MUSCATINE — A Sweetland Ag Tech truck on its way to apply fertilizer sprang a leak Tuesday.

The Muscatine Fire Department’s hazardous materials team was called to a spill on Iowa 22, off of Sweetland Road, around 9:30 a.m.

According to Ryan Stouder, an environmental specialist for the Department of Natural Resources, as the truck was traveling, 96 gallons of liquid fertilizer from its 1,400-gallon tank began leaking at the city limits and continued for about 21/2 miles.

Stouder said a Muscatine County Sheriff’s deputy pulled the driver of a “fertilizer applicator vehicle” over to notify him he was leaking fertilizer on the road.

Things I Won't Work With: Selenophenol
Posted by Derek
This fine reagent was mentioned here (disparagingly) in the comments the other day, and I knew that it was time to add it to the list. I've had some other selenium entries before, and they're all here for the same reason: their unsupportable stenches. Everyone, even people who've never had a chemistry class in their lives, knows that sulfur compounds are stinky, of course, but it's a problem that continues as you move down Group XVI of the periodic table.

HARMFUL chemicals including hydrochloric and sulphuric acid were left in an Ammanford factory — creating a high risk for people living nearby.

The Environment Agency Wales (EAW) removed some 500 containers and five chemical lagoons at the former electroplating facility, the exact location of which has not been disclosed.

Kimberley Ekin-Wood, from the EAW, said: "This site posed a high risk to both the local environment and people living in the area so removing the chemicals had to be a priority."

The factory has been empty for several years.

The EAW, alerted by the fire service found the previous landowners had left it full of waste chemicals. These included hydrochloric acid, chromic acid, sulphuric acid and sodium hydroxide.

The United States Postal Service (USPS) will be prohibiting international shipments of devices containing lithium ion batteries starting May 16th. After coming to grips with serious financial problems last year, USPS has now decided that lithium batteries pose too great of a risk to be shipped overseas. Devices like smartphones, laptops, and tablets will fall under this ban, but domestic shipment of these products will be unaffected.

USPS has revised its Domestic Mail Manual — an official document outlining shipment policies — after evaluating recent discussions by the International Civil Aviation Organiza­tion and the Universal Postal Union. Meanwhile, UPS and FedEx are not changing their stance on the matter, which isn't surprising considering how much money is involved. The international shipment of electronic goods is a multi-billion dollar industry, and the added risk associated with transporting devices with lithium batteries is a gamble these companies are willing to take. The only problem is that neither of these couriers will deliver to APO, FPO, or DPO addresses overseas, meaning that troops abroad will not be able to receive Kindles and iPads to fill the downtime between combat.

An outright ban on air-shipping lithium batteries may seem like an exaggerated response to this ambiguous problem, but there have been several plane crashes directly attributed to exploding lithium batteries in the last few years. There are two reasons why a lithium battery might experience a runaway thermal expansion, or explosion. The first reason lies with the battery's chemistry, and the second is contingent on physical or environmental stress.

Pressure from a failed drip vessel started a fire which in turn caused the April 30 explosion at a natural gas plant southeast of Canadian, said Todd Johnson, Eagle Rock Energy Partners vice president of environmental health and safety.

The blast occurred at Houston-based Eagle Rock Energy Partners’ Phoenix-Arrington Ranch processing plant in Hemphill County, and no one was hurt, spokesman Craig Brown said.

A drip vessel is a small tank that collects liquid from a gas field, which is required to process the gas, Johnson said. The vessel failed to release pressure, causing it to rupture and starting a fire that led to the explosion.

“There are some lessons that we are learning, and we are going to incorporate those lessons into our design standards and our safety procedures,” Johnson said.

DALLAS TWP. — The state Department of Environmental Protection is investigating a second release of drilling mud from natural gas pipeline installation.

The spill occurred at Lower Demunds Road and Goodleigh Road.

Chief Gathering LLC, recently bought out by PVR Partners, hired contractors to install a pipeline to connect natural gas wells in Susquehanna County to the Transco interstate pipeline in Dallas Township.

Chief’s Vice President of Industry Affairs Kristi Gittins said the mud release is not new. She said release of mud at pipeline boring sites are not uncommon and “we plan for them and we deal with them.”

DEP has been to the site and approved remediation plans, Gittins said.

The first spill, of approximately 200 gallons of water containing a small amount of bentonite clay, occurred on May 2 as contractors were boring about 30 feet beneath Leonards Creek on Kunkle-Alderson Road.

WATERBURY, Conn. (WTNH) -- State environmental investigators are investigating a factory fire that burned for days in Waterbury.

The former Nova Print & Dye factory went up in flames last month. It burned for days inside the 86,000 square foot building.

The owners had abandoned the building and left the city with a $2 million tax lien , so the city is stuck footing the bill.

Officials say there could have been any number of toxic chemicals inside the factory when it caught fire. State environmental experts are now investigating.

Federal officials were on the scene Thursday to help get rid of the rubble and hopefully redevelop the property.

Firefighters say the fire, which took hours to control, is suspicious .

Folks who live in the area said the burned out factory is dangerous.

The University of Vermont and the city of Burlington have been fined by the Department of Environmental Conservation over environmental violations.

In August 2010, inspections by a DEC hazardous waste inspector found records violations at several of the university’s laboratories, which are subject to the state’s waste regulations.

The university was fined $19,660.The inspector found that records of self-inspections in the sampled laboratories were not consistently maintained, that the records used for laboratory self-assessments were not those that are required, that some storage containers were mislabeled and that laboratories didn’t take adequate corrective actions after learning of violations.

The university subsequently implemented corrective actions for all labs involved in the DEC inspections and implemented a new healthy and safety policy and compliance oversight procedure.

ROANOKE, Va. --
The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality says a small chemical spill at the Celanese plant in Giles County doesn't appear to be a threat to the New River.

The nonhazardous spill occurred on Thursday night.

DEQ has not received any reports that the material leaked into the nearby New River and no damage to wildlife has been observed.

Linda Beheler, a Dallas-based spokeswoman for Celanese, said Friday that fewer than 5 gallons of fire suppression foam leaked into the plant's rainwater drainage system during a routine safety test.

The foam is considered nonhazardous.

