Bayer Explosion, Vigil News Stories

Just before the one-year anniversary of that deadly accident, Bayer announced it was cutting its huge MIC stockpile — the only such MIC inventory in the world — by 80 percent.

Bayer took action after political pressure on the company increased greatly — including the outspoken criticism by Rockefeller and Kanawha County Commission President Kent Carper — following a congressional report and a preliminary Chemical Safety Board study that warned the August explosion could have ended up worse than Bhopal, India.

Local political leaders and activists praised Bayers decision, but they also pointed out that the stockpile reduction still leaves the Institute plant storing up to 50,000 pounds of MIC daily — more than enough, critics said, to cause a Bhopal-sized disaster here in the Kanawha Valley.

Update: Last April, U.S. Chemical Safety Board Chairman John Bresland promised Kanawha Valley residents a complete investigation of the August 2008 explosion and fire that killed two Institute plant workers — and he made clear the CSB would get to the bottom of what kind of disaster might have happened that night.

Bresland told a congressional committee that it was vital for his agency to get to the bottom of the damage that could have occurred if a waste treatment tank had been rocketed into a nearby MIC storage vessel::

As far as we can determine, the direction the residue treater traveledwas a matter of random chance. The violent rupture of the vessel might have propelled it horizontally in any direction or upward on an arc-like trajectory. Although the MIC tank and the blast mat escaped serious damage on August 28, there is reason for concern. This was potentially a serious near miss, the results of which might have been catastrophic for workers, responders and the public.

The CSB is greatly narrowing the scope of its investigation into the Bayer explosion and fire. Part of the reason is that Congress ordered the National Academy of Sciences to perform a thorough review of MIC use and storage at the plant. But the board is also dropping portions of its investigation that arent going to be picked up by the NAS study.

One example — the boards decision not to do any real testing of the blast blanket that Bayer for years told Kanawha Valley residents would protect that MIC day tank from damage from any nearby explosions or fires.
Another example: The CSB has dropped any effort to try to detail and quantify the types and amounts of toxic chemicals released into the Kanawha Valley air by the explosion and fire. From the beginning — and still today — Bayer officials have tried to convince local residents that no dangerous chemicals were released. Bresland and board investigators said flatly that this wasnt true:

I am very troubled by our observations of the inadequacy of Bayers emergency response and emergency communications. For example, the countys 9-1-1 call center was told, fifteen minutes into the response, that no dangerous chemicals had been released. That information came from Bayers incident commander and was relayed by the Institute volunteer fire chief, who was also a Bayer employee.

That statement is clearly incorrect, since Methomyl is toxic, and its uncontrolled decomposition may release highly toxic byproducts. According to publicly available material safety data sheets for Methomyl, those decomposition products may include highly toxic chemicals such as methyl isocyanate, hydrogen cyanide, acetontrile, carbon monoxide, dimethyl disulfide, nitrogen and sulfur oxides, and methyl thiocyanate.

In addition, it is likely that hazardous substances were released from the broken chemical pipes and vent systems.

The CSB lead investigator on the Bayer incident, John Vorderbrueggen says: Talking about hypothetical things that dont occur is not meaningful to a past event. We have to address what the future is, thats our purpose, not what could have happened. What could have happened is that the whole facility could have burned to the ground from fenceline to fenceline. Do we need to talk about that? No, because it didnt happen. The need to discuss a hypothetical condition, especially when the future of that condition wont be there is not germane to our charter.

Please check out the link below to get eye opening facts about the deadly Bayer Chemical Plant Explosion on August 28, 2008. http://energycommerce.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article...

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[lisabinsa]

MIC Legal Fund!!

Dear Friends:

Multiple plaintiffs have filed a federal civil rights complaint to block resumption of MIC production at the Bayer Cropscience plant in Institute, WV. The M.I.C. Legal Fund, needs money for litigation costs! Anything you can do to help will be greatly appreciated. We set up a PayPal account for this endeavor. Any amount is appreciated!!

You can also mail a check or money order to:

William V. DePaulo, Trustee

179 Summers St., Suite 232

Charleston, WV 25301

[lisabinsa]

@lisabinsa

peopleconcernedaboutmic.

[lisabinsa]

Bayer Crop-Science will have to shell out 143 thousand dollars in fines related to the explosion that killed two Bayer workers almost two years ago.

A deal was quietly reached in mid Feburary by Bayer lawyers and the U.S. Department of Labor.

It is now awaiting final approval by OSHA.

Under the deal, OSHA dropped four of the original 13 citations and classified another citation as "serious" instead of a repeated violation.

[lisabinsa]

The CSB lead investigator on the Bayer incident, John Vorderbrueggen says: Talking about hypothetical things that dont occur is not meaningful to a past event. We have to address what the future is, thats our purpose, not what could have happened. What could have happened is that the whole facility could have burned to the ground from fenceline to fenceline. Do we need to talk about that? No, because it didnt happen.

[waterspindle]

I wonder if people remember that Bayer is IG Farben, literally and as analogy.

[Kattywampus]

Bayer's fooling everyone. Even with 80% of the stockpile gone, Institute will STILL have way more MIC stockpiled than the Bhopal plant EVER did.

Bayer needs to stop acting like they're good neighbors. BTW, they have a copy of everyone's medical records in that part of the Kanawha Valley. Chew on that for a while...