Friday, June 04, 1999

Worst-case toxic disaster risks revealed

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But plants leave out potential deaths

BY TIM BONFIELD
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Fire brigade at Bayer Co. in front of chemical silos. (Glenn Hartong photo) | ZOOM |

        Several of Greater Cincinnati's largest manufacturers and chemical companies on Thursday revealed how far toxic clouds of vapor might travel in the event of a “worst-case” disaster.

        But they don't say how many people might be seriously injured or killed.

        Procter & Gamble, DuPont, Bayer Corp., Cincinnati Specialties, the Metropolitan Sewer District (MSD), Royster-Clark Nitrogen and the Shepherd Chemical Co. were among nine companies or plants Thursday that provided more public information than ever about the health risks neighbors face living near their plants.

INFOGRAPHIC

Some worst-case scenarios

        The information, released during a public meeting at the American Red Cross office in Blue Ash, was a precursor to a June 21 deadline for more than 66,000 companies nationwide to submit “risk management plans” to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

        In Hamilton County, about 50 facilities will be required to submit the reports. Twenty facilities in Clermont, Butler and Warren counties also must submit data, according to the Ohio EPA.

        The new reports draw big circles on maps — one reaching as far as 25 miles — to show what might happen if huge storage tanks or rail cars filled with dangerous chemicals ruptured under all the wrong conditions; such as hot, still weather combined with total failures of automated safety controls.

        In addition, the reports draw much smaller circles of health risk for more common accidents, such as spills from burst pipes, malfunctioning valves or hoses popping loose during chemical transfers.

        However, the reports — especially the company-written summary versions to be offered to the general public — do not tell the full story about the potential disaster situations.

        Despite the color maps, none of the reports estimates casualties. In fact, most descriptions of health risks were vague and understated, even though the worst-case scenarios are likely to result in at least some deaths.

        “Fatalities are possible in some of these situations,” said Charles Perry, a district chief for the Cincinnati Fire Division.

        Three companies or plants — P&G, MSD and Bayer — presented their worst-case scenarios in detail at a press conference Thursday. All told, nine facilities offered some information for more than a dozen different chemicals.

        Ed Burcham, environmental manager at P&G's Ivorydale complex and chairman of the local Alliance for Chemical Safety, said “We view the (new risk management plan reports) simply as public reporting of the things we've been doing for years. Procter & Gamble has a long history of accident prevention and safe operation.”

        Rachael Belz, Southwest Ohio program director for Ohio Citizen Action, an environmental activist group, sees the new reports as a valuable expansion of community right-to-know laws.

        “This is an opportunity for citizens to get more information than they've ever had,” Ms. Belz said. “But today was just a beginning. I think citizens will want more information than this.”

        One of the most severe worst-case scenarios involves DuPont's Fort Hill plant in North Bend.

        Should its 84,000-gallon storage tank filled with sulfur trioxide rupture and spill its entire contents, the vapor cloud could cause health problems up to 25 miles away. The circle of potential health risk includes all but the very northeast corner of Hamilton County, all of Dearborn County in Indiana and Boone County in Kentucky, plus large chunks of Butler, Campbell, Kenton, Switzerland, Ohio and Ripley counties.

        DuPont's summary report states that sulfur trioxide “produces an irritating vapor cloud that has a pungent, suffocating odor in the atmosphere.” No description of serious health effects is included.

        But in its more detailed collection of facility and chemical fact sheets, DuPont describes sulfur trioxide as a dense, oily, colorless liquid that produces sulfuric acid when it reacts with water vapor in the air.

        Its fumes are “intensely irritating to the eyes, nose, throat and respiratory tract.” At high concentrations, it can cause permanent lung damage and death, the company states.

        Among the other worst-case scenarios: A huge chlorine spill at the MSD's Mill Creek treatment plant could spread toxic gas up to 14 miles. Acrylonitrile from the Bayer Corp. plant in Addyston could travel 5 miles.

        Bromine vapor from the BFGoodrich Hilton Davis plant could travel 1.2 miles. Sulfur trioxide at P&G's Ivorydale plant could go 6.8 miles.

        Few of these reports were any more candid about fatal risks than DuPont's was.

        The MSD's summary report describes chlorine gas as “a non-combustible gas with a pungent, irritating odor.” Yet a report from Cincinnati Specialties, which also uses chlorine, states that the gas is “a strong respiratory and eye irritant and can cause respiratory failure at high concentrations.”

        Bayer Corp.'s worst-case summary states that high concentrations of acrylonitrile “may cause nausea and faintness.” But a separate “chemical fact sheet” states: “If acrylonitrile is involved in a fire, cyanide gas may be released.”

        Regardless of how the health risks are described, all these worst-case scenarios are extremely unlikely, company officials say.

        P&G hasn't had a sulfur trioxide spill at Ivorydale that hurt anyone offsite since the early 1970s, Mr. Burcham said. The MSD has operated seven treatment plants for 46 years without a single off-site chlorine incident, officials said.

        In addition to worst-case situations, the companies must describe a variety of more likely, but less disastrous potential accidents. Among those reported Thursday:

        • A pipe break that spills 25 gallons of formaldehyde at the Bayer plant could spread fumes 0.19 mile.

        • A 6,000-pound spill of sulfur trioxide at the DuPont plant from a broken pipe that takes two minutes to shut off, would spread vapors about 1.7 miles.

        • A 160-pound chlorine leak at the Cincinnati Specialties plant on Murray Road would spread about 0.1 mile.

        Part of the vagueness about serious health risks stems from the EPA reporting requirements. The reports are required to define an outer edge where human health effects can still be measured. But at the outer edge of the circle, symptoms might be as slight as eye and skin irritation. They do not detail risks closer to ground zero, where less-diluted vapors could be deadly.

        Another reason casualty estimates for the worst-case scenarios were not included is because there are too many variables involved, Mr. Burcham said.

        How many people might be inside vs. outside when the spill occurs? How many residents would be working or attending school out of the area? How many outsiders would be in the area? And how many would be able to flee to safety at the early whiffs of strong-smelling vapors?

        “We can estimate populations (in the circles), but it's impossible to say how many people would be exposed,” Mr. Burcham said.

        Company officials and community members say they continue to debate the best ways to communicate risks without stirring panic or creating a false sense of security.

        Bayer Corp. has asked village officials, educators and activists on its advisory board for advice. Initial efforts include a community meeting, offering plant tours, setting up emergency communications plans with local schools, and sending newsletters to 2,300 households, said plant manager William C. Ward.

        Overall, the communication with manufacturers prompted by the EPA requirements has been a positive development, said John Obermeyer, a member of the community advisory panel for Royster-Clark Nitrogen in Hamilton County's Miami Township.

        “It helps to calm a lot of fears,” he said.

        Ben L. Kaufman contributed to this story.

       

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