Maya:
Oh, my God, we have to do something about this. We can't let this pass. We are sitting ducks here in Kanawha Valley. Expendable people. Another Bhopal in the making.
Regina
Maya Nye wrote:
Bayer Communication Issues Continue, County Officials Say
Posted: 5:15 PM Oct 27, 2008 Last Updated: 7:32 PM Oct 27, 2008 Reporter: Mike Waterhouse Email Address:mike.waterhouse@wsaz.com http://www.wsaz.com/news/headlines/mailto:mike.waterhouse@wsaz.com?subject=Bayer%20Communication%20Issues%20Continue,%20County%20Officials%20Say
A http://gray.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Bayer+Communication+Issues+Continue%2C+County+Officials+Say+&expire=&urlID=32005986&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsaz.com%2Fnews%2Fheadlines%2F33401989.html&partnerID=98846# | A http://gray.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Bayer+Communication+Issues+Continue%2C+County+Officials+Say+&expire=&urlID=32005986&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsaz.com%2Fnews%2Fheadlines%2F33401989.html&partnerID=98846# | A http://gray.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Bayer+Communication+Issues+Continue%2C+County+Officials+Say+&expire=&urlID=32005986&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsaz.com%2Fnews%2Fheadlines%2F33401989.html&partnerID=98846#
KANAWHA COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- Kanawha County's emergency services director says he should have been informed about a minor situation involving the chemical MIC at the Bayer CropScience Plant in Institute.
In fact, county officials say the first they heard about it is when WSAZ.com contacted them about it.
MIC, short for methyl isocyanate, is an extremely toxic chemical used in the production of some pesticides.
Tom Dover, spokesperson for Bayer, confirms a tank associated with MIC storage was opened during inspections in the west side of the plant, but says the amount of chemical leaked was far below reporting levels. The situation happened near the end of September.
Workers took action after smelling the odor of MIC, which Dover says has a strong smell even at very low levels. Employees then left the area and several were checked out at the plant's medical facility. One contractor then decided on his own to go to an outside hospital after his shift. Dover says he was released with nothing found.
Dover tells WSAZ.com there was no harmful exposure of MIC to employees or anyone outside the plant. He called this a "non-incident" because the levels were not anywhere near dangerous levels.
"At no point was anyone in danger," Dover said.
Dover adds that Bayer would have notified county officials "without hesitation" had the amount of MIC reached reportable levels.
Dale Petry, Kanawha County Emergency Services Director, says he's a little disturbed that he didn't know about this situation, even if the amount of MIC involved did not meet a reportable level.
"I wish I had known about it," said Petry. "Let me make the decision whether it should be reported to the public."
Petry says he doesn't think this latest incident will hurt the county's relationship with the plant. He wants to continue to work with Bayer to improve communication.
Bayer came under fire for its lack of communication to the county after an explosion at its Larvin unit in early September. Two workers died as a result of the blast. Kanawha County officials say Bayer waited hours to release any detailed information about the severity of the incident.
As a result of having little information, county officials issued a shelter-in-place for the western portion of Kanawha County, affecting thousands of people.
Bayer later admitted that it should have provided better information during the explosion and agreed to change its notification system.
What can/should we do about this? Scary and intolerable corporate arrogance - "Don't worry your little heads, we'll let you know if there's a problem..."
Bil DeP: any legal recourse we should look into?
Jim Sconyers jim_scon@yahoo.com 603.969.6712
Remember: Mother Nature bats last.
________________________________ From: Regina Hendrix regina1936@verizon.net To: Maya Nye peopleconcernedaboutmic@gmail.com Cc: All of FOM list fom@lists.riseup.net; WV Chapter Energy Committee EC@osenergy.org Sent: Monday, October 27, 2008 11:01:07 PM Subject: Re: [EC] MIC Leak in September
Maya:
Oh, my God, we have to do something about this. We can't let this pass. We are sitting ducks here in Kanawha Valley. Expendable people. Another Bhopal in the making.
Regina
Maya Nye wrote:
Bayer Communication Issues Continue, County Officials Say
Posted: 5:15 PM Oct 27, 2008 Last Updated: 7:32 PM Oct 27, 2008 Reporter: Mike Waterhouse Email Address:mike.waterhouse@wsaz.com http://www.wsaz.com/news/headlines/mailto:mike.waterhouse@wsaz.com?subject=Bayer%20Communication%20Issues%20Continue,%20County%20Officials%20Say
A http://gray.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Bayer+Communication+Issues+Continue%2C+County+Officials+Say+&expire=&urlID=32005986&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsaz.com%2Fnews%2Fheadlines%2F33401989.html&partnerID=98846# | A http://gray.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Bayer+Communication+Issues+Continue%2C+County+Officials+Say+&expire=&urlID=32005986&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsaz.com%2Fnews%2Fheadlines%2F33401989.html&partnerID=98846# | A http://gray.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Bayer+Communication+Issues+Continue%2C+County+Officials+Say+&expire=&urlID=32005986&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsaz.com%2Fnews%2Fheadlines%2F33401989.html&partnerID=98846#
KANAWHA COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- Kanawha County's emergency services director says he should have been informed about a minor situation involving the chemical MIC at the Bayer CropScience Plant in Institute.
In fact, county officials say the first they heard about it is when WSAZ.com contacted them about it.
MIC, short for methyl isocyanate, is an extremely toxic chemical used in the production of some pesticides.
Tom Dover, spokesperson for Bayer, confirms a tank associated with MIC storage was opened during inspections in the west side of the plant, but says the amount of chemical leaked was far below reporting levels. The situation happened near the end of September.
Workers took action after smelling the odor of MIC, which Dover says has a strong smell even at very low levels. Employees then left the area and several were checked out at the plant's medical facility. One contractor then decided on his own to go to an outside hospital after his shift. Dover says he was released with nothing found.
Dover tells WSAZ.com there was no harmful exposure of MIC to employees or anyone outside the plant. He called this a "non-incident" because the levels were not anywhere near dangerous levels.
"At no point was anyone in danger," Dover said.
Dover adds that Bayer would have notified county officials "without hesitation" had the amount of MIC reached reportable levels.
Dale Petry, Kanawha County Emergency Services Director, says he's a little disturbed that he didn't know about this situation, even if the amount of MIC involved did not meet a reportable level.
"I wish I had known about it," said Petry. "Let me make the decision whether it should be reported to the public."
Petry says he doesn't think this latest incident will hurt the county's relationship with the plant. He wants to continue to work with Bayer to improve communication.
Bayer came under fire for its lack of communication to the county after an explosion at its Larvin unit in early September. Two workers died as a result of the blast. Kanawha County officials say Bayer waited hours to release any detailed information about the severity of the incident.
As a result of having little information, county officials issued a shelter-in-place for the western portion of Kanawha County, affecting thousands of people.
Bayer later admitted that it should have provided better information during the explosion and agreed to change its notification system.
_______________________________________________ EC mailing list EC@osenergy.org http://osenergy.org/mailman/listinfo/ec
I am 99.9% sure the MIC is just a small part of the lethal chemicals which are carelessly stored in Kanawha Valley. In years past we've had big retrenchments at DuPont and Carbide and don't think for a moment they took their poisons with them when they left. I can't imagine DEP would have checked up on those sites when DuPont and Carbide left. If DEP can ignore 5 years worth of selenium violations which were self-reported........well, this is just one more reason for us to force DEP to start doing their job.
When we insist on knowing what is stored in the Valley, I can hear them claiming "Homeland Security. We've got to keep this quiet and keep a terrorist from blowing it up." At this point I'm much more concerned about the corporate types than I am about terrorists. Regina
Jim Sconyers wrote:
What can/should we do about this? Scary and intolerable corporate arrogance - "Don't worry your little heads, we'll let you know if there's a problem..."
Bil DeP: any legal recourse we should look into?
Jim Sconyers jim_scon@yahoo.com 603.969.6712
Remember: Mother Nature bats last.
*From:* Regina Hendrix regina1936@verizon.net *To:* Maya Nye peopleconcernedaboutmic@gmail.com *Cc:* All of FOM list fom@lists.riseup.net; WV Chapter Energy Committee EC@osenergy.org *Sent:* Monday, October 27, 2008 11:01:07 PM *Subject:* Re: [EC] MIC Leak in September
Maya:
Oh, my God, we have to do something about this. We can't let this pass. We are sitting ducks here in Kanawha Valley. Expendable people. Another Bhopal in the making.
Regina
Maya Nye wrote:
Bayer Communication Issues Continue, County Officials Say
Posted: 5:15 PM Oct 27, 2008 Last Updated: 7:32 PM Oct 27, 2008 Reporter: Mike Waterhouse Email Address:mike.waterhouse@wsaz.com
mailto:mike.waterhouse@wsaz.com
A
<http://gray.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Bayer+Com... http://gray.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Bayer+Communication+Issues+Continue%2C+County+Officials+Say+&expire=&urlID=32005986&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsaz.com%2Fnews%2Fheadlines%2F33401989.html&partnerID=98846#> | A
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<http://gray.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Bayer+Com... http://gray.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Bayer+Communication+Issues+Continue%2C+County+Officials+Say+&expire=&urlID=32005986&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsaz.com%2Fnews%2Fheadlines%2F33401989.html&partnerID=98846#>
KANAWHA COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- Kanawha County's emergency services director says he should have been informed about a minor situation involving the chemical MIC at the Bayer CropScience Plant in Institute.
In fact, county officials say the first they heard about it is when WSAZ.com http://WSAZ.com contacted them about it.
MIC, short for methyl isocyanate, is an extremely toxic chemical used in the production of some pesticides.
Tom Dover, spokesperson for Bayer, confirms a tank associated with MIC storage was opened during inspections in the west side of the plant, but says the amount of chemical leaked was far below reporting levels. The situation happened near the end of September.
Workers took action after smelling the odor of MIC, which Dover says has a strong smell even at very low levels. Employees then left the area and several were checked out at the plant's medical facility. One contractor then decided on his own to go to an outside hospital after his shift. Dover says he was released with nothing found.
Dover tells WSAZ.com there was no harmful exposure of MIC to employees or anyone outside the plant. He called this a "non-incident" because the levels were not anywhere near dangerous levels.
"At no point was anyone in danger," Dover said.
Dover adds that Bayer would have notified county officials "without hesitation" had the amount of MIC reached reportable levels.
Dale Petry, Kanawha County Emergency Services Director, says he's a little disturbed that he didn't know about this situation, even if the amount of MIC involved did not meet a reportable level.
"I wish I had known about it," said Petry. "Let me make the decision whether it should be reported to the public."
Petry says he doesn't think this latest incident will hurt the county's relationship with the plant. He wants to continue to work with Bayer to improve communication.
Bayer came under fire for its lack of communication to the county after an explosion at its Larvin unit in early September. Two workers died as a result of the blast. Kanawha County officials say Bayer waited hours to release any detailed information about the severity of the incident.
As a result of having little information, county officials issued a shelter-in-place for the western portion of Kanawha County, affecting thousands of people.
Bayer later admitted that it should have provided better information during the explosion and agreed to change its notification system.
EC mailing list EC@osenergy.org mailto:EC@osenergy.org http://osenergy.org/mailman/listinfo/ec
Having worked with MIC during the 1980's, I can assure you that it has a very potent odor. If a tank was opened, anyone nearby would have smelled it. Whether that is enough to warrant notification is certainly a fair question. Given that Bayer found it prudent to have employees checked out at their medical facilities, and given the level of controversy over their earlier failure to release information during the Larvin unit explosion, this event certainly perpetuates the notion that Bayer is not a good neighbor or a well-behaved corporate citizen. The call as to whether this was significant should have been made by Dale Petry, Kanawha County Emergency Services Director, not by Bayer's corporate offices.
JBK
Regina Hendrix regina1936@verizon.net 10/28/2008 4:49 PM >>>
I am 99.9% sure the MIC is just a small part of the lethal chemicals which are carelessly stored in Kanawha Valley. In years past we've had big retrenchments at DuPont and Carbide and don't think for a moment they took their poisons with them when they left. I can't imagine DEP would have checked up on those sites when DuPont and Carbide left. If DEP can ignore 5 years worth of selenium violations which were self-reported........well, this is just one more reason for us to force DEP to start doing their job.
When we insist on knowing what is stored in the Valley, I can hear them claiming "Homeland Security. We've got to keep this quiet and keep a terrorist from blowing it up." At this point I'm much more concerned about the corporate types than I am about terrorists. Regina
Jim Sconyers wrote:
What can/should we do about this? Scary and intolerable corporate arrogance - "Don't worry your little heads, we'll let you know if there's a problem..."
Bil DeP: any legal recourse we should look into?
Jim Sconyers jim_scon@yahoo.com 603.969.6712
Remember: Mother Nature bats last.
*From:* Regina Hendrix regina1936@verizon.net *To:* Maya Nye peopleconcernedaboutmic@gmail.com *Cc:* All of FOM list fom@lists.riseup.net; WV Chapter Energy Committee EC@osenergy.org *Sent:* Monday, October 27, 2008 11:01:07 PM *Subject:* Re: [EC] MIC Leak in September
Maya:
Oh, my God, we have to do something about this. We can't let this pass. We are sitting ducks here in Kanawha Valley. Expendable people. Another Bhopal in the making.
Regina
Maya Nye wrote:
Bayer Communication Issues Continue, County Officials Say
Posted: 5:15 PM Oct 27, 2008 Last Updated: 7:32 PM Oct 27, 2008 Reporter: Mike Waterhouse Email Address:mike.waterhouse@wsaz.com
mailto:mike.waterhouse@wsaz.com
A
<http://gray.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Bayer+Com... http://gray.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Bayer+Communication+Issues+Continue%2C+County+Officials+Say+&expire=&urlID=32005986&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsaz.com%2Fnews%2Fheadlines%2F33401989.html&partnerID=98846#> | A
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<http://gray.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Bayer+Com... http://gray.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Bayer+Communication+Issues+Continue%2C+County+Officials+Say+&expire=&urlID=32005986&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsaz.com%2Fnews%2Fheadlines%2F33401989.html&partnerID=98846#>
KANAWHA COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- Kanawha County's emergency services director says he should have been informed about a minor situation involving the chemical MIC at the Bayer CropScience Plant in Institute.
In fact, county officials say the first they heard about it is when WSAZ.com http://WSAZ.com contacted them about it.
MIC, short for methyl isocyanate, is an extremely toxic chemical used in the production of some pesticides.
Tom Dover, spokesperson for Bayer, confirms a tank associated with MIC storage was opened during inspections in the west side of the plant, but says the amount of chemical leaked was far below reporting levels. The situation happened near the end of September.
Workers took action after smelling the odor of MIC, which Dover says has a strong smell even at very low levels. Employees then left the area and several were checked out at the plant's medical facility. One contractor then decided on his own to go to an outside hospital after his shift. Dover says he was released with nothing found.
Dover tells WSAZ.com there was no harmful exposure of MIC to employees or anyone outside the plant. He called this a "non-incident" because the levels were not anywhere near dangerous levels.
"At no point was anyone in danger," Dover said.
Dover adds that Bayer would have notified county officials "without hesitation" had the amount of MIC reached reportable levels.
Dale Petry, Kanawha County Emergency Services Director, says he's a little disturbed that he didn't know about this situation, even if the amount of MIC involved did not meet a reportable level.
"I wish I had known about it," said Petry. "Let me make the decision whether it should be reported to the public."
Petry says he doesn't think this latest incident will hurt the county's relationship with the plant. He wants to continue to work with Bayer to improve communication.
Bayer came under fire for its lack of communication to the county after an explosion at its Larvin unit in early September. Two workers died as a result of the blast. Kanawha County officials say Bayer waited hours to release any detailed information about the severity of the incident.
As a result of having little information, county officials issued a shelter-in-place for the western portion of Kanawha County, affecting thousands of people.
Bayer later admitted that it should have provided better information during the explosion and agreed to change its notification system.
EC mailing list EC@osenergy.org mailto:EC@osenergy.org http://osenergy.org/mailman/listinfo/ec
_______________________________________________ EC mailing list EC@osenergy.org http://osenergy.org/mailman/listinfo/ec
I would like us to talk about this at ExCom. I would like to entertain us going to Bayer execs to make a case for eliminating MIC in WV.
Jim Sconyers jim_scon@yahoo.com 603.969.6712
Remember: Mother Nature bats last.
________________________________ From: James Kotcon jkotcon@wvu.edu To: Regina Hendrix regina1936@verizon.net; Jim Sconyers jim_scon@yahoo.com Cc: Karen Grubb kgrubb@fairmontstate.edu; Sandra Cress sandra.cress@gmail.com; ec@osenergy.org; Mike Price greyhawkwv@verizon.net Sent: Tuesday, October 28, 2008 5:41:40 PM Subject: Re: [EC] MIC Leak in September
Having worked with MIC during the 1980's, I can assure you that it has a very potent odor. If a tank was opened, anyone nearby would have smelled it. Whether that is enough to warrant notification is certainly a fair question. Given that Bayer found it prudent to have employees checked out at their medical facilities, and given the level of controversy over their earlier failure to release information during the Larvin unit explosion, this event certainly perpetuates the notion that Bayer is not a good neighbor or a well-behaved corporate citizen. The call as to whether this was significant should have been made by Dale Petry, Kanawha County Emergency Services Director, not by Bayer's corporate offices.
JBK
Regina Hendrix regina1936@verizon.net 10/28/2008 4:49 PM >>>
I am 99.9% sure the MIC is just a small part of the lethal chemicals which are carelessly stored in Kanawha Valley. In years past we've had big retrenchments at DuPont and Carbide and don't think for a moment they took their poisons with them when they left. I can't imagine DEP would have checked up on those sites when DuPont and Carbide left. If DEP can ignore 5 years worth of selenium violations which were self-reported........well, this is just one more reason for us to force DEP to start doing their job.
When we insist on knowing what is stored in the Valley, I can hear them claiming "Homeland Security. We've got to keep this quiet and keep a terrorist from blowing it up." At this point I'm much more concerned about the corporate types than I am about terrorists. Regina
Jim Sconyers wrote:
What can/should we do about this? Scary and intolerable corporate arrogance - "Don't worry your little heads, we'll let you know if there's a problem..."
Bil DeP: any legal recourse we should look into?
Jim Sconyers jim_scon@yahoo.com 603.969.6712
Remember: Mother Nature bats last.
*From:* Regina Hendrix regina1936@verizon.net *To:* Maya Nye peopleconcernedaboutmic@gmail.com *Cc:* All of FOM list fom@lists.riseup.net; WV Chapter Energy Committee EC@osenergy.org *Sent:* Monday, October 27, 2008 11:01:07 PM *Subject:* Re: [EC] MIC Leak in September
Maya:
Oh, my God, we have to do something about this. We can't let this pass. We are sitting ducks here in Kanawha Valley. Expendable people. Another Bhopal in the making.
Regina
Maya Nye wrote:
Bayer Communication Issues Continue, County Officials Say
Posted: 5:15 PM Oct 27, 2008 Last Updated: 7:32 PM Oct 27, 2008 Reporter: Mike Waterhouse Email Address:mike.waterhouse@wsaz.com
mailto:mike.waterhouse@wsaz.com
A
<http://gray.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Bayer+Com... http://gray.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Bayer+Communication+Issues+Continue%2C+County+Officials+Say+&expire=&urlID=32005986&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsaz.com%2Fnews%2Fheadlines%2F33401989.html&partnerID=98846#> | A
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<http://gray.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Bayer+Com... http://gray.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=Bayer+Communication+Issues+Continue%2C+County+Officials+Say+&expire=&urlID=32005986&fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsaz.com%2Fnews%2Fheadlines%2F33401989.html&partnerID=98846#>
KANAWHA COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- Kanawha County's emergency services director says he should have been informed about a minor situation involving the chemical MIC at the Bayer CropScience Plant in Institute.
In fact, county officials say the first they heard about it is when WSAZ.com http://WSAZ.com contacted them about it.
MIC, short for methyl isocyanate, is an extremely toxic chemical used in the production of some pesticides.
Tom Dover, spokesperson for Bayer, confirms a tank associated with MIC storage was opened during inspections in the west side of the plant, but says the amount of chemical leaked was far below reporting levels. The situation happened near the end of September.
Workers took action after smelling the odor of MIC, which Dover says has a strong smell even at very low levels. Employees then left the area and several were checked out at the plant's medical facility. One contractor then decided on his own to go to an outside hospital after his shift. Dover says he was released with nothing found.
Dover tells WSAZ.com there was no harmful exposure of MIC to employees or anyone outside the plant. He called this a "non-incident" because the levels were not anywhere near dangerous levels.
"At no point was anyone in danger," Dover said.
Dover adds that Bayer would have notified county officials "without hesitation" had the amount of MIC reached reportable levels.
Dale Petry, Kanawha County Emergency Services Director, says he's a little disturbed that he didn't know about this situation, even if the amount of MIC involved did not meet a reportable level.
"I wish I had known about it," said Petry. "Let me make the decision whether it should be reported to the public."
Petry says he doesn't think this latest incident will hurt the county's relationship with the plant. He wants to continue to work with Bayer to improve communication.
Bayer came under fire for its lack of communication to the county after an explosion at its Larvin unit in early September. Two workers died as a result of the blast. Kanawha County officials say Bayer waited hours to release any detailed information about the severity of the incident.
As a result of having little information, county officials issued a shelter-in-place for the western portion of Kanawha County, affecting thousands of people.
Bayer later admitted that it should have provided better information during the explosion and agreed to change its notification system.
EC mailing list EC@osenergy.org mailto:EC@osenergy.org http://osenergy.org/mailman/listinfo/ec
_______________________________________________ EC mailing list EC@osenergy.org http://osenergy.org/mailman/listinfo/ec
Hi Regina, and others. You can get quite a bit of information from TRI reports ( http://www.epa.gov/tri-efdr/). Under EPCRA, these are required for any facility that has a toxic chemical over a certain threshold planning quantity. For MIC, that quantity is 500 pounds. Their reports can be found by going to http://www.epa.gov/tri-efdr/ and typing "Bayer" in the facility name (make sure to click "containing") and wv as the state. The Bayer CropScience is the facility with MIC, along with many other toxics. This MIC report says that in 2007 they released 72 pounds in fugitive emissions, 314 pounds in stack emissions and they treated 51,000 pounds on-site. They also state that they use incineration and a scrubber to control emissions, so I would assume they also have an air permit.
Also under EPCRA, they are required to give emergency planning information to the State Emergency Response Commission and the Local Emergency Planning Committee (http://www.wvdhsem.gov/serc1.htm). Since the purpose of the EPCRA law is to increase public knowledge, I don't think it would be too hard to get this info and evaluate it. But I've never tried before.
Another tool on the EPA website ( http://www.epa.gov/triexplorer/chemicalquantity.htm) can give you the total number of toxic disposed of or released. In 2006, about 48,000 pounds of MIC was disposed of, or released, in WV. Almost all of this was destroyed on-site. I would assume that this means that this facility is the only one that has MIC in WV. In the whole US, there are 257,000 pounds of MIC being disposed of.
Also, the reportable quantity for MIC is 10 pounds, all during one incident. They would not be required to report anything under that, unless their emergency plan, air permit, or any other permit stated otherwise.
Another way to get info is if they have over 10,000 pounds if MIC on-site at any time, they need to submit a Risk Management Plan according to 40 CFR 68. This regulation (section 210) explicitly says that the Risk Management Plan will be available to the public.
Well, that's all I know. Rodger
On Mon, Oct 27, 2008 at 11:01 PM, Regina Hendrix regina1936@verizon.netwrote:
Maya:
Oh, my God, we have to do something about this. We can't let this pass. We are sitting ducks here in Kanawha Valley. Expendable people. Another Bhopal in the making.
Regina
Maya Nye wrote:
Bayer Communication Issues Continue, County Officials Say
Posted: 5:15 PM Oct 27, 2008 Last Updated: 7:32 PM Oct 27, 2008 Reporter: Mike Waterhouse Email Address:mike.waterhouse@wsaz.comAddress%3Amike.waterhouse@wsaz.com <
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KANAWHA COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- Kanawha County's emergency services director says he should have been informed about a minor situation involving the chemical MIC at the Bayer CropScience Plant in Institute.
In fact, county officials say the first they heard about it is when WSAZ.com contacted them about it.
MIC, short for methyl isocyanate, is an extremely toxic chemical used in the production of some pesticides.
Tom Dover, spokesperson for Bayer, confirms a tank associated with MIC storage was opened during inspections in the west side of the plant, but says the amount of chemical leaked was far below reporting levels. The situation happened near the end of September.
Workers took action after smelling the odor of MIC, which Dover says has a strong smell even at very low levels. Employees then left the area and several were checked out at the plant's medical facility. One contractor then decided on his own to go to an outside hospital after his shift. Dover says he was released with nothing found.
Dover tells WSAZ.com there was no harmful exposure of MIC to employees or anyone outside the plant. He called this a "non-incident" because the levels were not anywhere near dangerous levels.
"At no point was anyone in danger," Dover said.
Dover adds that Bayer would have notified county officials "without hesitation" had the amount of MIC reached reportable levels.
Dale Petry, Kanawha County Emergency Services Director, says he's a little disturbed that he didn't know about this situation, even if the amount of MIC involved did not meet a reportable level.
"I wish I had known about it," said Petry. "Let me make the decision whether it should be reported to the public."
Petry says he doesn't think this latest incident will hurt the county's relationship with the plant. He wants to continue to work with Bayer to improve communication.
Bayer came under fire for its lack of communication to the county after an explosion at its Larvin unit in early September. Two workers died as a result of the blast. Kanawha County officials say Bayer waited hours to release any detailed information about the severity of the incident.
As a result of having little information, county officials issued a shelter-in-place for the western portion of Kanawha County, affecting thousands of people.
Bayer later admitted that it should have provided better information during the explosion and agreed to change its notification system.
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