She says the company's internal hazardous

ORTON, Ill. —
Officials are warning against any consumption by livestock of waters in Prairie Creek, which experienced a “complete” fish kill downstream of the site of a chemical spill into the creek Tuesday.

Several hundred gallons of a mixture containing 28 percent nitrogen and 13 percent of a herbicide containing Atrazine, along with about 60 gallons of diesel fuel, spilled into the creek along Allentown Road west of Allentown when a fertilizer spreader tipped over.

Responders with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, the state Department of Natural Resources and the Pekin and Morton fire departments returned to the creek’s downstream path Wednesday to contain the spill and collect water samples.

The chemicals can still be dangerous even if the water appears clear, officials warned.
 

As nanoparticles increasingly make their way into consumer products and the environment, toxicologists want to understand their effects on human health. Ideally, they’d like to develop models that predict a material’s toxicity based on its chemical properties. Now a research team reports the first such model for metal oxide nanoparticles that uses the materials’ electrical and solubility properties (ACS Nano, DOI: 10.1021/nn3010087).
Metal oxide nanoparticles are semiconducting materials that drive oxidation and reduction reactions in devices such as fuel cells and electronics. Previous studies have linked the materials to health problems, such as inflammation in the lungs of welders who inhale fumes containing the compounds (Toxicol. Appl. Pharmacol., DOI: 10.1016/j.taap.2003.11.021).

NEWPORT — A blockish two-story brick building next to a row of homes along West 12th Street does little to call attention to itself. Nearly all of the windows are covered with plywood, painted gray to match the brick.

A sign is tacked above a boarded-up doorway: L&H Tool & Die Co.

In 1910, however, it was the Newport Foundry Co., historical fire insurance maps show. From at least 1949 to 1954, industry directories show the site was home to Certified Metals Manufacturing Co., which made babbitt (or bearings) and solder, mixed metals that often contained lead.

Soil tests in nearby residential yards showed lead levels that could be hazardous to children, with some reading over six times the action level for residential areas.

Kathleen Marshall used to think the fenced backyard of her Philadelphia home was a safe place for her five children to play. Not anymore.

Marshall was horrified to learn that a long-forgotten factory once melted lead just across the street and that soil tests by USA TODAY indicate her yard is contaminated with hazardous levels of the toxic metal.
"You're living here and you have no idea of what's really in your ground, what's in your backyard," Marshall says now. "It's just kind of scary to think that you're sending your kids out to play in an area that's hazardous."
Hundreds of soil tests by USA TODAY in neighborhoods near former lead factories show numerous areas where the dirt is so contaminated that children should not be playing in it.

NORTON - A portion of North Worcester Street was closed for about 3 1/2 hours today after water department employees discovered an old abandoned gas line leaking fluid containing a low-level of PCBs, officials said.

Water department workers tried to contained the fluid in a pail and contacted fire officials immediately after the incident around 11:30 a.m.

Less than five gallons of fluid leaked from the line, Joe Ferson, a spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Protection said.

“We’re talking about low levels and subsurface, at this point,” Ferson said when asked about the potential dangers.

ELKHART, Ind. — Trash bags on the edge of the road may not be dirty diapers and food scraps. As city officials and a volunteer at the Elkhart Environmental Center found out recently, it could be the remnants of a meth lab.

And local police and firefighters don't have the training to clean them up.

City Councilman Ron Troyer was driving around his district March 27 with the new community affairs officer at the Elkhart Police Department, Sgt. Wayne Bias. Among things they looked at was trash dumped along the side of Perkins Street on city property at the Elkhart Environmental Center.

A number of trash bags and tires sat just below and within 15 feet of a sign that warns of a $2,500 fine for dumping trash, Troyer said.

The Elkhart Street Department was asked to pick up the trash, but Commissioner Marty Morgan told Troyer it was determined the trash was actually meth trash and it was tagged with yellow ribbons to be picked up by the Indiana State Police, which has a special unit to dispose of meth labs.

The remains included tubing, tin foil, pseudoephedrine, bottles with liquid in them and cakes of white powder residue, Assistant Police Chief Tim Balyeat said.

"The police department is not trained, is not equipped and does not have the storage facilities" to deal with meth labs, he said.

More than 10 days later — the bags were still there, Troyer said.

Mayor Dick Moore's office ordered the materials cleaned up, Balyeat said. A short time later, the Elkhart Fire Department's Hazardous Materials Team was in special suits and respiratory protection containing the bags.

GEISMAR, La. (AP) - State environmental officials say an explosion and fire last month at the Westlake Chemical Corp. complex in Geismar was the fifth and most significant release of chemicals at the plant since the beginning of 2010.

The Advocate reports that the March 22 fire primarily released hydrochloric acid, chlorine and vinyl chloride monomer. Records of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality say those release exceeding the one-hour permit level for those chemicals and at least three other compounds.

No one was injured in the explosion. The cause is still under investigation.

Westlake said it bought the complex in 2002 from Borden Chemical and spent nearly $20 million for environmental and safety improvements. The plant was built in the mid-1970s.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has found that the U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Health violated federal law governing the handling and storage of hazardous waste at two of its facilities and has fined the agency $68,000 for the violations. EPA inspections at the facilities, the Old Municipal Facility in Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas and 3500 Estate Richmond, Christiansted in St. Croix, found unlabeled and decaying containers of chemicals and pesticides on the properties. Many of the containers spilled and the USVI Department of Health failed to properly identify what types of waste were being stored. In some instances, the hazardous chemicals had been kept on-site for over ten years in a state of neglect and decay. Among the hundreds of hazardous chemicals on-site were pyrethrin (a neurotoxin), chlorpyrifos (an insecticide) and calcium hypochlorite (a bleach) – all of which are toxic. Federal environmental law requires hazardous chemicals to be stored, handled and disposed of properly to safeguard public health and the environment.

A fire at a closed metal works plant in Ft. Wayne, IN sent a column of black and grey smoke skyward to be seen for miles. No homes were evacuated on the city’s east side. The defunct plant has been undergoing a costly cleanup of contaminated soil and groundwater. Plans, which were approved in 2010 after a more than four-year process, called for the removal of contaminated soil from seven areas on the plant property. 


Also, wells were to be dug to draw out and treat the groundwater, and to draw vapors from the soil. Despite this history of environmental problems and the plant’s past use of hazardous chemicals, city fire marshal said evacuations of nearby homes were not necessary. A hazardous materials crew was monitoring air quality downwind of the fire, and the city water department tested the runoff created by the fire department’s hoses. 

