Friday, February 25, 2000
Iowa tank rupture linked to one here
Both built by Tristate firms
BY LUCY MAY
The Cincinnati Enquirer
A million-gallon storage tank in Iowa that split down the middle like an opening zipper is the fifth failed tankbuilt by one of two local companies now out of business.
All five ruptured tanks are listed in a letter the Cincinnati Fire Division sent this week to local companies that have such tanks on their property.
Fire Prevention Bureau Chief Mike Kroeger asked companies to register their tanks voluntarily so city officials would know more quickly who built what tanks in the event of a rupture.
The idea was inspired by the Jan. 8 tank rupture at Southside River-Rail in Riverside. That tank collapse spilled 990,000 gallons of a fertilizer solution, most of it into the Ohio River.
Nobody was hurt in the tank failure here. But authorities worry future ruptures could injure people, destroy property, contaminate drinking water or otherwise hurt the environment.
“We're hoping that this will heighten the awareness,” said Mike Peterman of the Cincinnati Fire Prevention Bu reau, who specializes in above-ground storage tanks.
The rupture of the million-gallon tank in Riverside made authorities more aware of how little information they have about the thousands of such tanks in the city.
All five tanks listed in Chief Kroeger's letter failed because of faulty welding. All were built by either Carolyn Equipment Co. of Fairfield or Nationwide Tanks Inc. of Hamilton.
Both firms were owned by Donald C. and Carolyn Walters of West Chester.
Chief Kroeger's letter asks companies to supply the site's name and address, the owner's name and address, a contact person's name and phone number, and a description of the type of facility.
The most recent tank added to the list was in Pacific Junction, Iowa. It was less than 3 years old when it ruptured in March 1997, said Tom Boehm, plant manager for United Suppliers, which owned the tank.
“It broke from the top and broke down like a big zipper,” Mr. Boehm said.
The tank ruptured after hours, and nobody was hurt, Mr. Boehm said. But the force of the spill knocked train cars off their tracks.
Other tank failures on Chief Kroeger's list occurred in Webberville, Mich., in July; in Poneto, Ind., in 1995; and in Morral, Ohio, last month.
In his letter, Chief Kroeger asks companies if their tanks are under permit with the Cincinnati Fire Division, and he included a form for companies to list their tanks, the capacity of them, the contents of the tanks, the manufacturer, the year they were built and the last time the tanks were inspected.
Richard Cogen, the city of Cincinnati's environmental lawyer, stressed the point of the registry is not just to check and see if companies have any tanks built by the manufacturers in question.
Rather, companies should give more thought to how recently their tanks were inspected and the types of inspections used, he said.
Some accepted methods for inspecting such tanks would have found the problems with the welding that caused the Riverside tank's collapse, and others wouldn't, Mr. Cogen said.
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