from the let-it-burn,-burn,-burn-that-ring-of-fire dept.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/houston-area-chemical-fire-expected-burn-days-n984686:
The blaze at a site along the Houston Ship Channel in Deer Park, Texas, began Sunday when a leak from a tank containing volatile naphtha ignited and spread to others in the same complex, the company said. The tanks hold tens of thousands of barrels of products used to boost gasoline octane, make solvents and plastics.
The blaze has not disrupted nearby refineries or shipping at the country's busiest petrochemical port, authorities said. The Houston Ship Channel is home to nine U.S. oil refineries that process 2.3 million barrels per day (bpd), or 12 percent of the national total.
[...]"There has been no affect[sic] on vessel traffic other than at the two terminals," said J.J. Plunkett, port agent at the Houston Pilots, whose members guide ships in and out of the channel. Ship access to docks at the ITC and Vopak terminals was restricted by the U.S. Coast Guard, he said.
Air emissions tests detected the presence of a volatile organic compound six miles away from the facility. Levels were below those considered hazardous, ITC said.
The cause of the dayslong chemical fire at a Deer Park plant remains under investigation as emergency crews douse what's left of the now-extinguished blaze and prepare for clean-up, company officials said Wednesday.
Fire crews extinguished the blaze at Intercontinental Terminals Co. about 3 a.m., almost four days after it started on Sunday morning and which caused a plume of black smoke to linger over the Houston area.
[...]Firefighters are continuing to spray foam on the 15 tanks in the affected area to prevent the blaze from sparking again and steam and smoke may still be visible from the area. Eleven of the tanks, many containing gasoline components, were affected by fire.
"Reignition is possible, but with every passing hour, our risk of that is reduced," ITC spokeswoman Alice Richardson said Wednesday. "Our goal is to be good neighbors — good neighbors to our industry, good neighbors to our community. We're sorry for what has happened."
No serious injuries have been reported since the fire started at about 10:30 a.m. Sunday. Air quality levels were still at moderate levels Wednesday morning, according to AirNow.gov.
[...]The difference-maker between Tuesday morning — when officials walked back earlier estimates and declined to say when the fire would be snuffed out — was an offensive approach to the firefighting, Richardson said.
"They continued that proactive attack, tank by tank, and it was successful," she said.
It's unknown how full the 11 damaged tanks were prior to the fire, and how full they are now. The tank that sparked the incident — 80-8, a tank of naphtha in the middle of the 15-tank block — was the fullest, with 72,000 barrels. Another had 60,000 barrels, and several others were well below that, said David Wascome, vice president of operations at ITC.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2019/03/20/chem-m20.html
Most of the chemicals in the fire are used to produce gasoline, and short-term side effects of exposure at 100 ppm can cause unpleasant side effects. Two of the tanks burning contain a gasoline blend, one tank contains naphtha, another xylene, and one has pyrolysis gasoline. Naphtha can cause irritation to the eyes and the respiratory system, it affects the central nervous system and is harmful and even fatal if it is swallowed. Xylene causes skin irritation and may also be fatal if it is swallowed or enters the airway.
State regulators have said the plume of smoke poses no immediate health risks. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), the state’s environmental regulatory agency, said in a statement Monday afternoon that there is no need to be concerned about health impacts. According to officials, favorable weather has lifted the smoke well about ground level, around 6,000 feet, posing little threat to residents in the area.
Dry and clear conditions are helping the particles of the chemicals dissipate above the ground, according to earlier reports in the Houston Chronicle. Additionally, warmer afternoon temperatures are causing the plume to stay above 1,000 feet, where people would be at serious risk for smoke or soot inhalation, according to National Weather Service meteorologists.
However, environmental groups have said that neither the TCEQ nor ITC have released enough data to back up claims that there’s no immediate risk to human health.
[...]Experts say even if the air quality is good now, any sudden change in weather could quickly reverse the situation.
“If we get a thunderstorm or something like that, which mixes the atmosphere, then all that junk is going to come to the surface,” Robert Talbot, a professor of atmospheric chemistry at the University of Houston, told CBS News.
[...]ITC has a history of environmental violations, having paid more than $200,000 in fines over the past decade. The TCEQ’s databases show the agency has fined the company at least 10 times since 2002, and at least twice last year, for various pollution-related incidents.
The company also has been in “significant” noncompliance with the federal Clean Water Act for 9 of the last 12 quarters, according to an EPA enforcement database. This includes an incident last year in which ITC released more than 10 times the allowable limit of cyanide into the San Jacinto River basin from April through June.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Friday March 22 2019, @12:47PM
I lived in Clear Lake Forest from mid 2004 to mid 2006 - about 5 miles south of Deer Park, there were at least a half dozen "newsworthy" fires in the general area, you know: pesticide warehouses that put out a 10 mile smoke plume, exploding tanks that kill a half dozen "contractors" (that's Houston news code for Mexicans, or really poor white trash.)
