State Chapters > Texas

Cloud of Cancer-Causing Chemical Hangs Over the Houston Channel

(1/3) > >>

thackney:
Cloud of Cancer-Causing Chemical Hangs Over the Houston Channel
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/houston-disaster-spills-into-channel-as-illness-proliferates/ar-BBV6T6R

Oil byproducts from a damaged storage facility contaminated the Houston Ship Channel and created a cloud of cancer-causing benzene over the waterway, the latest mutation of one of the worst Gulf Coast chemical disasters in more than a decade.

The U.S. Coast Guard is forbidding vessel traffic on a stretch of the key industrial shipping route after a wall collapse and fire at Intercontinental Terminals Co.’s already-damaged chemical storage complex on Friday. A mix of toxic gasoline ingredients, firefighting foam and dirty water flowed from the site into the channel, and a benzene plume above the water poses a threat to ship crews, said Coast Guard Capt. Kevin Oditt.

The channel, which is not a source of drinking water for Houston or its suburbs, is the newest victim of a calamity that began unfolding almost a week ago when tanks holding byproducts of the oil-refining process at ITC’s facility erupted in flames. A mile-high plume of inky black smoke towered over the fourth-largest American city for days until crews extinguished the blaze on March 20.

That was followed by benzene alerts that shut down Deer Park and other suburbs for half a day, the collapse of a containment wall and Friday’s new fires in three wrecked storage tanks and a drainage ditch....

thackney:
What happened at ITC facility in Deer Park over the weekend?
https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/What-happened-at-ITC-facility-in-Deer-Park-over-13713732.php
March 25, 2019

...On Friday, a containment wall breached around the tank farm and sent foam and other volatile compounds into a drainage ditch that leads to the Houston Ship Channel. Parts of the facility also re-ignited, but those smaller fire were quickly extinguished.

On  Saturday, the Texas  Commission on Environmental Quality reported nine toxins in the drainage ditch that leads to the ship channel. However, the company said it has yet to complete the analyses of the sample taken from Tucker Bayou, the Ship Channel and Galveston Bar, according to earlier reports in the Houston Chronicle.

The U.S. Coast Guard is currently working to remove the chemicals that spilled into the ship channel. They removed an estimated 60,000 gallons of watery-oil product from the waterway, and most of the remaining product has been contained within booms in Tucker Bayou, according to earlier reports in the Chronicle.

The coast guard is still trying to partially re-open the ship channel, which has been closed since Friday. It's still unclear how much chemicals leaked from the site. Currently, 34 vessels, including 15 skimmers, and conducting cleanup efforts in the waterway.

ITC's latest press release, issued Sunday night, said the coast guard opened the San Jacinto River for a period of time to allow vessel traffic through the ship channel....

thackney:
Spill blocks 60 ships from upper Houston Ship Channel: U.S. Coast Guard
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-texas-energy-houston-fire/spill-blocks-60-ships-from-upper-houston-ship-channel-u-s-coast-guard-idUSKCN1R61I5
MARCH 25, 2019 / 8:30 AM

A total of 60 ships can neither enter nor exit the upper Houston Ship Channel, the U.S. Coast Guard said on Monday, because of clean up of a spill into the waterway connecting the busiest U.S. petrochemical port with the Gulf of Mexico.

Thirty ships were waiting to enter the ship channel and 30 ships were waiting to exit as traffic is stopped while a spill of chemicals from the International Terminals Co fire in Deer Park, Texas, is contained and cleaned up, the Coast Guard said....

Idiot:
Sorry for all affected....   I bet the lawyers are lining up.  Soon they'll be filling the airwaves with ads.

thackney:

--- Quote from: mrpotatohead on March 25, 2019, 02:15:08 pm ---Sorry for all affected....   I bet the lawyers are lining up.  Soon they'll be filling the airwaves with ads.

--- End quote ---

Texas sues company behind Deer Park terminal fire
https://www.texastribune.org/2019/03/22/texas-sues-company-deer-park-terminal-fire/

Attorney General Ken Paxton filed an environmental lawsuit against Intercontinental Terminals Company late Friday seeking tens of thousands of dollars in damages....

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

Go to full version