Federal and state environmental officials have discovered a potpourri of thousands of pounds of chemicals – many of them potentially hazardous – at a Tacoma Tideflats site that was engulfed by a sudden fire March 28.

Those chemicals, most of them stored in two old trucks untouched by the blaze, included 15 pounds of mercury, several hundred pounds of highly flammable sodium and mildly radioactive uranium.

That site at 4111 E. 11th St. near Marine View Drive drew some three dozen firefighters and a dozen pieces of equipment when it burst into flames about 10:30 a.m. The smoky fire destroyed a single-story house used by a chemical recycling company and threatened a nearby warehouse and two trucks used for chemical storage.

Firefighters initially attacked the fire in the house but withdrew to defensive positions when it became apparent that the building and the surrounding areas contained unknown quantities of chemicals. The site is in an industrial area adjacent to the Hylebos Waterway, but homes are atop a hill overlooking the site.

When the fire department received the call, responders thought the site might be a pallet-recycling company. Later investigation showed the site was used by a company, NW Chemical Recycling, to repackage surplus chemicals for sale.

Neighboring businesses said workers from the company told them the fire had begun with a flaming can of paint. Later investigations showed the blaze started when sodium chlorite that was being repackaged into smaller containers burst into flame. The chemical is used in bleaching and stripping of pulp and paper, among other uses.

A fluorescent green dye found its way into a Palo Alto storm drain Thursday afternoon, triggering a hazardous materials response by firefighters.
The fire department received multiple calls beginning at 1:15 p.m. about a green sheen in a storm drain at the corner of Hanover Street and Page Mill Road, Battalion Chief Niles Broussard said.
The sheen was caused by uranine, a dye used to trace the flow of water. Contractors had been using the substance to diagnose a drainage problem at a nearby building, but it wasn't immediately clear how it ended up in the storm drain, Broussard said.
Firefighters contacted the city's Public Works Department and the California Department of Fish and Game about the 1,500-gallon spill. The substance ultimately did not pose a threat to human health or the environment, Broussard said.

Veolia Environmental Services Technical Solutions reported a small fire at its hazardous materials recycling facility in Menomonee Falls Wednesday morning.
A flammable and corrosive liquid ignited while a sample was being taken from a single drum container, facility manager Joe Baumann said.
The fire was contained to the individual drum and a small area around it. No other hazardous materials were involved, he said.
The fire and was fully extinguished about 15 minutes after it broke out, Baumann added.
No injuries were sustained as a result of this small fire, although an employee was evaluated at a local hospital and released.

CRAWFORDSVILLE, Ind. (WTW) — Inside a Crawfordsville rental property, the tenants liked to cook.

But what they were cooking got them busted, Indiana State Police say. In the kitchen, police found everything it took to make meth.

At the Days Inn in Anderson recently came a fiery explosion. Police say the same thing was cooking. But this time, it burst into flames.

Methamphetamine labs are more than just dangerous and illegal. They leave a mess -- an environmental hazard that, according to state law, must be cleaned up.

And it takes a special process, certification and inspectors who scour the property in full-gear Hazmat suits and respirators to do the dirty work.

Welcome to the world of meth lab cleanup companies, a growing and profitable business, especially in Indiana, where certain pockets of the state are hotbeds for labs.

The state, which ranks in the top five for meth production, has 22 companies certified by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management to decontaminate properties.

A no-go zone has been set up at Lyttelton port after a major chemical spill from a container on-board a vessel.

Christchurch firefighters were called about 7.30am to help decontaminate the vessel berthed at Lyttelton Port.

The port said the fire brigade and harbour master were this afternoon co-coordinating the cleanup of the "class 8 hazardous substance" on the vessel.

However, they have not said what the substance was, nor named the vessel. The Ministry for the Environment defines a class 8 substance as "corrosive".

A statement from the port's operations manager Paul Monk said the container had now been removed was now in a washbay for further cleanup.

TAMPA — An overwhelming chemical smell burned the eyes of inspectors Wednesday as they entered a warehouse to check on production of synthetic marijuana, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office said.

The inspectors had come to take samples of the substance being processed at 6308 Benjamin Road, Suite 712, north of Tampa International Airport.

The sample would be sent to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to see if it contains any of the 29 compounds outlawed by the Legislature in its attempts to prevent the possession and sale of synthetic drugs.

But during the inspection, high levels of concentrated acetone caused investigators to call the state Fire Marshal, Environmental Protection Agency and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to evaluate the safety of the warehouse and its more than a dozen employees.

Specific combinations of chemicals make up the synthetic drugs that are banned in Florida. No arrests were made at the warehouse Wednesday while the case remains under investigation, said Larry McKinnon, a Sheriff's Office spokesman.

Deputies have been inspecting several local distribution centers, as well as local vendors, since Gov. Rick Scott signed the law on March 23 to expand the chemical compounds banned.

Unlike with other drugs, deputies can't perform on-site testing to determine if the compounds are illegal. And as the law changes to ban more chemical combinations, so do the manufacturer recipes to keep their businesses legal.

A cleanup crew has entered phase two of a massive clean-up effort in Escondido after 20,000 gallons of sodium hydroxide spilled from a water filtration plant Monday afternoon.

At approximately 3:30 p.m. on Monday, a breach in one of the tanks caused the corrosive chemical to spill from a water filtration plant in the 3400 block of Valley Pkwy on by Dixon Lake, according to authorities.

At about 5 p.m., the Hazmat crews entered the plant to evaluate the extent of the spill. According to authorities, the liquid had traveled down a paved roadway and then onto a dirt area where it was contained.

On Tuesday, the City of Escondido reported that the NRC Environmental Services began to remove the sodium hydroxide that was released into the containment area, as well as the removal of the remaining solution left in the failed tanks.

VILLAGE OF WOODVILLE, Ohio (WUPW) - A Sandusky County farmer tiling his field Wednesday afternoon hit an old underground well, causing it to spill into a ditch.

The incident took place at around 5:30 p.m. in the Village of Woodville.

EPA and Hazmat officials who were dispatched to assist in recapping the well. They said it's fairly common for underground wells to crack and spill during farming.

