Gandy/Sun Bay South: Chemical plant has deadline to agree on fix
By RON MATUS
Published April 9, 2004
Six months after a chlorine leak sent several people to the hospital, county environmental officials and Chemical Formulators Inc. continue to wrangle over a safety fix at the company's Tyson Avenue plant.
But a solution is in sight. Or at least a deadline for one.
Officials with the Hillsborough County Environmental Protection Commission and a lawyer for Chemical Formulators agreed Tuesday on a May 6 deadline for a signed agreement on "what fix is acceptable to us," said Rick Tschantz, the agency's general counsel.
Tuesday's oral promises came after the EPC threatened to deny the company's request for a second extension to craft a solution. A 90-day extension was approved in December.
"It has been too long," Tschantz said.
As recently as last month, the plant's neighbors filed fresh complaints.
On March 12, workers at the U.S. Army Reserve Center east of Chemical Formulators reported a strong smell of chlorine that lasted about 20 minutes, reserve officials said in an e-mail to the EPC. "The smell was strong but not strong enough to evacuate the building," wrote Sgt. Erik Kirby.
Military officials who called the plant were told "there was "no discharge,' " his e-mail said.
Chemical Formulators, based in Miami, makes chemicals for water and sewage treatment plants. Its South Tampa operation has reported six releases of toxic chlorine gas since it opened near West Shore Boulevard in 1995, including a 1998 release that sickened 62 people.
The gas is shipped by rail and pumped into the facility under pressure. After the October incident, the EPC cited Chemical Formulators and recommended the company enclose the unloading area and install a treatment system to neutralize escaped gas.
The company balked at the enclosure, saying it would cost at least $1-million and may be impossible to build given space constraints.
Instead, the company has proposed a 20-foot wall between its property and Westship World Yachts, where employees were sickened in October, and a giant mobile hood system.
County officials say the wall isn't good enough.
Even though chlorine gas is heavier than air, the discharge point at the top of the rail cars is 15 feet above ground, said Alain Watson, chief of the EPC's air toxics section. A wall also wouldn't protect neighbors to the south and east, including the Army Reserve center.
The hood system might have merit, Watson said, but the company must provide technical information and engineering plans for EPC review. The hood system would function like an exhaust above a stove.
Assuming an independent engineer can prove the hood system will work, "I think ... we'll be able to devise a system that will protect the public," Tschantz said.
If the company does not honor the May 6 deadline, it is likely to wind up in an administrative hearing, he said.
Company representatives and EPC officials agree that many changes at the plant have been made in recent months, including additional alarms.
As for debate over the enclosure, "We're still negotiating. We're still working in good faith," said Jim Palmer, chief operating officer for Allied Universal, a Miami company that serves as a consultant for Chemical Formulators.
Chemical Formulators has made its neighbors on Tyson Avenue jittery for years, but after the October leak, Gandy civic leaders began to worry, too. EPC officials say the risk to residents is remote.
The Army Reserve has filed several complaints.
Chlorine gas leaks have "the potential to be a serious situation," said Paul Adams, an Army Reserve spokesman in Birmingham, Ala. "I don't know why these things are occurring, but we want to see it corrected."
