Belle, W. Va.-What was thought at first and reported in the local press as a violation of local chemical release ordinances turned out to be a non-event at DuPont’s spent acid recovery plant here. According to a DuPont statement, on July 22 the Belle plant detected a small sulfur trioxide leak in the ductwork. The plant quickly contained the leak with its vacuum system to capture and return the material to the process and shut down the unit the next day for repair. The actual amount that leaked to the environment before the unit was shut down was approximately 18 pounds, and there were no injuries and no offsite impacts. However, while following up on the environmental incident investigation, a plant engineer made a miscalculation based on inaccurate assumptions and subsequently reported to the local agency that the leak was much larger than it had been and could have exceeded the reportable quantity. When the plant officials recognized that the actual leak was significantly less, they called the agency to correct the reporting. Kanawha County Emergency Services Director Dale Petry agreed after re-evaluation that DuPont wasn’t in violation delaying the reporting of a leak. “We first received a call that they lost between 50 and 400 pounds, but later on we found out after they had gone through their statistics it was roughly an 18-pound estimate,” said Petry told in the local press. “That is under the reportable quantities estimate, but they didn’t know that at the time.” Petry says there has been a lot of concern over such events after last year’s breakdown in communication during a major fire and explosion at the Bayer CropScience plant. However, he says their rapport with DuPont has been remarkably strong for many years.
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