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Sunday, February 01, 2009

Environment - Hazardous chemical and liquid fertilizer spills in the news

"Toxic soup in St. Marys: Chemicals spill from Essex Group; river ice masks extent of fish kill" is the headline to a story today by Dan Stockman in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette. Some quotes:

A wire factory spilled hundreds of gallons of hazardous chemicals into the St. Marys River along the Rivergreenway and upstream from two popular parks, but state environmental officials said there is no risk to human health.

The spill, which involved chemicals that can burn the skin even when diluted, occurred Jan. 22 and was discovered Jan. 23. Essex Group, 1601 Wall St., notified state and federal officials that an estimated 300 gallons of a chemical mixture had spilled from a rooftop tank.

The tank was surrounded by a containment vault, but the chemical spilled out of the vault and into a stormwater collection system that drained into the river just north of Taylor Street, according to a report filed by Essex with the National Response Center.

The chemical mixture was about 50 percent phenol, about 40 percent petroleum distillates, and about 10 percent cresylic acid, Indiana Department of Environmental Management spokeswoman Amber Finkelstein said. Containing and cleaning up the spill has been difficult because the river is covered by a layer of ice.

Phenol is corrosive and even when diluted can cause serious burns after prolonged contact, according to National Library of Medicine data. Petroleum distillates are toxic and flammable, while cresylic acid can cause severe burns. In 1992, an Essex worker was burned on about 40 percent of his body in a cresylic acid spill inside the facility. * * *

The spill occurred just across the river from the Rivergreenway trail and just upstream from Swinney Park and Headwaters Park, but parks department officials did not know about the spill until contacted by The Journal Gazette on Friday. IDEM’s Finkelstein said the agency contacted the Fort Wayne Fire Department and local homeland security officials.

Fire department spokeswoman Susan Banta said the department did not contact the parks department because “we were not asked to make an official response.”

Local Director of Homeland Security Bernie Beier said parks officials were not notified because there was no danger to humans outside of the immediate area of the spill.

“IDEM felt the majority of it was trapped in the ice,” Beier said.

He said IDEM’s air testing showed there was no vapor threat outside the area and no threat from the water beyond where crews were already working to remove the ice.

“Had IDEM said, ‘There is a risk or a potential risk or we can’t verify the risk,’ there would have been more notifications,” Beier said. “They’re the ones that said there’s no threat to people beyond the immediate spill area.”

"Well shut, test wells to be drilled after liquid fertilizer spill: Former Stanley Fertilizer tank leaked about 500 yards from Franklin Park site" is the headline to this story today by Bruce C. Smith in the Indianapolis Star. Some quotes:
Plainfield has turned off a municipal water well as a precaution and hired a firm to monitor ground water after chemicals leaked into storm sewers from a nearby liquid fertilizer storage tank.

The Town Council voted this week to spend up to $20,000 to have test wells drilled and monitored for chemicals moving toward the well in Franklin Park.
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Plainfield has several other wells in other locations, so the town has plenty of safe water, according to Town Engineer Tim Belcher.

An Indiana Department of Environmental Management report about the December incident indicates that 2,000 to 3,000 gallons of agricultural fertilizer leaked from an old storage tank at the now-closed Stanley Fertilizer Co., 423 N. Vine St.

The spill is about 500 yards from the well in Franklin Park, which is turned off until the hazard is removed, according to town officials.

"Our biggest concern after the initial containment was that the spill occurred within what we consider a wellhead protection area," Belcher said.

The Stanley business is "within the estimated one-year time of travel," he said, meaning the period of time for water or contaminants to move underground to the well.

"Within that boundary, spills such as this are of more concern because they have the potential to reach our well."

Emergency work to contain the fertilizer leak also disclosed strong odors of diesel fuels in the soils up to a foot deep on the site, according to the IDEM report. The property was a bulk petroleum storage facility before the Stanley family bought it in the 1960s for a fertilizer business. That operation has been closed for about a decade.

Town officials said members of the Stanley family have claimed that the fertilizer in the tank was old and diluted with water.

Field tests conducted by IDEM found the spilled chemical, which can cause fish kills in streams, was 13 percent nitrogen and 38 percent phosphorous.

A series of "sentinel" wells will be drilled by Astbury Environmental Engineering to monitor the concentration and direction of travel of the suspect chemicals, Belcher said. The goal is to get an early warning before any contaminant can reach the city water source.

"It is possible that the (chemicals) will dissipate and not pose any problem, but we'll do these tests to find out what's going on."

The town will ask for repayment of its expenses from Stanley Fertilizer.

The spill was discovered Dec. 22 when chemicals ran into the streets around the property.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on February 1, 2009 08:45 AM
Posted to Environment