Chemical Plant Near Houston Warns Its About To Explode

[riversedge]

Source: Huff post



08/30/2017 05:38 pm ET

Flooding swamped backup generators, and volatile chemicals are getting warm enough to ignite. “There’s no way to prevent it,” the CEO said.
By Ryan Grenoble


A fire or explosion in the next few days at a flooded chemical plant on the outskirts of Houston is virtually inevitable, its CEO warned on a call with reporters Wednesday.

The Arkema Inc. factory in Crosby, Texas, 20 miles northeast of downtown Houston, lost power early Sunday, which it needs to refrigerate volatile chemicals. Those chemicals ignite if they get too warm ― something likely to happen in the next six days, Arkema North America CEO Richard Rowe said.

“Materials could now explode and cause a subsequent intense fire,” Rowe said. “The high water that exists on site, and the lack of power, leave us with no way to prevent it.”

“We’re really blocked from taking meaningful action,” he added...........................................

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/arkema-chemical-plant-crosby-texas_us_59a71237e4b07e81d354cda6

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This would be horrible. The article sounds so certain it is about to happen.

Link to tweet

[VMA131Marine]

1. At least it's not a nuclear power plant

or this would be Fukishima all over again.

[Adrahil]

8. Depending on the chemicals involved....

This could be as bad or worse in the short term.

[VMA131Marine]

9. The area has seen large explosions before

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_City_disaster

I don’t think we are talking about something even close in size to the 1947 disaster. A nuke plant accident would make a vast area uninhabitable for decades, if not centuries.

[Adrahil]

14. Benzine in the water table would be pretty devastating....

But I dont know what they have there.

[NNadir]

21. Not really. One could easily ask oneself which killed more people, Bophal or Fukushima.

Fukushima is only important as it gets unlimited attention, none of it rational.

The refineries that have operated for decades in the Houston area have killed infinitely more people than Fukushima not because they failed, but because they operated normally.

Nuclear power plants save lives, since they prevent air pollution, which kills seven million people per year, every year.

[yuiyoshida]

28. My thoughts exactly or like

[LudwigPastorius]

33. There is a nuclear power plant about 75 miles northeast of where Harvey made landfall.

And, I notice we haven’t heard a peep about its status.

The South Texas Nuclear Generating Station's cooling pond was classified as a high risk of dam hazard vulnerability by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The massive flooding can’t be good for it.

https://miningawareness.wordpress.com/2017/08/25/hurricane-harvey-targets-south-texas-nuclear-power-station-with-high-dam-failure-vulnerability/

[TomVilmer]

42. Workers Stayed at Nuclear Plant

Despite heavy rain, South Texas Project runs at full capacity. Biggest challenge is finding workers...

[LudwigPastorius]

44. That's good news.

It must have been built on high ground.

[applegrove]

2. Oh no. Vibes That nobody gets hurt.

[femmedem]

3. Oh no.

I'd read yesterday that it was a possibility, but this sounds more dire.

[BigmanPigman]

27. It apparently has gone from "serious" to "dangerous".

[Eliot Rosewater]

4. Quick, someone ease the regulations so it can ...wait

no, you would want the OPPOSITE of that, one would think there would be regs responding to this possibility.

Maybe not because this is Texas, not sure.

But they want less regs, so we can be sure this will continue.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

11. Welcome.

To The United States of Laissez-faire Pollution-R-Good Damn-the-Torpedoes Trickle-up Plutocratic Grab 'em by the Pu**y America.

[IronLionZion]

29. What we need now are tax cuts

It's the only way to fix this mess. They were simply taxed so much they couldn't afford other options to manage these chemicals.

[OriginalGeek]

46. If it was a vagina

it'd be so regulated even a queef couldn't leak out.


But hey, explosions are A-OK.

[NCjack]

5. ATTN all televangelists: Demonstrate your influence. nt

[dixiegrrrrl]

32. Excellent.

[Doodley]

6. Trump has the answer - scrap protections that reduce the chances of this situation happening in new

plants.

[bucolic_frolic]

7. Let me guess, they'll blame it on regulations

"without excess regulations, this would never have happened!"

And Trump supporters would believe it

[Pope George Ringo II]

15. Hey, Obama's playing golf instead of acting Presidential here.

Obviously this is all Obama's fault, after all.

[Ford_Prefect]

10. Seems to me this was ENTIRELY predictable given the history of Hurricanes in that area.

It will be Bhopal on the San Jacinto.

Engineering a plant like that should have anticipated catastrophe on this scale, ie: severe and possibly extended flooding. Toxic labs are built to that kind of standard to contain equally dangerous contents. Someone got paid a lot to look the other way when the standards were written or the plant was inspected. The fact that they won't identify what those chemicals are is the scariest bit.

Explosive chemicals have toxic side effects too. Look at the military burn pits report for example. No matter why it is happening this could be as bad as Fukushima in the near term. Once those chemicals and aftermath of their burning get into the water, the air, and into the surrounding land, and downstream into the Gulf, or up into the local atmosphere, the damage will be enormous and ongoing beyond the initial event with no way to contain or clean it up. Only nuclear waste and radiation are worse.

[bluestarone]

13. oh no we can't plan

for anything to protect people! That would be asking tooooo much!!! The assholes

[EarthFirst]

17. It's Texas. Zoning laws; especially commercial, are virtually non-existent.

Remember the West Fertlizer Co explosion?

[burrowowl]

38. In Texas no zoning laws,

no building codes, etc.

