3/22/2024
WT Staff
HAPPENING NOW
Details of the HP Hood chemical spill incident Dec 2023
FOIL: Operator error prompted general evacuation
Water news for Friday, March 22, 2024 243 pm
Hazardous Spills Report a spill 1-800-457-7362
One hundred people were evacuated from the HP Hood facility and surrounding area on Ward St in Vernon on December 22, 2023 after a chlorine gas leak was discovered. WTNY.us did not find this incident report in the NYS open data records during our daily searches through December. Coverage in local news media prompted this Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request for details of the incident serious enough to warrant a general evacuation, yet seeming not appearing in the public records.
According to the partially redacted Incident Report from the NY Department of Environmental Conservation Spill reporting line, the cause of the release of chlorine gas was operator error. "CALLER IS REPORTING THAT A DELIVERY COMPANY HOOKED UP TO THE WRONG TANK AND THE COMBINATION OF THE MATERIALS IN THIS TANK HAS BEEN RELEASING CHLORINE GAS INTO THE AIR. CALLER STATES THIS MAY OR MAY NOT REACH THE REPORTABLE QUANTITY AMOUNT."
It is not clear why this incident does not appear in the NYS Open Data portal. Local media responded and reported on the scene, always a vitally important source of local news, and we appreciate the lead. The incident report obtained through FOIL demonstrates how spill incidents are handled by the National Response Center, communicating and coordinating with two dozen state and federal agencies to ensure public safety and compliance. No injuries are reported in conjunction with this event.
NY DEC Emergency spill hotline takes reports of hazardous materials spills from anyone with knowledge of a spill. Professional responders are dispatched to contain spills and remove hazardous materials. Note that a spill of one gallon of home heating oil inside a residence is considered a large spill requiring professional response and cleanup. Ventilate the building and clear the area if a spill of fuel oil #2 occurs inside your home, and call the emergency spill line.
Flood Tracker provisional data from USGS streamflow monitors
Twenty-four stream gauges record flood stage in continental USA Friday afternoon, up from twenty this time yesterday.
WT is currently tracking flooding at twelve of these locations, six located in Georgia and six in Louisiana.
There is no active flooding recorded in the USGS monitoring network for NYS or Ohio at this time.
Two rivers continue to flood in south Georgia Friday. Satilla River has retreated back inside its channel overnight leaving the Altamaha and Savannah Rivers the last players active on the March 6 - 22, 2024 flood dashboard. Altamaha River began to show the first signs of slowing down at its top end yesterday, still more than a foot over flood stage at half the water volume seen recently. Downstream monitors near Baxley, at Doctortown and at Everett City record water levels from ten inches to three and a half feet over, the total flow volume increases from 33 to 43 to 53 to 63 thousand cubic feet per second from the top end to the bottom. The greatest water volume has already moved toward the outlet on the Atlantic Coast at Brunswick. Savannah River is still well above flood stage, starting to taper off at Burtons Ferry Rd near Milhaven, still increasing downstream near Cylo. More to follow. This flood won't be ending anytime soon.
See black tags on the map for flood levels updated daily and a running timeline of the March 2024 flood event here: WaterToday Georgia
Louisiana is consistent, the same four water bodies are flooding another day in Regions 1, 4 and 7, covering the west border and east state border in flood. The same six monitoring stations are lighting up the flood dashboard Friday, Bayou Dorcheat is still flooding near Springhill and downstream Minden, trending down. Bayou Bodcau continues to rise near Shreveport, currently six feet over flood stage. Pearl River is more than two and a half feet out of the channel near Bogalusa and downstream at the municipality of Pearl River. Both stations are recording a declining flow trend.
See the black tags on the map for updated flood flow values at WaterToday Louisiana https://www.wtla.us
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