BS: Explosion in NC (US)

Subject: BS: Explosion in NC (US)
From: Grab
Date: 06 Oct 06 - 11:35 AM

Major explosion at a chemicals factory in North Carolina apparently, not far from Raleigh. Any Mudcatters there? Hope you're OK if you are!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/5413676.stm

Graham.

Subject: RE: BS: Explosion in NC (US)
From: Kaleea
Date: 06 Oct 06 - 01:00 PM

We don't have enough air pollution already? Somebody probably violated a law or code, human "error" will be claimed, and now untold numbers of people have their lives messed up, there will be financial losses which will cause hardships, people and animals will be ill or die, and if there might be a fine that the company has to pay.
The chemicals will have moved into the air, and will most likely go much farther than the area evacuated. After all, if the truth were told, people might panic, or worse, decide that lawmakers have to make stricter laws regarding chemical waste. I suppose if we got really lucky, and people realized just how all encompassing the damage is to humans, critters, the air, water, folage and earth the public might rise up & make changes happen which would mean that the greedy gazillionaires would lose money.

By the way, if you hear on the news that N Korea does detonate that nuke bomb, then radiation poisoning is possible. If radioactive fallout gets into the atmosphere, it will likely go about the globe, and we will all need to have extra iodine to fight the radiation poisoning. I buck up with kelp tablets, & eat the dark chocolate.

Subject: RE: BS: Explosion in NC (US)
From: PoppaGator
Date: 06 Oct 06 - 01:06 PM

Glad to hear that dark chocolate ~ my favorite kind ~ might become de rigeur. Unless, of course, demand outstrips supply and the stuff becomes unavailable or prohibitively expensive.

;^)

Subject: RE: BS: Explosion in NC (US)
From: Janie
Date: 06 Oct 06 - 01:09 PM

We are about 25 miles WNW of Apex. To my knowledge, no NC 'catters live in the at-risk area. The immediate hazard appears to be to those located quite near the hazardous waste storage facility. Rain is helping knock the chlorine out of the atmosphere and the wind is south--bad for those south of Apex, but away from the major population centers of Raleigh, Cary and Durham. The chlorine disolves in the rain, which then falls as acid rain. The major issue right now is no one knows what was stored there besides chlorine. The concern is there are hazardous organic compounds that may burn or be dispersed that are much more toxic than chlorine in much smaller quantities. While this may turn into a major envirnmental mess, at this point, the authorities do not have sufficient information about what hazardous wastes were stored,and in what quantites, to be able to access anything other than the immediate danger from the chlorine gas.

Re chlorine gas--when I was in high school there was a big chlorine gas leak at a local chemical plant that led to the evacuation of a good part of the Kanawha Valley (Charleston, WV and environs.) We lived 30 miles downriver from the leak and were in a voluntary evacuation zone. Even that far away, the smell of the chlorine was almost overpowering. Livestock nearer the leak were killed and many people were sickened. I don't recall that any humans died.

Janie

Subject: RE: BS: Explosion in NC (US)
From: Janie
Date: 06 Oct 06 - 01:20 PM

One huge result of not knowing what materials are stored is they are afraid to try to put out the fire. They don't know what unintended consequences may occur if they use water or chemical fire suppressants.

What a mess!

Janie

Subject: RE: BS: Explosion in NC (US)
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 06 Oct 06 - 01:26 PM

For major problems like this in a plant in the west, you tend to need an unfortunate confluence of events.

The standard trio are a poor design for some aspect of the process in question, an operating procedure at fault, and then human error on top.

A waste disposal site is always going to be particularly vunerable, as it will be dealing with many different substances, so will have lots of different process running, which makes human error much more likley.
It also means one of the biggest saftey measures, not having big stockpiles of dangerous chemicals about so there's less to spill etc, isn't possible as they are removing those stockpiles from elsewhere.

Three years of Chemical Engineering, Kaleea. Safety training is taken seriously.

Subject: RE: BS: Explosion in NC (US)
From: Janie
Date: 06 Oct 06 - 01:36 PM

The facility received several violations for safety issues over the past year, but only a paltry $32,000s in fines. North Carolina is not famous for being tough on envirnmental hazards.

Subject: RE: BS: Explosion in NC (US)
From: PoppaGator
Date: 06 Oct 06 - 01:43 PM

Didn't mean to be flippant in my remarks about that dark chocolate (although I do like the idea of "having to" consume large quantities). This is the first I've heard about this tragic bit of breaking news.

I do hope that no one gets hurt/poisoned, and that we can trust good old Mother Earth to continue absorbing these insults without significant permanent damage. We had a big chemical spill from tank cars on the railroad near my New Orleans home a few years ago, and the damage ultimately proved to be much less telling than expected.

More recently, of course, 80% of our city spent five weeks or so flooded with a nasty mix of brackish water, chemical waste, sewerage, dead human and animal bodies, and God only knows what else. The whole town reeked of an undescribable stink for months, and plenty of doomsayers were predicting that all lifeforms would be negatively impacted for the foreseeable future. However, plant life (weeds as well as trees and flowers ~ everything that wasn't killed during the flood by the salt intrusion) is thriving like never before, and people seem to be physically OK, for the most part. The levee failures that occurred after Hurricane Katrina have taken a pretty severe human toll, but it has been more of a psychological phenomenon ~ depression, suicides, etc. ~ than anything chemical or otherwise physical.

Subject: RE: BS: Explosion in NC (US)
From: GLoux
Date: 06 Oct 06 - 03:14 PM

My son's college room mate's family is from Apex. Fortunately his family was camping in the mountains this week. They were to return today, so they may have trouble getting into the town...

-Greg

Subject: RE: BS: Explosion in NC (US)
From: GUEST,Kait
Date: 08 Oct 06 - 06:46 PM

I know this sounds like a horrible disaster, amd it is in a way, but we must count our blessings. There was no loss of human life and the fires are extinguished now so they are getting the situation under control. It is not known what caused the leak, so it is not fair to be charting it up to human error or low safety measures. it could have been an accident. And yes, to all you paranoid pessimists, accidents do exist, they aren't some urban legend.

Subject: RE: BS: Explosion in NC (US)
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 08 Oct 06 - 07:13 PM

Yes, accidents do exist. They're the exceptional circumstances you don't design for, like a major earthquake in North Caronlina. HAZOP, done properly, will reduce or eliminate the rest. You then have to take the time and money to put it into action though, and this company don't seem to be keen on staying on standard.

Subject: RE: BS: Explosion in NC (US)
From: GUEST,Johnny Pepperoni
Date: 09 Oct 06 - 08:02 AM

We are all failing as a species and can only be fixed with a loaf of Italian bread and some provolone. ;)

Subject: RE: BS: Explosion in NC (US)
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 09 Oct 06 - 08:18 PM

"Although evacuation orders were issued overnight, some disregarded instructions to leave their homes."

And probably some of them kept their young children and babies with them. Fools!