Nottoway spill

Copied fron Bassjons site
From Jeff Turner (Blackwater / Nottoway River Keeper):

"From the GEO plant side of the chemical factory today ther has been a spill into the Nottoway River. I will have more details as this tragedy is investigated. I was on site today with State and local officials. It was agreed because of the potential health risk that the public be made aware of the problem by closing the ramp at Hercules to the river and posting signs warning of the danger. Also deputies went door to door to alert riverside residents. The two chemicals that spilled to the river I cannot pronounce. The acronym for them I believe is DMBA and PBHP. People are advised not to swim, boat or fish in the river until further notice. There were not a great deal of dead fish in the river, but we will know more of that by tomorrow afternoon or by Wednesday when or if they start floating up. I will update this info as more information is made available."

Now that we didn't need. Thanks for keeping us informed Bill.

Man, know it could have been something as simple as a hourly worker there spilling something, damaging it with a forklift, or accidentally turning a valve the wrong way BUT....

The company should be DEARLY for this....for not having the correct processes in place to avoid accidents like this.

A spill at Hercules Inc. poured thousands of gallons of chemicals into the Nottoway River on Monday morning.

According to a company news release issued Tuesday, the leak happened about 10 a.m. It was caused by the failure of a gasket or cooling tube and resulted in the release of almost 1,000 gallons of tert-butyl hydroperoxide and over 1200 gallons of dimethylbenzyl alcohol into the river.

The corrosive chemicals are used in the production of rubber products such as hoses, belts and insulation for underground cables. According to the company, the chemicals diluted quickly in the water and caused no permanent damage.


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Employees discovered the leak after 15 minutes and it took another 15 minutes or so to get it stopped.

According to the release, the company immediately notified the state Department of Environmental Quality and brought in environmental contractors to help with cleanup.

Local law enforcement shut down the river to fishing as a precaution, the release said.


As I said, no process in place, no emergency shut-off, etc....time to pay out the wazoo for harming our natural resources.

Thanks for the report. First I herd of the spill. The Nottoway has always been a unique and pristeen river. Hercules had to go and screw things up. I hope the EPA nails them to th wall!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Doodlum

Thanks for the report. First I herd of the spill. The Nottoway has always been a unique and pristeen river. Hercules had to go and screw things up. I hope the EPA nails them to th wall!

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Who done went and pristeen the river?:D

So how do these chemicals have direct access to the river? Do they have a hose or faucet right at the river? Boggles the mind, and it takes more than 15 minutes to dump thousands of gallons too. We probably won't ever hear the truth on what happened but I do hope the EPA slaps them silly. Especially in this day and age when precautions should make sure this never happens.:mad:

I was thinking the same thing Gary. Did the plant never consider what would happen if they have a spill? It sounds like they would have had to have a runoff drain going directly into the river or something. Wonder if the EPA ever considered that industry located near the rivers/waterways should have EXTRA measures in place to collect or filter runoff.

Surely they are required to have some sort of hazardous material containment process?!?!?

glad it was not dupont:D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by freeflow_23

I was thinking the same thing Gary. Did the plant never consider what would happen if they have a spill? It sounds like they would have had to have a runoff drain going directly into the river or something. Wonder if the EPA ever considered that industry located near the rivers/waterways should have EXTRA measures in place to collect or filter runoff.

Surely they are required to have some sort of hazardous material containment process?!?!?

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Sounds to me like it was also the EPAs fault for not checking out the place and seeing what could happen. They sure ride my but on what and where I place my chemicals for storage and also I have to keep a log for them to check so they can see that all pesticides are accounted for and that I have not been dumping leftovers in the swamp. If they can do that to me then surely they could tell some outfit to reroute a pipeline away from a river or lake and make sure the grade of the land is away from the watershed. It has been seen and someone knew about it already with this company and the EPA. It was chosen to be overlooked for some odd reason$$$$$$$$. Chaps my rear to hear stuff like this. Have a pulp mill about 20 miles from my house on the Roanoke river. They have been known to dump barge loads of lime into the river to neutralize the plants discharge. But they ain't hurting anything.:rolleyes: No wonder we get dead water in the sound. :mad: CF

Belive me this is not the first spill by Hercules. Just two weeks before the famous bash on the Nottoway last year there was a fish kill from a spill I was told. Back in the late 80's early 90's I did alot of work inside the plant as a Contractor and I can tell you this for a spill to get into the river it is not an easy thing. The plant is very aware of the problem and has many safe guards in place but accidents happen. All the process areas have concrete slabs underneath them with U drains. These slabs (most) have walls around them as containment dikes. They are there incase of a spill to contain that which is leaked out. The problem is when it rains stormwater also is gathered into these containment areas and valves and gates must be open to allow the water to be released and it is this stormwater which is released into the river. It is my guess that stormwater was released and a valve not closed after this was done. Then came a spill and it took 15 minutes to realize a valve was open in the system then it was closed. Just an accident but one which could have strong effects on nature. Just my guess.

AC

Exactly, it's a runoff issue. Somehow they need regulations and a system to filter the runoff before is goes into the river. Not a straight pipe system where valves are the safety catch!

It's just a shame. Our waters hurt enough as it is and then we hear about something like this. :mad:

(Stepping off the soapbox now)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Andy Clayton

Belive me this is not the first spill by Hercules. Just two weeks before the famous bash on the Nottoway last year there was a fish kill from a spill I was told. Back in the late 80's early 90's I did alot of work inside the plant as a Contractor and I can tell you this for a spill to get into the river it is not an easy thing. The plant is very aware of the problem and has many safe guards in place but accidents happen. All the process areas have concrete slabs underneath them with U drains. These slabs (most) have walls around them as containment dikes. They are there incase of a spill to contain that which is leaked out. The problem is when it rains stormwater also is gathered into these containment areas and valves and gates must be open to allow the water to be released and it is this stormwater which is released into the river. It is my guess that stormwater was released and a valve not closed after this was done. Then came a spill and it took 15 minutes to realize a valve was open in the system then it was closed. Just an accident but one which could have strong effects on nature. Just my guess.

AC

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Andy, I love ya dude, but I gotta say the timing of your report of a spill last year is a little late:confused:
But it does explain a couple of things:
1)- Why I didn't win the bash
2)- Why we haven't heard from Grinneltrashus in a while; He probably ate the fish:eek: