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Health See other Health Articles Title: Report: EPA responsible for chemical leak(your tax dollars at work) he Environmental Protection Agency said its own mistake caused a chemical fire and leak at an abandoned Mishawaka factory. According to the EPA’s incident report, contractors working to clean up the old Baycote building left two different chemicals – cyanide and sodium hydrosulfite – too close together, causing them to spontaneously combust. Sodium hydrosulfite is a highly reactive chemical, the report says, and the combination is likely what caused the fire to ignite, but the official cause of the fire is still under investigation. Clean up continued Monday inside a building Mishawaka Mayor Dave Wood and St. Joseph County Health Department’s Environmentalist stopped short of calling an “accident waiting to happen.” “It could have been much, much worse,” Wood said. “In my opinion, if all this material had been released and a fire got started that could not have been put out immediately, there could have been a very, very serious release into the community and large scale evacuations and health effects,” added environmentalist Marc Nelson. According to EPA documents, the building and its owners have a troubled history. 1982 – Baycote first began operating at 1302 Industrial Drive 2003 – Name changed from Baycote to TJAC, LLC Jan. 2008 – TJAC, LLC closed and left behind 110,000 gallons of hazardous waste July 2008 – Indiana Department of Environmental Management issued numerous hazardous waste violations against owners 2009 – TJAC agreed to clean up and properly dispose of all waste Feb. 2010 – Clean-up efforts abandoned with 50,000+ gallons of waste on site because TJAC couldn’t pay contractors to continue August 2011 – Neighbor complained to city about condition of building November 2011 – St. Joseph County Health Department contacted EPA and EPA began assessing property May 2012 – EPA began clean up “The building was literally corroding from within,” said Wood. “The roof was collapsing, beams were corroding, tanks were corroding.” EPA On-Scene Coordinator Paul Atkociunas said some materials were mismarked and very difficult to identify when contractors started clean up earlier this year. “There were hundreds of containers, in vats and material in pits and sledges. We have the characterization and understanding that there were acids and caustics involved, cyanides present, heavy metals,” he added. Atkociunas said mistakes like the one EPA contractors made by accidentally putting chemicals too close together are rare, but Nelson said the building is still dangerous. “The building will not be safe until all the chemicals are removed,” Nelson said. “And EPA is aggressively working at that.” The plan is to have the clean up finished by November, Atkociunas said. But once that happens, the future of the building will likely be up in the air, Nelson pointed out. The owner doesn’t appear to have money to demolish it, which means the city or county might have to step in. TJAC is reportedly based out of Illinois and both the city and EPA said the owners have not been very receptive. Tax records show they owe more than $300,000 in back taxes. When WSBT reached out to one of the owners by telephone Monday, he simply said he did not have time to talk. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 2.
#2. To: freepatriot32 (#0)
A terrible loss and a tragedy - but it happened because the original owners of the factory simply left these dangerous chemicals where they were, in a hazardous situation. The EPA had to do the cleaning up that the factory owners should have done years ago, and under those circumstances the surprise really is that the damage wasn't much worse.
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