Crews have put absorbents out to hopefully suck up the oil.

The oil leak is not a risk to the public, the EPA said.

Two specially trained officers were among 17 firefighters to attend reports of dumped chemical waste – which turned out to be used chip fat.

Police received reports of a mystery smell and a leak coming from ten plastic containers left in the Co-Op car park on Barras Street, Liskeard, at 9.15pm on Tuesday.

They contacted Cornwall Fire Service, who sent out two fire crews, plus an environment support vehicle and two officers specially trained to handle hazardous materials.

The area was cordoned off and firefighters wore specialist clothing to inspect the contents of the containers, only to find it was used cooking oil.

But yesterday, Lee Griffin, the fire services group manager for service delivery, said the service had to “err on the side of caution”, but said the response was scaled-down because of “common sense”. It could have cost up to £10,000 if protocol had been followed blindly. As it was, it cost about £1,500, he said.

Mr Griffin called whoever dumped the waste “totally irresponsible”, and urged any witnesses to contact Cornwall Council’s environmental services department.

SAN DIEGO ---- It sounded like the craziest idea. But the plan to burn down an Escondido house full of explosives and hazardous materials went off so well it has become a model studied by safety professionals nationwide.
That was the judgment of industrial safety expert Neal Langerman, who spoke about the daring plan's long-term impact Monday. The house at 1954 Via Scott in northwestern Escondido, known as the "Escondido bomb house," no longer exists. Its destruction on Dec. 9, 2010, was carried out with no loss of life or injury, and without contaminating the neighborhood.
Public safety agencies worked together superbly, even though there was no precedent for dealing with such a powder keg in a residential neighborhood, Langerman said at the American Chemical Society convention.
Held at the San Diego Convention Center, it continues through Thursday.

A weekend fire at 901 Richwood Road No. 2 in Monroe has prompted a Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality investigation.

The fire was Saturday at the old Chauvin chemical plant. A burning tanker contained a dark fluid. After Monroe firefighters controlled the fire, representatives from the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality responded to the scene.

DEQ spokesman Rodney Mallett said Monday the incident remains under investigation.

Mallett said the site was once an ink processing plant. All containers had been removed from the building, which was later used as a storage area for paper. The containers that were removed were being cut into scrap metal on Saturday, but inside some of those containers, there was sludged ink, Mallett explained.

This past weekend, workers were cutting the tanks, scraping the sludge out and then cutting the rest of the tank for scrap, but the sludge material in some of the containers at the plant may have caught on fire, Mallett said.

GONZALES — Workers removed the last remaining chemicals Sunday from a damaged production unit that exploded and caught fire last week at Westlake Chemical Corp. in Ascension Parish, state environmental regulators said Monday.

Meanwhile, the first lawsuit has been filed alleging residents who live in communities near the plant were harmed by chemicals released during the fire.

The emergency at the 184-acre Geismar Vinyls Complex ended Sunday after a leaning production tower was stabilized by a crane that arrived Saturday and chemicals were removed the next day, a Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality official said.

SAN DIEGO -- An investigation was under way in Escondido Tuesday to determine what caused about 15,000 gallons of lye to spill at a water-filtration complex near Lake Dixon and into a nearby canyon.

The hazardous material release at the plant north of El Norte Parkway was reported about 4 p.m. Monday, Escondido city spokeswoman Joyce Masterson said. The accident did not force any public evacuations but did necessitate a large-scale cleanup of the caustic chemical, she said.

Crews discovered sodium hydroxide, commonly known as lye, leaking out of two malfunctioning 15,000-gallon storage tanks, according to Masterson. About half the spill pooled in a safe containment area, but the rest coursed down a driveway and flowed into a nearby gorge.
Firefighters created a makeshift dike around the dirt area into which the chemical drained, and county hazardous materials personnel were working to determine how best to clean up the substance.
Sodium hydroxide is stored at the plant as a safety precaution, Masterson said. In case of a spill of chlorine, another caustic chemical used at the facility, lye can be combined with it, creating harmless table salt, she said.

BUCHANAN – Entergy, the company that owns the Indian Point nuclear power plants at Buchanan, will pay a $1.2 million civil penalty to the state based on a consent order with the Department of Environmental Conservation.

The fine stems from violations of the Clean Water Act, Chemical Bulk Storage Regulations and Navigation Laws, when a 2010 explosion and fire at the plant resulted in petroleum released into the Hudson River.

Entergy also agreed to upgrade its containment systems which protect the river from accidental spills and unpermitted releases.

In November 2010, the #21 main transformer failed and resulted in an explosion that breached the walls of the transformer causing a fire and release of petroleum used to cool the transformers into the Hudson River.

The DEC said its investigation revealed long-standing structural conditions prevented the containment moat from retaining the petroleum as designed. More than 10,000 gallons of oil were recovered from the transformer, the containment moat and areas outside the containment moat including the discharge canal, the Hudson River shoreline and the river.

New warning labels and standardized descriptions of chemicals’ hazards are coming to U.S. labs, factory floors, and other workplaces. Through a regulation released last week, the Occupational Safety & Health Administration is bringing U.S. requirements for communicating chemical safety information to workers in line with an international system.
Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis says OSHA’s revised hazard communication standard “will improve the quality, consistency, and clarity of hazard information that workers receive, making it safer for workers to do their jobs and easier for employers to stay competitive in the global marketplace.” She adds, “Exposure to hazardous chemicals is one of the most serious dangers facing American workers today.”
The agency’s move will require chemical makers and importers to use warning symbols that were developed through the United Nations. Called pictograms, the symbols are designed to communicate chemical hazard information to workers regardless of whether they can read or the language they use.

Inside a Crawfordsville rental property, the tenants liked to cook.

But what they were cooking got them busted last month, Indiana State Police say. In the kitchen, police found everything it took to make meth.

At the Days Inn in Anderson last week came a fiery explosion. Police say the same thing was cooking. But this time, it burst into flames.

Methamphetamine labs are more than just dangerous and illegal. They leave a mess -- an environmental hazard that, according to state law, must be cleaned up.

And it takes a special process, certification and inspectors who scour the property in full-gear Hazmat suits and respirators to do the dirty work.

SPARTA -- Sussex County Technical School will remain closed through Thursday, as the school continues to clean up from a fire that started last Wednesday night in a science lab.

