Industrial Explosions

[Isgrimnur]

CNN

Another explosion Wednesday afternoon rocked a Texas chemical plant outside of Houston, where a chemical fire continues to burn.

A blast around 1 a.m. (2 a.m. ET) Wednesday at the TPC Group plant caused extensive damage across the small city of Port Neches and left at least three employees injured, authorities said. The second explosion occurred about 12 hours later. Officials have issued a mandatory evacuation within a 4-mile radius of plant because of the potential of more explosions.

Officials are focused on containment and keeping surrounding storage tanks cool, according to Troy Monk, director of health safety and security for TPC Group, which operates the Port Neches manufacturing plant about 90 miles east of Houston. The next priorities will be putting out the fire, then investigating its cause, he said in a press briefing.

"Fire crews continue to battle the blaze," said Jefferson County Sheriff's Captain Crystal Holmes told CNN in an interview. "Right now it's contained and not going anywhere but it's not under control."
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Holmes confirmed the morning blast sucked doors out of homes.

City of Port Neches police said that blast caused "extensive damage" throughout the city. "Please stay off the roads anywhere near the refineries. Obey all the barricades that are in place. We are doing everything we can to keep everyone safe and informed," police said in a statement.

The fire is burning a chemical called butadiene, police said. The colorless gas is considered a health hazard, according to the US National Library of Medicine. It is made from processing petroleum and is used to make synthetic rubber and plastics.

[Isgrimnur]

Common Dreams

In light of the timing, Catherine Fraser, Environment Texas's clean air associate, called Wednesday's explosion "a timely warning that state and federal officials need to do more to keep communities safe."
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Environment Texas's Fraser, in her statement, pointed to the plant's history as cause for particular concern. "This facility has a track record of violating the Clean Air Act," she said, "with five other illegal emissions events just in 2019, emitting carcinogenic 1,3 butadiene and other chemicals, and a history of community complaints."

"According to the EPA, the TPC Plant has been in non-compliance 12 separate quarters over the last 3 years, and has received 7 formal enforcement actions over the last 5 years. According to the TCEQ, the chemical of most concern is butadiene," Fraser continued. "The TPC plant emitted 61,379 pounds of butadiene in 2018. Butadiene is a known human carcinogen."
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Environmental justice expert Mustafa Santiago Ali weighed in on the explosion with a brief statement on Twitter. He noted that the Trump administration's move last week to finalize the weakening of the Chemical Disaster Rule and chided the president for "putting more people's lives in danger."

[Isgrimnur]

That Chemical Disaster Rule?

The Chemical Engineer

THE US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has rescinded most of the Chemical Disaster Rule – which was designed to improve safety at chemical facilities – saying that it was an unnecessary regulatory burden.

The Chemical Disaster Rule, an amendment to the Risk Management Program (RMP), was created in response to the explosion at a fertiliser plant in West, Texas, in 2013. The explosion killed 15 people, including 12 first responders, and injured more than 260 people. The Obama-era rule was designed to ensure that any facilities dealing with hazardous chemicals would be required to disclose potential risks to local emergency responders. The rule also required facilities to have third-party audits, incident investigation analyses, and to assess possibilities of safer technologies. It was finalised on 13 January 2017, but was delayed under the Trump administration until a federal appeals court ordered the EPA to implement the rule in August 2018. It finally came into effect in December 2018, after an attempt to enforce the rule immediately was blocked. In the time of the delay, 73 incidents occurred.
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Under the revised rule, companies will not have to assess the possibilities of using safer technologies. Companies will not be required to perform third-party audits or a root-cause analysis after an incident. The hazard review team will not have to include findings of incident investigations. The rule rescinds the requirement to investigate a catastrophic release if the incident also results in the affected process being decommissioned or destroyed. It also rescinds employee training requirements for supervisors responsible for process operations. The operator of the plant will no longer be required to keep process safety information up-to-date.

Information about what types of chemicals are used at the facilities will no longer have to be made public, which the EPA said was a security risk.

The rule is retaining the 2017 amendment which says that the investigation team should have at least one person knowledgeable in the process. It is also retaining the requirement for facilities to provide local first responders with their emergency response plans.

The EPA said in a statement that the revised rule will “remove burdensome, costly, unnecessary amendments while maintaining appropriate protections and ensuring first responders have access to all of the necessary safety information.”

[Isgrimnur]

CNN

wo people were killed in Friday morning's explosion at a northwest Houston manufacturing business, police said. The blast shook much of the city, damaged buildings up to a half mile away and left some residents at least temporarily displaced.

The explosion rocked Watson Grinding and Manufacturing around 4:15 a.m. CT (5:15 a.m. ET), tearing apart several structures while sending debris and shock waves much farther, pushing some nearby homes off their foundations, officials said.
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The two men who died in the blast were identified Friday evening by Houston Fire Department Chief Samuel Pena as Frank Flores and Gerardo Castorena, both employees of the company.

Pena said Friday evening that 214 homes were damaged in some way and, according to an initial rough estimate, about 50 were completely destroyed.

Responding to reports that the explosion was caused by the gas propylene [SDS - Isg], a fire department spokeswoman told CNN Friday afternoon: "We don't know that propylene caused the explosion, only that propylene tanks are on site and were involved in the explosion and fire."

[Isgrimnur]

CNN

A Houston car restorer is anxiously awaiting a chance to visit his business, parts of which were destroyed during Friday's deadly explosion at a separate business in the city's northwest corner.
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Gordon Andrus' restoration business, Houston Corvette Service, occupies two buildings directly across the street from Watson Grinding.
After Friday's explosion, he told CNN that his buildings have been destroyed and he doesn't know the condition of the cars that were undergoing restoration. What he does know is that there were about 15 cars worth about $1 million collectively inside.
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Andrus has contacted all of the affected customers. He owns a few cars that are trapped inside, as well, but he said he isn't concerned about them right now.

"Every car is insured, and we're in the business of repairing and restoring cars," he said. "We will make it right one way or another."