Drone Photo
Plant on day of the explosion.
Markeshia Ricks Photo
Turcio: We don’t feel safe.
Cedar Hill neighbors pressed a chemical plant’s CEO and the city not to wait six hours to tell them they’re safe the next time his factory explodes.
The CEO in turn asked neighbors to help him gain zoning permission to legally carry out the work that caused a recent explosion.
Those dueling asks emerged Thursday as neighbors and business owners met with officials from the bleach-making, Welton Street-based New Haven Chlor-Alkali, formerly known as H. Krevit & Co., and city emergency officials at Leeway nursing home to discuss a Dec. 22 explosion that literally shook the ground of the community.
Neighbors learned that the explosion didn’t happen in the old part of the plant that uses a process that requires hazardous chlorine gas to be brought in by rail daily. It occurred in a new plant that the company touted as safer — a new plant that the company, it now turns out, was not properly permitted to use for manufacturing. If in fact it was permitted for use only as a warehouse.
The company is seeking to obtain a special permit to allow for manufacturing at the new plant. That application will be before the Board of Zoning Appeals next month.
“There’s no question that the explosion day-lighted an omitted permit,” the company’s zoning attorney, Marjorie Shansky, said. “I can’t tell what the thinking was at that time when the City Plan Commission approved the site and coastal plan in 2009, and when the city issued an electric bolt permit for over $2 million of electricity for a warehouse. It is a little gray and murky.”
Former East Rock/Cedar Hill Alder Justin Elicker said it wasn’t murky to him. The City Plan Commission approved a site plan for a warehouse and the company chose to use the building for something it wasn’t permitted to do. He asked, given previous problems at the plant, what assurances the company could give the neighborhood that the company would deal honestly and safely with the community.
The federal Environmental Protection Agency cited the company in 2011 for not having a risk or spill management plan in violation of the Clear Air Act. The company had to pay a $12,626 penalty and buy $36,056 of emergency response equipment for the fire department so it could deal with chemical emergencies — like the one that happened in December.
City Building Official Jim Turcio said if the company is approved for the special permit by the BZA, any building permits it pulls have to include an inspection by a third party of his choosing.
CEO N.C. Murthy expressed no problem with that, though it was unclear whether such an inspection would have found the flaw in the design of the tanks that created the explosion. He also promised that he will meet monthly with the Cedar Hill Merchants Association. But attorney Shansky jumped in before he could make any other promises to the neighborhood that might tie support of the permit to any other specific promises to the community.
We Need A Plan
CEO Murthy.
When an explosion ripped out the back wall of the newly built $20 million “green” plant in December, Cedar Hill resident activist Rebecca Turcio (no relation to Jim Turcio) said, it took more than six hours before the community found out that it was in no imminent danger. No one was hurt. But the building had to be evacuated, and the explosion blew debris onto Amtrak train tracks, temporarily halting service to Hartford.
She said getting a message at 5:45 p.m. about an incident that happened at 11:30 a.m. was simply too long for neighbors to wait to know whether they should evacuate, or stay in place. And if they should stay in place, how they could protect themselves.
Leeway Executive Director Heather Aaron, agreed citing the fact that the nursing home is an immediate neighbor of the company’s plant and would be in the most danger had their been a significant leak.
Alston.
New Haven Fire Chief John Alston Jr. said he hopes to have a public information officer who can put out more accurate and timely information. Emergency Operations Deputy Director Rick Fontana said that the city’s notification system could be augmented to notify people not only earlier, but to let them know they are not in imminent danger.
The explosion, thought at the time to have been either a hydrogen gas explosion or stemming from a natural gas leak, turned out to be caused by neither, neighbors learned Thursday. It was caused by a malfunction in the design of saltwater tanks used to hold and treat wastewater.
Company Senior Vice President Thomas Ross said the explosion occurred because two storage tanks, 12 feet in diameter and 12 feet tall, were not being properly ventilated. That meant that the vapors that were building inside the tank had built to a level that caused them to explode. Ross assured neighbors that the company has taken measures to provide ventilation to those tanks. Murthy said it has also gone so far as to warn its competitors who use the same tank design.
Murthy said that because of the damaged plant and the lack of a proper permit, the company has had to go back to manufacturing its bleach using the old process of bringing in chlorine gas by train. That’s bad for two reasons, he said: it costs him twice as much to manufacture his product, and it significantly raises the risk of a leak that would impact the community. He said that the company is losing millions because it has had to suspend use of its new plant and manufacturing system, which makes it hard to sustain his 72 employees.
Depending on how severe that hypothetical leak is, Ross said it might require an evacuation of the nearby community, which concerned neighbors.
In spite of the explosion, Murthy said the company plans to continue to use the new manufacturing process if he is permitted to do so. He said he would like to eventually shutter the old plant and put up another plant that uses the new process ultimately eliminating the transport of chlorine gas by train. But he can’t do that unless he is properly permitted. And he’s hoping to have the neighborhood’s support.
Turcio said she doesn’t want to see the company booted from the neighborhood. She just doesn’t want people to die.
Cedar Hill Alder Anna Festa said that if the community does support the permit, it needs assurances from the company that it will work with the city and neighbors on a safety plan, especially for Leeway; that the plant will be inspected by a third party; and that the company will keep having a dialogue with the community.
“We all just want you to be good neighbors,” said Marie Gallo, vice president of the Cedar Hill Merchants Association. Murthy promised that the plant would be that.