The school is tentatively scheduled to reopen on Friday.

The fire, which was caused by a chemical reaction in a 30-gallon garbage can, has forced the district to close for at least six days and will lead to the relocation of eight classrooms and several lockers for the remainder of the school year, according to Interim Superintendent Anthony Macerino.

"Clean-up has commenced and is proceeding well," Macerino said on Monday. "As with any fire or emergency facility situation, air quality tests have been completed."

DALLAS - The city said it is issuing a Notice of Violation against Medical City Dallas for releasing a bright green dye into White Rock Creek on Wednesday.

Dallas Fire-Rescue's Hazmat team told News 8 the bright green dye, which was non-toxic and biodegradable, was flowing out of a cooling tower at the hospital after contractors tested pipes.

HERMISTON -- People living in Eastern Oregon and Washington can sleep a little safer now that the Umatilla Chemical Depot officially has been put to rest.

To celebrate the occasion, the Army's chemical materials agency held a celebration Thursday night marking Umatilla's end of an era for storing dangerous chemical agents used in warfare since World War II.

About 300 people attended the event and listened to military and corporate officials pay tribute to the community's support for the depot since 1941.

"This is a historic milestone," said Gary Anderson, project manager for the site. "All the secondary waste has been removed, which brings a preservation of peace to the depot."

The 20,000-acre site eventually will be turned back into public use and hopefully provide some job opportunities, he added.

ANDERSON — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency expects to finish cleaning the site of a crude chemistry lab in Anderson by the end of the month.

Work on cleaning up the property, on Frontage Road near Interstate 85 and Hartwell Lake, has been going on since June, after a federal environmental official working in Anderson noticed it as he drove down the highway.

So far, the cleanup of the old Flex-A-Form site has included the discovery and testing of 946 containers of chemicals, most either mislabeled or not labeled at all.

It has included work to remove 10,000 tons of soil, some laced with arsenic and cadmium, a toxic metal.

It has included the demolition of three leaky warehouses where a man in his 70s mixed and stockpiled chemicals, many dating to the 1990s.

MAULDIN, SC (FOX Carolina) -
A blue-colored glue spilled out of a tractor trailer Monday night, affecting traffic on a popular Mauldin road.

Mauldin Fire Chief Russell Sapp said a police officer noticed the liquid coming from the back of the truck, which was traveling on Main Street, and pulled it over in a parking lot at the corner of Main Street and Butler Road. He said that was when the driver discovered a 55 gallon drum of a substance called Adhesin had been knocked over.

Sapp said part of the parking lot of the shopping center and a lane of Butler Road were closed until a crew could clean up the spill. He said the chemical is not hazardous, but it will take several hours to clean up.

Drivers who may have driven through the chemical can call the Mauldin Fire Department on Tuesday for instructions on how to clean it off their car, Sapp said.

Wearing pajamas and holding their breath against the gagging stench of a spill at the chemical plant two doors down, Victor and Theresa Flow fled their Jackson Street home on Jan. 5, 2002, and headed to the fresh air and shelter of a nearby hotel.

It wasn’t the first time a potentially toxic release from the Diaz Chemical Corp., a manufacturer of specialty chemicals for pharmaceutical and other industries, forced the elderly couple out of their house in the dead of night.

But it was the last.

More than a decade after the spill — and more than $10 million in federal toxic cleanup program money spent so far removing chemicals from the site — it is still unclear what, if any, long-term health hazards the company’s decades-long history of air and water pollution might pose to Holley residents.

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- Several high school students throughout Kern County got the opportunity to see firsthand what hazmat crews deal with.
One of the ideas behind Youth Leadership Bakersfield is to give students experiences that will help them develop leadership skills and career choices.
On Wednesday, 32 students in the program went to the Department of Public Health, put on protective suits and saw up close and personal what hazmat crews deal with.
"They put us in a situation like it was a real hazardous chemical spill and I was a little bit scared at first, I'm not going to lie," said Avery Andrew, student.
Crews put on a scenario of what they actually do during a hazardous chemical spill, though it wasn't meant to scare students, but broaden their perspective.
"Part of what we do is actually protecting the public and these are the kids that were interested in protecting. We want to make them more aware of what we do and what goes on," said Brian Pitts, Kern County Environmental Health.

he state Department of Environmental Protection was continuing its investigation of the second spill of condensate fluids in three months at a Chevron-Appalachia Marcellus Shale gas well operation in Robinson, Washington County.

John Poister, a DEP spokesman, said Sunday that the spilled condensate -- a mixture of liquid hydrocarbons or "wet gases" and drilling fluids -- was discovered Thursday by a township employee inspecting a nearby facility that separates the fluids from the natural gas. The spilled liquid had run into Bigger Run Creek, a tributary of Raccoon Creek. He had no information about whether fish or aquatic life were killed, but cleanup crews placed absorbent material in the creek on Friday.

PORTLAND recreational anglers have been grounded for the start of the tuna season while a chemical leak is handled at the town's port area.
The Country Fire Authority today said it was still not 100 per cent safe for boats to launch at the Port of Portland, due to the ongoing hazardous materials incident at the Koppers facility.

A hazardous materials emergency was called Monday afternoon after city workers came across three freshly dumped piles of a highly combustible, carcinogenic substance in the Strawberry Creek subdivision.

Kenosha Fire Department Battalion Chief Matt Haerter said Kenosha Water Utility workers called firefighters shortly after 3 p.m. when they spotted a white, powdery substance mounded in three piles, each about 3 feet square and 1.5 feet high, well into an area of unbuilt lots in the 14000 block of 66th Street.

Haerter said the utility crew has been doing soil borings for several weeks in the area and didn’t notice the piles there last week.

“It certainly was quite fresh. It showed no effects of weathering or exposure to the environment,” he said.

Because the nature of the substance was unknown, Haerter alerted Wisconsin Emergency Management, the Department of Natural Resources, the city Public Works Department and the Racine Fire Department Hazardous Materials Team.

The material, identified only as a chemical product used in rubber manufacturing and industrial fungicides, is known to have carcinogenic and highly combustible effects, according to Haerter.

He said Hazmat personnel used specialized equipment to pack the chemical into plastic drums. Surrounding soil that came into contact with it was removed by crews.