[Warpy]

12. "Blocked from taking meaningful action?"

Sounds like the mean old EPA won't let them vent the tanks and poison everybody downwind.

Hell of a situation to be in if that's the choice.

[The_jackalope]

16. I think they mean the water is preventing (blocking) them from accessing the site.

They would need to get on-site to refuel and repair the backup generators. They can't, and it sounds to me like they probably can't vent the tanks either (no power or control links to the valves). So, an explosion is imminent.

Sometimes bad problems are physical, not political.

[Warpy]

18. Right. especially with Monkeywrench Pruitt in charge of the EPA

I hope they're wrong. I doubt they are. It's nearly sunset in Houston, maybe that will buy some time.

[The_jackalope]

19. Crosby is near Fukushima, Texas isn't it?

It sounds like the same kind of problem, but with a chemical rather than a nuclear plant. Large amounts of water in places you didn't think it would go can be catastrophic. All that damned dihydrogen monoxide, poisoning the world...

[Lucky Luciano]

34. Dihydrogen Monoxide!!! We're so screwn!!!111!!!1!1

[jalan48]

20. "It will be a fantastic explosion. The best ever!"

[Big_K]

23. And over the explosions we shall hear, "That blowed up real good!"

Oops, wrong blowed up.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

22. They must be able to float generators over to there or truck them in on stilts & connect them up?

If the water is too deep, float them in.

If the water is too shallow for floating, then truck them in and mount them on stilts or platforms.

[defacto7]

37. I would think some military machinery

would be able to get in there. Huge excavating high wheel dump trucks with the wheels that are 12 feet in diameter. Multiple military helicopters... I have no expertise whatsoever but machines do exist that can get generators in there.
The problem I see would be finding people who would take the risk.

[Amaryllis]

24. Rachel on it now!

[Not Ruth]

25. Let's pick the worst place in America to put a dangerous chemical plant

Oh goody, found it

[OkSustainAg]

26. What about an Iwo jima ship.

There was one during Katrina. Electric, water and helicopters.

[Honeycombe8]

30. OMG. I hope not. OMG. nt

[txwhitedove]

35. Uh, gulp, that's 26 miles east of me and kids, pets, neighbors, friends....

[Igel]

39. 20 miles east of me.

Not real worried.

Looks like it produces primarily anhydrous benzoyl peroxide.

http://www.arkema-americas.com/en/arkema-americas/united-states/crosby-tx/
http://www.luperox.com/en/

It fits the description: explosive and self-igniting.

https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/81-123/pdfs/0052-rev.pdf

Preferably kept with at least 1% water ... but if it's anhydrous, that's no water. It produces a nasty mix of toxic (and not so toxic) chemicals. Good news is that all are volatile. They also tend to break down fairly quickly when exposed to air and sunlight (and bacteria). I played with this stuff when I was a kid and made some fairly simple and prosaic resins with it, but it's hygroscopic so mine was never, ever anhydrous and it stayed in brown jars on the shelf. (Phenol-formaldehyde resin, I think, was the product. Bakelite or something nearly Bakelite, in other words.)

We know benzoyl peroxide from Clearasil and other acne meds. (It's not salicylic acid, but my homemade acne gunk when I was in high school used both.)

And, while combustion products are pretty toxic they're also flammable and I can't even guess what kinds of concentrations would be released. Still, if it blows there's likely to be a shelter in place for Atascocita (if the winds are blowing in that direction) for a while, but it'll be mostly out of an abundance of caution. Air'll dilute the concentrations down to low levels, and they'll pass through quickly. It'll create quite a bang, though, and parts of the plant will be trashed.

[wallyworld2]

36. I have seen

A video of a improperly loaded semi trailer.

It was loaded with aluminum kegs of organic hydrogen peroxide, 90% grade.

Hydrogen peroxide must be vented at all times because it constantly decomposes and without a vent it would build up pressure.

If it is contaminated with any organic material it decomposes at a faster rate.

If exposed to caustic soda there is a very energetic reaction, explosive reaction.

Anyway the truck was supposed to have an aluminum floor and was supposed to be loaded exclusively with the kegs of peroxide.

Neither happened. The floor of the semi was wood and it was loaded with other chemicals.

The load was destined for Texas and was on a hot Texas freeway when one of the trailers started smoking.

When that happened the driver stopped the truck. Authorities were notified and once they found out what the truck was carrying,

they closed the freeway and abandoned the truck.

From a distance they waited for the truck to burn it self out.

But while video was being taken, the entire unit vaporized as the some of the kegs of peroxide exploded.

The thing is. If this is organic hydrogen peroxide and it is decomposing at an accelerated rate, there really isn't much they can do.

Other than attempt to dilute it with massive amounts of water and get out while the fire hoses run.

[jmowreader]

40. This is a different peroxide

Benzoyl peroxide has two major uses: pimple cream and causing plastic resins to turn hard. It's not the safest chemical to be around, but on the list of hazardous peroxides it's fairly low.

[wallyworld2]

43. Thank you

I did not know that.

[leftynyc]

41. CNN reporting 2 explosions

and a black plume of smoke over the plant.

[ucrdem]

45. "We're really blocked from taking meaningful action" or "Cheaper to let it blow up"?

Who wants to muck around for months with soggy hazardous chemicals and pay a fortune to bury the mess in some unlucky burg's backyard? Cheaper to let it all blow and start over in the morning. That's the American way right?