A tank in a cardboard factory about 40 miles North of Portland ruptured early Tuesday morning spilling 900,000 gallons of this superheated, caustic liquid. A human being immersed in this fluid has a life expectancy of a few seconds to as long as one minute while being dissolved into soap. Two are confirmed dead, a dozen or so critically injured, and 9 listed as missing, perhaps already committed to a white paste and well on their journey down the Columbia River and out to sea.
That’s why the people in the chemical industry make the big bucks, or at least they usually do if they have a strong union.
For 5 years in the early 1980s I sold industrial water treatment to chemical plants, refineries and paper mills in NJ. I knew these plants literally from the inside out since I not only treated the boilers, cooling towers and associated systems but inspected them as well. As a lithe, agile, small 30-something I was able to slip into the 12" X 18" oval entry port of these gigantic high-pressure water-tube boilers which were often the size of a house. Also inspected cooling towers in mid-winter.
Also worked as a scab during the Toms River Chemical Ciba-Geigy OCAW strike in the epoxy resin plant.
Yes, chemical plants are very dangerous places. Not only the equipment. The chemicals. The Stouffer chemical plant in Edison, NJ had a railroad spur that brought tank cars of phosgene through the back yards of a suburban neighborhood. The Merck plant in Hawthorne, NJ couldn’t be shut down even though it was unprofitable because the soil below was contaminated by mercury from a previous owner and the cleanup cost would have been astronomical. The Onyx Chemical amine plant was in the middle of a Jersey City brownstone neighborhood. The titanium oxide NL Industries plant whose floors were sticky with sulfuric acid chemical residues and whose unpaved yard ran with water of many colors.
The epoxy batch that was “lost” in Toms River Chemical (epichlorohydrin + bisphenol-A) because an operator opened the wrong valve, pressurized the tank, and sent the reaction into the sprawling maze of decades-old pipes that connected the reaction tanks of the huge building that covered at least an acre. I don’t know if they ever found it.
These were among my customers. Some, perhaps all, were shut down due to the recession of the 1980s and/or environmental regulations. I don’t know because my career moved on and I didn’t look back. I was the only woman in that tough all-male industry at that time.
It was how I made the money to buy my first house. More than being a research chemist.
On an hourly rate, union boilermakers earn more than degreed engineers – especially if you’re working any uncompensated overtime as a salaried professional. Minimize the wage theft.
The news reports refer to an “implosion” of the tank, which then ruptured.
Just a guess from an old power plant engineer, but it sounds like they might have accidentally created a vacuum inside the tank, and atmospheric pressure crushed in the tank shell. Usually, there are vacuum breakers on tanks and piping systems where that could be a problem. Either this tank didn’t have such a breaker, or it malfunctioned and didn’t open when it should have.
This “white liquor” is evidently a mixture of sodium hydroxide and sodium sulfide. I’d like to know more on why they are calling it an “implosion”. A few questions to Perplexity didn’t provide much new information. As the accident investigation progresses, hopefully we will learn more.
They’ve said that the 900,000 gallon tank was only 60% full, so there was a large void above the fill level.
Still, you likely had a 6-10 ft high “steaming tsunami of death” coming at you if you were anywhere in the “courtyard” area around the tank. (For perspective, an Olympic-sized swimming pool holds about 660,000 gallons of water. A standard 900,000 gal industrial tank would be around 75 ft in diameter and 30 ft high.)
We visited the plant way back in the '70s, had had friends living in the area so tended to hit interesting stuff along the way… Longview, Hanford, all the fun places… Sad to read the stories, what a mess… And putting the mighty Columbia River at risk… Sad…
The Kraft paper process uses sulfites to break down lignins. That is sulfur dioxide dissolved in caustic. So probably sodium sulfite not sulfide.
Kraft paper is strong. Usually used to make corrugated box board or grocery bags.
Note that tank failure is not exclusive to chemicals. In 1919 a massive molasses tank collapsed in Boston. In recent memory Ashland had a large oil tank collapsed. Usually tanks are in containment vessels intended to contain a leak and keep it out of rivers. It’s a surprise the Washington plant seems to have lacked containment provisions.
In California, most tanks have pressure release systems to deal with temperature changes from sun shining on the tank. Often nitrogen padding is used, but inhibitors in an acrylic monomers require oxygen. So a nitrogen blend w enough oxygen is common. It’s a surprise pressure relief was not provided for. Gel fouled valves makes tank useless.
Washington problem could have been induced vacuum. Corrosion may have been a factor.