“After careful analysis and further investigation, the surrounding soil and pavement was diluted with a large quantity of water, rendering any remaining residue completely inert and safe for the public,” Haerter said.

He declined to identify the chemical publicly due to the ongoing investigation.

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- An oil-contaminated water spill in east Harris County on Sunday left crews trying to clean up the mess and figure out what happened.

Highlands volunteer firefighters went to a Highlands-area flood canal around 10:15am Sunday after receiving calls about an oily residue in the water.

Firefighters then found a leak coming from the ZXP Technologies facility in the 400 block of East Wallisville.

According to officials, ZXP Technologies is a lubricant mixing and packaging facility.

RESIDENTS in Portland have been told to stay indoors and close their windows following a chemical spill.

The CFA said smoke is coming from the leak in the town’s northwest.

The leak began shortly before 3pm on Saturday.

Firefighters, including a Hazmat unit from Warrnambool, are working to contain the leak of liquid pitch, used to produce asphalt, at an industrial plant at the port.

By 5pm 250 tonnes of the liquid had spilled, which has all been contained.

Oil and hazardous chemicals are spilling into the Greater Victoria environment with alarming regularity, according to a major mop-up company.

"I would much rather not do emergency response. I would much rather teach people how not to spill," said David Rogers, founder of B.C. Hazmat Management, one of the privatesector spill responders in Greater Victoria.

"This last year we have had one major spill a month and five years ago we had one or two a year," Rogers said.

Some of the increase is probably due to increasing awareness, he said.

"Ten years ago, an oil spill was something that you just washed away, and now the public is becoming more and more environmentally aware," he said.

That means many companies are taking spill-prevention education seriously, and municipalities such as Saanich are giving specialized staff training.

Michigan environmental regulators said Thursday that they reached a long-sought deal with Dow Chemical Co. to clean up to 1,400 residential properties in Midland, home of its corporate headquarters and a plant that polluted the area with dioxin for much of the past century.

The state Department of Environmental Quality said it agreed with the company on the outlines of a cleanup plan, marking a milestone in on-and-off negotiations that began in the mid-1990s. Dow will cover all of the costs and will fill in the plan details and submit them for review next month.

The total cost of the plan won't be clear until it's known how many of the 1,400 properties require cleaning and how much work needs to be done, Dow and DEQ officials said. The company said it would offer to buy about 50 homes and lots in two areas close to the plant.

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — There was a massive Hazmat spill on I-95 and 895 in northeast Baltimore. Right now, both of those roadways are completely shut down. Kai Jackson has more.

A Hazmat crew, Baltimore City police, the Department of the Environment, MdTA officials and Baltimore City firefighters are on the scene for an overturned tanker truck that spilled an unknown amount of non-toxic ink, later identified as printer ink. It happened at the Fort McHenry toll plaza around 9 p.m. Wednesday. Even though the ink is water-based, it’s still considered a Hazmat situation.

A chemical spill forced the closure of a residential road for three hours last night.

Fifteen fire engines from across south-west London rushed to Elm Crescent, in Kingston, after a battery in a CCTV van overheated and corrosive acid leaked into the road.

GULFPORT -- A spokesman for Channel Chemical Corp. has issued a statement reassuring the public that a spill of 500 to 1,000 gallons of corrosive liquid on its property poses no threat to the public.
Seaway Road has reopened after being shut down more than an hour this morning for emergency response to the business on Seaway near Three Rivers Road.
An environmental source earlier today told the Sun Herald the leak involved a valve malfunction on a tank behind the business, where the malfunction leaked phosphorous acid, hydrochloric acid and a type of ethanol.

Work will continue overnight to contain an oil spill at Shell's Clyde refinery in western Sydney.

An unknown amount of a petroleum-based product spilled into Duck Creek at Clyde around 4pm (AEDT) on Wednesday after an overflow at the oil refinery.

Recent heavy rainfall meant the storm water overflow system was unable to contain all of the rain water, causing an overflow, a Shell spokesman said.

"Unfortunately, the overflow material contained oil," the spokesman said in a statement.

CARTERET — Minue Street remains closed from Roosevelt Avenue to Bryla Street as the Middlesex County Hazmat team continues to clean up a mineral-oil spill from the PSE&G power substation on Roosevelt Avenue. Authorities expect the roadway to remain closed until Friday morning, Fire Chief Brian O’Connor said.

O’Connor said the department was called to the scene at 8 a.m. Thursday morning on a report of a transformer failure that caused a leak of the mineral oil. Nearly 14,000 gallons of the oil is estimated to have leaked from the facility.

“This is a nonhazardous oil. It is similar to the mineral oil you purchase in the store,” O’Connor said. “But it leaked onto the roadway. This caused the road to become very slick.”

Police said there was a large stream of black liquid pooled along the curbside of Minue Street extending northbound into the sewer drain just before Roosevelt Avenue. Carteret firefighters attempted to create a barricade with topsoil.

Cleanup began today on a spill of several hundred gallons of suspected diesel fuel into Battle Creek’s storm sewer system.

Brian Kelly, an on-scene coordinator for the Environmental Protection Agency, estimated that several hundred gallons of the suspect diesel fuel was in the system, which empties into the Kalamazoo River.

Canadian based SWAT Consulting Inc., a subcontractor working on the Enbridge Co. oil pipeline spill, is being hired by the city and will have crews working today.

The spill was discovered Wednesday morning as the petroleum product emptied from a storm sewer pipe into a ditch at the end of Territorial Road near Riverside Drive. The stream created by the discharge empties into the Kalamazoo River.

MECKLENBURG COUNTY, N.C. — Firefighters and federal health officials worked together Wednesday night to make sure a fire at a building containing toxic materials did not spread to nearby Mint Hill homeowners.

As Mint Hill firefighters battled the blaze off Albemarle Road, the EPA was on hand to make sure potentially deadly chemicals did not leak into the county's storm water drains.

The building is a former dry cleaners and is registered as a federal Superfund site, which means it's contaminated with hazardous waste.

The building is currently used as a weekend flea market.

"It's in the ground, so runoff is a concern for us," said Mint Hill Fire Chief Jeremy Russell.

LORAIN — The Lorain Fire Department found major diesel contamination at the Old Stove Works building, 817 West 13th, according Assistant Fire Chief Roy Cochran.