Thing was, when you get to know the locals, lots of people working in those refineries are basically on-site firefighters, and the job is to get the nearly daily fires contained quickly enough to prevent serious economic loss. When some of the "big" fires would hit the news, our friends would break out stories of bigger ones that the news didn't report on, particularly in the offshore rigs.
Credit to the local news agencies, though, they would almost always at least mention the story when somebody died.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 22 2019, @01:19PM (4 children)
https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/21/asia/china-chemical-plant-explosion-intl/index.html [cnn.com]
A powerful explosion ripped through a chemical plant in eastern China Thursday, killing at least 47 people and severely injuring 90 others.
Firefighters were still battling small fires Friday, after working through the night to put out the main blaze, state media reported.
Drone footage from the country's emergency management ministry shows an industrial area outside Yancheng city in Jiangsu province covered in firefighting foam, with storage tanks turned to twisted metals and charred factory buildings with roofs torn open.
Local authorities said earlier that dozens of fire trucks and hundreds of firefighters rushed to the scene after the blast was reported around 2 p.m. Thursday. The explosion was powerful enough for the seismological bureau to detect a small earthquake in the area, according to state media.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 22 2019, @02:42PM
Hmmm, this yellow fried chicken tastes funny.
(Score: 2) by Snow on Friday March 22 2019, @03:33PM (2 children)
I heard this on the radio on the way into work this morning.
The radio said that it was a fertilizer plant and that there was an elementary school beside it... What where they thinking?!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Friday March 22 2019, @05:00PM (1 child)
You're referring to the explosion in China. But, that's an issue that bothers me, here in the US. We build schools in the most hazardous traffic areas all the time. It's uncommon to locate a school in a "safe" neighborhood, they're always right on a thoroughfare. Building near chemical plants is less common, but not unheard of. How about near airports? What could possibly go wrong with a school six miles from the airport, directly in line with the busiest runway?
Sometimes, I wonder just how much people value their kids.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday March 23 2019, @12:59AM
About a buck eighty.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday March 22 2019, @02:36PM (5 children)
The Latest: Air quality not affected after Texas plant fire [houstonchronicle.com]
Shelter-in-place order lifted in Deer Park after benzene levels decline [texastribune.org]
Very, very believable.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Friday March 22 2019, @03:51PM
When the pesticide warehouse caught fire in Houston around about 2003 they weren't so lucky, the plume stayed low and ran for miles over residential neighborhoods, including the one we had just bought a house in - lucky for us my wife and two kids (aged 2 years and 2 months) were still in the rental house and not in the plume. Not so lucky for some of our new neighbors whose health took a serious and persistent turn for the worse after that day.
Some Houston neighborhoods get shelter in place orders 10+ times a year.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 22 2019, @06:39PM (3 children)
ITC, the air quality "people" and most "reporters" are lying whores. During a press conference the Air Quality Douche was smugly explaining how advanced their air quality detection systems were when an actual reporter (gasp!) had to interrupt to tell him that one of the sensors in Deer Park hadn't even been reporting data since 5am. The Air Quality Douche was surprised by this revelation and offered the oh-so-believeable excuse that "yes, sometimes they are down for maintenance". Someone should have just kicked the shit out of him right on tv due to his smug ass attitude. They don't give press passes to Real Americans though. One Weather Skank had taken to calling the toxic smoke "dust". Every time they report on the effects of Naphtha or Benzene they only talk about the immediate, short term, high concentration effects, many times excluding the most dangerous (just like in one of the disgusting articles above). They don't mention whether something is a known carcinogen, long term effects of exposure, long term effects to the environment, including animals or the most severe risks to peoples' health. ITC and anyone helping to cover up needs to be brought up on criminal charges or taken out and hung/shot. They've been getting away with this shit for years. Tiny little fines are a condescending joke. Where's the hero "law enforcement officers" when real crime is taking place? Oh, that's right. Too busy stealing from working people and kicking in doors and assassinating people who are minding their own business to enforce The War on Personal Freedom. The People need to hold all of these sellout scum accountable.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Saturday March 23 2019, @01:12AM (2 children)
We were friends with a woman who made trips around the world to wash crude oil spills off of wildlife with some dish detergent. She wasn't too jazzed about the job, it was all about the optics and nothing about actually helping the animals, like the seal that was all rehabilitated just to be released and snacked on by a Killer whale a few minutes later... She did the job because it payed well, she got the job because her husband worked in the production management side of the oil company... but, it was all about getting good pictures and stories to put in press releases.
Many (most?) of the big plants around there are foreign owned, and the owners are running them by straight ROI guidelines: if running the air scrubbers costs $250,000 and paying the fines for not running them costs $200,000 - they'll just pay the fines until the locals make a fuss and get the fines raised.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday March 23 2019, @03:28PM (1 child)
The orca got a clean, tasty meal. That was a lot of help.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday March 26 2019, @04:25PM
When a whale dies with plastic it its stomach, it makes news.
Making sure Willy doesn't get poisoned by oily prey is totally good PR.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday March 22 2019, @08:55PM
there's been yet another flareup. the "dust" is billowing again.