Urethane Blog
Dow Explosion at Plaquemine EO/EG Unit Glycol 2
July 15, 2023
Massive explosion at Dow chemical plant in Plaquemine near Baton Rouge
- Jul 14, 2023 Updated 15 hrs ago
PLAQUEMINE, La. — Emergency officials were on the scene of multiple explosions in Iberville Parish on Friday night.
Officials say the blast appears to be near the area of the Dow Chemical Plant.
No word yet on any injuries reported.
Iberville emergency preparedness sent out an alert (see below) advising residents to stay indoors and turn off their a/c units.
OFFICIAL STATEMENT:
THIS IS A MESSAGE FROM THE IBERVILLE PARISH OFFICE OF EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS
OUR OFFICE WAS MADE AWARE OF AN INCIDENT AT DOW PLAQUEMINE (7/14). THE IBERVILLE PARISH COUNCIL OFFICE OF EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS HAS ISSUED A HALF-MILE RADIUS SHELTER IN PLACE FOR RESIDENTS NEAR THE DOW CHEMICAL FACILITY IN PLAQUEMINE.
WE HAVE BEEN INFORMED BY DOW THAT ALL PERSONNEL HAS BEEN ACCOUNTED FOR. THE SHELTER-IN-PLACE HAS BEEN ISSUED OUT OF AN ABUNDANCE OF CAUTION UNTIL WE ARE CERTAIN THE PUBLIC IS NO LONGER IN DANGER.
DOW HAS ADVISED OUR OFFICE THEY ARE DOING AIR MONITORING AND ARE NOT PICKING UP ANY READINGS AT THIS TIME.
More links:
Fire, explosions at Dow Chemical in Plaquemine prompts shelter in place; all accounted for
- BY LARA NICHOLSON and DAVID J. MITCHELL| Staff writers
- Jul 14, 2023 Updated 6 hrs ago
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File photo
Law enforcement officers block off the road about two miles from the entrance to the Dow Chemical complex near Plaquemine on Friday, July 14, 2023.
The massive Dow Chemical complex near Plaquemine caught fire late Friday night and experienced multiple explosions, forcing about 350 households nearby to shelter inside and for La. 1 to be shut down, state and local officials said.
West Baton Rouge Parish Sheriff’s Office spokesman Landon Groger said crews were still battling a fire on the premises as of 11 p.m. Friday, though no chemical leak had been detected from the Mississippi River facility.
The incident occurred in Dow’s Gylcol 2 Unit, which makes and handles the potent flammable and explosive chemical, ethylene oxide, parish officials said. It is a human carcinogen with years of exposure, federal authorities say.
But Clint Moore, Iberville homeland security director, said Dow officials have been conducting air monitoring throughout the incident and have not detected releases that would pose on offsite impact. Dow’s monitors are inside the complex and on its perimeter.
Moore said Dow is calling a third-party contractor to set up air monitors within the community as well as a precaution.
Greg Langley, spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Quality, said the agency was sending its own crews to conduct air monitoring as well.
“There is a fire. It is still burning, and La. 1 is shut down. That’s all have right now,” Langley said shortly after 10 p.m.
By 11:40 p.m., DEQ crews were close to starting their air monitoring, Langley said. He added that firefighters were still putting water on the blaze at that time.
He said that the prevailing winds then were blowing back into the plant and toward the river.
Shortly before 9:50 p.m. Friday, the Iberville Office of Emergency Preparedness advised residents to stay indoors and turn off air conditioning and ceiling fans due to the emergency at Dow.
The shelter-in-place order extends in a half-mile radius around the Dow plant, parish officials said in a Facebook post. Moore, the homeland security official, said the order is a precaution until officials are sure there isn’t a risk to the public.
Christian Reed, State Police Troop A spokesman, said La. 1 between Sid Richardson and Bayou Jacob roads has been closed.
Dow’s emergency operations center was managing the fire late Friday, company officials said on Facebook, and the company is working with local officials
“All people are accounted for,” the company added in the statement. A Dow spokeswoman didn’t immediately return an email for comment late Friday.
Videos circulating on social media show large fires at the chemical plant. Some show a large, fiery mushroom cloud bilowing from the Dow.
The fire comes about a year after a large leak of dangerous chlorine at Dow’s neighbor, Olin Chemical, which is inside the 1,500-acre complex north of Plaquemine.
DEQ and parish officials said later that the extent of the leak, which sent of huge plume of gas into the sky in April 2022, appeared to be underreported by Olin and Dow.
Can’t see the video below? Click here.
That leak sent 39 people to area hospitals with mostly mild symptoms, and DEQ inspectors later raised questions about the efficacy of the placement of Dow air monitors in the community near the plant and on its perimeter in relation to prevailing winds at the time and the gas plume.
The fire on Friday isn’t the first time the Glycol 2 Unit at Dow has encountered significant problems. In November 2019, a tank in the unit ruptured on a Sunday morning after a large power outage, sending a white steam cloud into the air and causing a large shock wave that rensonated in homes as far away as Zachary across the river.
The unit makes ethylene oxide, a sterilizing agent that is also used in anti-freeze and many other applications, but that federal authorities have said is far more dangerous to human health than previously understood.
The unit also makes derivative chemicals and had been expanding last year to add a new production line to make polyethylene glycol, state permit records say.
Ethylene oxide is a human carcinogen due to years of exposure but, in acute short-term exposure, it can cause headaches, dizziness, nausea, fatigue, respiratory problems and even vomiting, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says.
At 9:53 p.m. Friday, officials with DEQ hadn’t been notified about any incident at Dow Chemical but were investigating. DEQ officials had a report of the incident minutes later.
By then, though, parish officials had already notified the public near the facility.
The Dow site straddles Iberville and West Baton Rouge parishes. Located along a bend in the Mississippi River, Dow is one of Louisiana’s largest petrochemical facilities, with more than 3,000 company and contract employees and 12 production units.
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