About noon yesterday the department was contacted by the Water Department after they noticed an odor. The fire department discovered a diesel spill, that they believe has contaminated the soil.

The Lorain County Emergency Management HazMat team and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency were contacted. The spill is believed to have been caused when an underground pipe rusted and broke, according to Cochran.

Authorities in Liuzhou, a city of 3.7 million in Guangxi Province in southern China, are battling to contain the spread of the toxic chemical, after elevated levels of cadmium were detected on Friday in the Liujiang River, the main source of drinking water in Liuzhou. Panicked residents were rushing to stock up on supplies of bottled water, after being told not to drink water from the river.
Sluices were being opened upstream in an effort to dilute the carcinogenic cadmium, which was discharged into the Longjiang River and has spread downstream leaving large numbers of fish dead. Earlier in the week, fire fighters dumped hundreds of tons of dissolved aluminium chloride into the Longjiang River in an effort to neutralise the pollutant, but fears remain that it will continue to flow further downstream and affect other cities.
Local officials, though, are insisting that tap water in Liuzhou is safe.
"The water is still up to national standards and is safe for drinking," said Gan Jinglin, the head of Liuzhou's Environmental Bureau. The chemical spill in Guangxi is the latest in a long line of incidents that have rendered China's rivers and waterways some of the most polluted in the world, despite efforts by Beijing to pressure local authorities to shut down polluting industries.
The deadly discharge occurred almost two weeks ago on January 15th, but was only reported by state media on Thursday. The Guangxi Jinhe Mining Company in Hechi City is being blamed for the release of the cadmium. It is not known for how long the company had been discharging the pollutant into the Longjiang River or in what quantities.

The Allegheny River flowed liked wine last week near Sharpsburg when the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority released a harmless chemical that turned the water purple.

As expected, phone calls poured in about the mysterious-colored water, according to Sharpsburg Councilman Tony Sacco.

The local fire department, the state Department of Environmental Protection and the Allegheny County Health Department responded.

"I knew it wasn't anything the borough did wrong because we don't have the capacity to dump those kind of chemicals," Sacco said.
The borough has it's own water supply system and treatment plant, drawing from wells near the river.

"Everybody was on the job immediately and found out where the source was," Sacco said.

It was the second day on the job for Rich Aluise, Sharpsburg's new water plant manager.

"I got the call from Councilman Lou DeLuca and all I could do was look upstream to the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority," he said.

And that has been an automatic reaction for Aluise, who worked at the Authority for 21 years.

Authority employees were washing out a bin, located about 1 mile north of Sharpsburg near Aspinwall, where Permanganate, a chemical routinely used to remove iron and manganese from drinking water, is stored.

The chemical ended up in the Allegheny because recent rain caused the sewer system to overflow into the river, said Stanley States, PWSA's director of water quality and production.

TALLAHASSEE—Governor Rick Scott has proclaimed Jan. 22 – 28, 2012 as “Hazardous Materials Awareness Week” in Florida. Joining Governor Scott in commemorating the educational week is the Florida Division of Emergency Management, in partnership with the State Emergency Response Commission (SERC) for Hazardous Materials and the Local Emergency Planning Committees (LEPCs) across the state. This year’s focus is on Mercury.

“Florida’s economy and quality of life are directly impacted through the safe utilization of many chemicals,” said Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Bryan W. Koon. “The understanding and awareness of Florida’s safe history and use of these materials underscores the importance of this week.  I encourage all Floridians to take time to learn about the uses of Mercury and other commonly used materials in their area to raise the level of awareness and preparedness for their families.”

A section of Marshall Road, just west of Zeeb Road, in Scio Township will remain closed through Friday morning as an environmental cleanup company proceeds with the cleanup of an oil spill from an old transformer.
Firefighters and the county HAZMAT director were awaiting test results on the spilled oil Thursday evening before they could proceed with the cleanup. The fire department received the call around 4:20 p.m., and by 8 p.m. it was determined that the oil did not contain polychlorinated biphenyls, a highly toxic chemical compound.
...
Scio Township Fire Chief Carl Ferch said the about 6-foot tall, 4-foot wide and 3-foot deep old transformer was being transported on its side by a towing company. It had been picked up from a business near Huron River Drive and Zeeb Road.

WAXAHACHIE - The recent rainwater is creating more than just flooding concerns in North Texas.

State and local officials in Waxahachie are responding to the accidental runoff of chemically polluted waters leftover from the massive chemical spill last October.

Dean Settlemyer had just arrived at his lawn mower shop on Main Street in Waxahachie when he was greeted by something unusual.

"I saw this foam floating in the air in my back property, so I walked back here and this is what I saw," Settlemyer said.

A river of foam washing down a rain swollen Waxahachie Creek.

But it wasn't so much the suds that concerned him. It was the putrid odor coming off the rushing waters.

Milwaukee firefighters are responding to a diesel fuel spill that's leaking into the creek near the Mitchell International Airport.

Hazmat teams and other units from the Milwaukee Fire Department responded to the incident at S. 1st St. and W. Layton Ave. at 11:23 a.m. Monday after an off-duty firefighter called.

Sources said the fuel is believed to be leaking from the airport grounds. Fire chiefs are working with airport officials to determine exactly where the leak is coming from.

The ACT Fire Brigade and ACT Workcover both raised concerns about shoddy equipment and poor work safety practices by a Mitchell hazardous waste treatment company before last year's explosive chemical fire, according to documents released under Freedom of Information.
The documents also reveal the highly toxic nerve gas phosgene were detected in the fire's smoke plume, but emergency response crews had ''no capacity to test for larger exposure to chemicals''.

Last September, a massive chemical fire engulfed the Energy Services Invironmental waste treatment plant in Dacre Street, which was licensed by the ACT Environment Protection Agency to treat electrical transformer oil contaminated with toxic polychlorinated biphenyls (known as PCBs). It hurled fireballs up to 200m above the burning building, and sent a dense plume of acrid black smoke billowing across Canberra's skyline.

ALBION — The Kendallville Fire Department HAZMAT team took action Wednesday to keep fish in Skinner Lake from dying over spilled milk. An overturned dairy truck prompted the call Wednesday, along with the fact that the Indiana Department of Environmental Management classifies large volumes of milk as a hazardous material, explained Noble County Sheriff’s Department chief deputy Chad Willett. Stephen Trahin, 65, of Fort Wayne had just pulled the tanker truck out of Gorsuch...

