Questions Remain in Institute Plant Explosion

By Stone, Gretchen Mae

CHARLESTON – Kanawha County and city officials will meet with first responders and Bayer CropScience officials Sept. 11 to critique the company and county reaction after an Aug. 28 explosion at the company’s Institute plant.

The county plans to find a local expert for advice on chemicals stored at local companies and who can advise the county on emergency response. County officials said they would assign a committee to see how improvements could be made to the response and talk to those who were on scene. They also will contemplate having public forums, said Jennifer Sayre, deputy county manager.

The Aug. 28 explosion occurred in a waste area of the plant and involved chemicals used to make pesticide.

The explosion, which was reported around 10:25 p.m. and shook windows throughout Kanawha County, killed one person and injured two others.

Kanawha County Commissioner Kent Carper has called for a critique of the response to see whether anything can be changed to make the response quicker.

Maya Nye, a concerned citizen, said the hour it took to activate the shelter-in-place notice was too long.

“I would think, not knowing what the chemical is, it would be better safe than sorry,” said Nye, who grew up about a mile from where the explosion took place and now lives in Charleston.

Dale Petry, director of Emergency Services, said issuing a shelter-in-place warning too soon may cause greater problems than not issuing one quickly enough.

“If it’s a chemical that involves evacuation, and I tell you to shelter in place, and 15 minutes later I tell you to evacuate, it might lead to confusion, so we want to make sure what we do is right when we initiate it,” Petry said.

The quicker the company tells the county the chemical involved, the quicker the response, Sayre said.

The county previously depended on companies to give advice about such chemicals, and “we followed their lead really,” County Commissioner Henry C. Shores said.

Plants in the Kanawha Valley aren’t large enough to do that now and don’t have the same communications with the county, he said.

Investigations by federal and state groups are ongoing at the Bayer CropScience plant. The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board’s five-member team is on site and scheduled to remain there through Sept. 5. The team will return as needed during the investigation, said John Bresland, board CEO and chairman.

“We’re only (a few) days into the investigation, so we’re not ready to make any speculation,” he said.

The team plans to investigate the scene, interview witnesses and employees and also may test equipment. Bresland said that with proper fail-safes included in the equipment, the explosion subsequent to the fire could have been prevented. That is something the team will investigate, he said.

“Well, if any tank is designed properly if it overheats, there would be emergency devices that should avoid that overheating, or there would be pressure relief systems on the tank,” he said.

“Those are the sort of issues that we will be looking at to see what sort of controls there were on that particular tank.

“In real estate it’s location, location, location, and in our business it’s prevention, prevention, prevention,” Bresland said.

The board will look at previous Occupation Safety & Health Administration visits, but they will not be a determining factor in an investigation, Bresland said.

“It gives you a sense of the company and what some of the issues are,” he said.

U.S. Chemical Safety Board investigations normally take from six to 18 months before a final report is ready, Bresland said. Information will be released as the investigation continues.

U.S. Chemical Safety Board recommendations are not enforceable.

The board makes its recommendations to the company, facility, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and OSHA, but they do not have to comply with them, Bresland said.

They have an 80 percent compliance rate on recommendations, and “we keep after them, and have an ongoing, continuing dialogue that can last for several years,” he said.

The board also can make emergency recommendations when it sees a serious issue, he said.

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board is coordinating efforts with investigators from OSHA and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Copyright State Journal Corporation Sep 5, 2008

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