West Virginia, Ohio Agencies Investigate Axiall Corp. Incident

Local, state officials on hand in wake of chlorine cloud

PROCTOR -- Local, state and federal officials have begun their investigation into what caused more than 33,000 gallons of liquid chlorine to leak from a railcar inside Axiall Corp.'s Natrium chemical plant Saturday.

The resulting chemical cloud forced hundreds from their homes in the areas of Kent, Fish Creek, Proctor and New Martinsville, as well as locations in Monroe County. Portions of W.Va. 2 and Ohio 7 also were shut down for hours as the cloud dissipated.

Operations at the plant were going on as normal Monday, and Kelley Gillenwater, a spokeswoman for the W.Va. Department of Environmental Protection, said the risk to the environment resulting from the chlorine leak is expected to be minimal. She noted crews were still working to analyze the situation.

"Right now we're still assessing, but basically the chlorine gas has dissipated by this point," Gillenwater said. "There is a possibility of some residual chlorine or some reactions, but any impact at this point would be very minimal."

Gillenwater said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency was also on scene to assess the scope of the leak. Workers from the DEP had been on scene since midday Saturday and have been stationed there full-time since then.

Continued efforts in the area have returned negative indications of lingering chlorine, and the DEP also assisted with air monitoring throughout Saturday.

Response from local agencies included numerous teams from Marshall and Wetzel County, as well as the West Virginia State Police. Marshall County Director of Emergency Management Tom Hart said the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh also assisted with predictions of how the cloud would behave.

"Considering the fact that it was so hot that day, and so humid, there wasn't a lot of wind that day, so they did plume modeling to be able to give us an idea of where the vapor cloud might go," Hart said.

Wetzel County Emergency Management Director Edgar Sapp said evacuations lasted from the time of the leak until around 4:30 p.m. Parts of Wetzel County from Proctor to Orchard Drive in New Martinsville were evacuated due to the danger posed by the chlorine gas.

Sapp said the odor of chlorine was detectable even at the 911 center, which is located in New Martinsville, more than 6 miles away from the Axiall plant

"It's an inhalation hazard. That's why the evacuation was in place, especially in the Kent and Proctor areas," Hart added. "A lot of times, in situations like that, even if they don't have time to evacuate, you can shelter in place -- turn off your air conditioning, close windows and doors and seal them up with towels or duct tape or whatever, and that's a proven method utilized in situations like that."