Chemical leak sends 3 to hospital for eye irritation
Three people, including one on-site plant worker, sought medical care for eye irritation Tuesday after a chemical leak at Dow’s Norco facility.
The leak resulted in the evacuation of 42 Norco homes, the cancellation of school and the closure of River Road. The all-clear was given at 11:30 p.m. on Tuesday, but many residents stayed in hotel rooms through the night courtesy of Dow.
Dow identified the leaked chemical as titanium tetrachloride, which converts to hydrochloric acid and can cause eye and throat irritation as a vapor.
Renee Simpson, public information officer for the parish, said that evacuating the residential area was a precaution and that the parish doesn’t believe they were in danger because the wind was blowing away from the area.
“As far as I know the wind did not shift. We’re always in contact with the National Weather Service,” Simpson said. “From the time that we decided on the streets that were to be evacuated, everything stayed the same as the clean-up went along.”
Schools resumed classes on Wednesday and picked up where they left of with standardized testing that is going on this week state-wide, according to Regina McMillan, public information coordinator for the school district.
When the leak occurred, the Emergency Operations Center’s tiered calling system notified each home in the evacuation area and then local fire departments alerted residents by going door-to-door.
While the spill occurred around 4:30 a.m., nearby residents were not notified and evacuated until about 7:30 a.m.
“An important note is that seeing how people were not in any imminent danger to their life or property…we didn’t blow the sirens,” said Scott Whelchel, director of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness for the parish.
Simpson said that it is common for the parish to assess the situation before ordering an evacuation.
“A lot of times it is not a threat to the public safety at the time that we’re notified,” Simpson said.
Simpson said that if the leak had been more of an immediate threat, the area surrounding the facility would have been evacuated much more quickly.
Once nearby residents were notified and evacuated, the EOC sent out notices to the rest of the town, according to Whelchel.
“It was like a bullseye, where we tried to focus on the people who were immediately affected and then notify the people who are nearby,” he said.
After the leak, Dow, Shell and the Department of Environmental Quality did air monitoring and did not detect any signs of the chemical in the air.
“I’m happy to say that the process lasted about 12 hours but was very smooth and without any incident,” said Tommy Faucheux, public affairs manager for Dow. “We’re very happy with the communication efforts between the parish and Dow and the community. We got a lot of positive feedback from the residents in Norco (Tuesday) night in regards to communicating what was going on throughout the day and night.”
Be the first to comment