't think there was any impact on the community," Nony said.
List Delayed
Authorities still are unsure what sparked the EQ fire.
But Apex officials are now heated over the company's slow response in compiling the list of chemicals on the site. They said the uncertainty made it difficult for firefighters to tackle the fire because they didn't know what hazardous materials they might be facing.
"I think they've been helpful, but I would tell you we're disappointed in how long it took to get this list," Town Manager Bruce Radford said.
Maris said three EQ employees have been working full time in recent days to compile the list, noting about 1,700 containers were in the building at the time of the fire.
Weatherly said he also was upset that the list is almost impossible to decipher.
Maris said the list was broken down by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency chemical codes, which federal regulators require after such incidents.
"It's difficult to assess the threat from these compounds for a layman," Weatherly said.
To ensure the town is getting straight answers on the cleanup after the fire and any lingering environmental damage, he said Apex would spend at least $10,000 to bring in its own consultant. Long Beach Calif.-based Earth Tech, which has an office in Raleigh, would analyze the findings by state and federal environmental regulators, he said.
"We're not through with this until all of our questions and all of the issues are satisfactorily resolved," he said.
Better Monitoring Called For
The lag in EQ's reporting is allowed under state law. Hazardous-waste companies are required only to provide the state with a list of chemicals allowed on site.
"They do not have to give an exact accounting day-to-day of what they have there," said Cathy Akroyd, spokeswoman for the state Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
One state legislator said he wants more up-to-date information of what chemicals are stored at such sites and any violations they have encountered.
EQ was fined $32,000 last March by state inspectors, but Apex officials said they never knew of the violations.
"We need to have a real-time inventory for any hazardous waste facility. If grocery stores can know what their inventory is on the grocery shelves in real time, we should certainly be able to have that kind of technology at our hazardous waste facilities," said Rep. Nelson Dollar, R-Wake.
"It's a matter of communication, and there's no reason why that communication is not happening," he said.
Reporter: Erin Coleman
Photographer: Robert Meikle
Web Editor: Matthew Burns
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