A facility that produces ultra pasteurized milk products failed to immediately notify federal and state emergency authorities of a chlorine gas release in 2012 at a milk facility in Portland, Oregon. By law, facilities are required to report hazardous releases to state and federal emergency response authorities in a timely manner. Eight employees, a truck driver, two contractors and a person who was driving by at the time of the incident were sent to the hospital.
On the morning of May 30, 2012, a truck driver arrived to off-load a nitric acid and phosphoric acid-based chemical solution that is used for sanitizing at the facility. The driver improperly connected the hose from the truck containing the chemical solution to a tank containing sodium hydroxide and sodium hypochlorite, resulting in a violent chemical reaction and the chlorine gas release.
The plant became aware of the release at 10:16 a.m. and notified the fire department at 10:31 a.m. but failed to immediately notify state and federal emergency response authorities. It should be noted the facility notified the NRC @ 11:29 a.m. and the SERC @ 11:19 a.m. The chlorine gas release continued until about 4:00 p.m.
Federal law requires that facilities immediately report chemical releases exceeding certain thresholds to federal, state and local authorities. For chlorine gas, the threshold is ten (10) pounds. The facility released about 166 pounds in this incident. The facility violated the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, and the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act.
The facility has agreed to pay over $42,000 to settle the violations; $21,248 for the alleged CERCLA violation and $21,248 for the alleged EPCRA violation.
CLICK HERE for the EPA release
CLICK HERE for the agreement
Editorial Comment: $42,000 for calling the NRC and SERC one hour after the release began. They called their local FD within 15 minutes (a bit slow if they did not have their own in-house response team) but the amount for not calling a bunch of agencies who DO NOT RESPOND to the event is a bit excessive. Although this is not that uncommon. REPORT your releases QUICKLY! You can ALWAYS take it back, but late reporting is very costly. Do NOT let this reporting hamper your response; but have adequate resources dedicated to the event so that someone with the properly level of responsibility can make this 15 minute call.