This week we got word that the Olin Corp has announced that they will be reconfiguring their Henderson, NV facility to make bleach. This is the facility that in 1991 when owned and operated by Pioneer Chlor Alkali Company, Inc. had the largest Chlorine release on record, 70-100 tons of chlorine. The response to the release was not well managed and FEMA did an investigation to examine the response. The liquefied chlorine was stored in tanks at a pressure of approximately 50 pounds per square inch (psi) and temperature of approximately 30 degrees Fahrenheit. The chlorine was dried in the process of compression and, when dry, is noncorrosive. If it is contaminated by water or water vapor, hydrochloric acid is produced and the resulting product is extremely corrosive. It is believed that a tube failure in a heat exchanger allowed water to mix with the chlorine going into one of the storage tanks. When workers began to transfer the contents of that tank to a railroad tank car, the corrosive liquid began to rapidly deteriorate the steel piping system. CLICK HERE for the FEMA report and CLICK HERE for the NIOSH Health Hazard Evaluation (HHE) Report.