LAREDO, TX. -Steve Landin, fire chief , said it is troubling to have at least one hazardous chemical spill in a week, accidents involving trucks that bring waste from the oil and gas reservoir Eagle Ford Shale.
He said companies that transport the waste violate a Texas law by carrying these substances uncovered and carelessly, causing spills on the streets and roads.
One of the most common places where these incidents are recorded are at the end of Highway 35 , arriving at about the Juarez- Lincoln Bridge , where firefighters continue to come and clean up.
Most troubling , he said, is that you do not know the type of waste that these trucks carry and in many cases not even the drivers know. "We are asking people when they see a spill of this type to call the police immediately to the number 795-2800 , for officers to give out violations to the driver and to clean up," he said.

A "non-toxic" leak from a truck spraying foam insulation into a home on Claremont Road prompted response from the county HAZMAT team Tuesday afternoon.

According to Ridgewood Fire Department Captain Paul Monton, run off from the leak spilled into two separate storm drains. 

"They have two parts that they mix together in the back of a box truck," Monton explained. "One of the hoses leaked from one of the barrels of the chemicals, spilled into the truck and there was a stream of the product coming out onto the roadway and into the storm drains."

The chemicals were a "non-toxic" product but the contractor was still required to have the county HAZMAT response team clean the estimated 10-gallon spill because there exists potential for environmental harm, Monton said. The foam was found as far as Glen Rock, he added.

CARTERET — Emergency workers are still trying to stop a leak today at a Carteret fuel refinery that has released 3,000 gallons of combustible liquid, authorities said.
All of the liquid spilling from a tank at the BP Products refinery, 76 Roosevelt Ave., was contained in a dyked area, Carteret Fire Chief Brian O'Connor said.
O'Brien said the product, reformate, which is used in blending fuel products, was first discovered leaking from a storage tank flange about 8 a.m. today. The tank holds 3 million gallons of the product, the chief said.
He said the liquid was being transferred another tank, and an environmental cleanup company was at the scene to remove the liquid that leaked from the flange.

ANDERSON COUNTY — Environmental workers will spend this week sorting the remains of the rundown warehouse where an Anderson man mixed and stockpiled hundreds of chemicals, including some that leaked into the land surrounding Hartwell Lake.

The warehouse was the “main lab” used on Frontage Road, where a man in his 70s told authorities he was trying to create homemade fuel while storing chemicals for friends.

The lab was demolished Friday, reduced to a pile of rubble that will be sorted into stacks of recyclable materials and stacks of trash for a landfill. The building was the last of a collection of leaky warehouses to be torn down. Its demolition marks a milestone in a multimillion-dollar cleanup that has been in progress since June.

The property owner, George Smolen, has told authorities he cannot afford to pay for removing the pollution created at the former Flex-A-Form site near Interstate 85. The tab has more than doubled in the last seven months as federal environmental crews have uncovered and tested 946 containers of chemicals, many of them mislabeled and at least two decades old. The cleanup cost stands at $2.5 million.

Eight cars on a CSX train derailed in Grand Ridge before 7:30 a.m. on Saturday. No one was injured.

The train contained several chemical shipments, bringing the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office, Jackson County Emergency Management, Grand Ridge Fire Department, Jackson County Fire Rescue, Marianna Fire Department, Sneads Fire Department and several other first responders to assess the scene.

As of noon on Saturday, the only chemical that spilled was PVC pellets. Jackson County Sheriff Lou Roberts said the pellets would be vacuumed up by environmental services.

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Police have arrested three people they say were in the Arayan brotherhood, accusing them of running a meth lab in Albuquerque

Wednesday night officers responded to an apartment near San Pedro Drive and Kathryn Avenue, after neighbors complained that something smelled so bad it made some of them sick.

Police say they found a man and a woman cleaning up what looked like a meth lab.

They also caught another man they say was involved and called in a hazmat team to clean up the chemicals.

FIREFIGHTERS have left the scene of a chemical spill at a paint company’s premises.

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Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service sent nine appliances and 45 firefighters to PPG Industries UK Ltd based in Needham Road, Stowmarket, just after 2pm to deal with the solvent leak which was caused by a mechanical failure on the water cooling system in the resin plant.

The service’s group commander Ian Bowell said: “This incident has been contained on site thanks to the work of the on site staff at PPG and Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service.

“During the incident we worked closely with the Environment Agency and are pleased to say that all internal drainage systems have done their job containing any contaminated water on site for removal at a later date.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Alaska environmental officials say a faulty gasket on a tank led to a spill of 6,300 gallons of crude oil and process water at the XTO Energy onshore facility at Nikiski, southwest of Anchorage.

In a situation report Tuesday, the state Department of Environmental Conservation said no resources have been affected. It says all of the spill discovered late Monday afternoon was captured within a secondary containment area.

The state says XTO Energy responded with contractors Monday night to recover free liquid from the secondary containment area — a bermed area with a 60-mil liner. On Tuesday, the company began removing contaminated snow and ice.

Chemical giant Orica says static electricity is the most likely cause of another fire from a stack at its Newcastle plant overnight.
Hydrogen gas is being vented from a stack at the plant as part of its start-up procedure, with the gas igniting for the second time in three days.
Lighting caused a fire from the stack on Sunday night.
Orica site manager Sean Winstone says there is no risk to the community or the environment.
He says the fire is now out, but there is an ongoing chance that the gas could ignite as the start-up process continues.
Just before 9:30pm (AEDT) residents were sent a text message from Orica saying gas discharge from the stack had reignited but the plant and community were safe.
Despite Orica's assurances, residents have told the ABC they still have concerns about the problem plague plant.

Kansas Department of Health and Environment is urging Kansans to avoid Lime Creek in Herington because of contamination.

Officials discovered Sunday night that sulfuric acid was leaking from a rail yard. The specific area is from US-56 highway north to Avenue 1000.

Officials estimate that almost 11,000 gallons of sulfuric acid have spilled into Lime Creek.

Residents, their livestock and their pets should avoid that body of water for recreational or drinking purposes. In addition, KDHE and the Dickinson County Emergency Management agency have alerted property owners downstream who use the area for cattle watering.

Suffolk County police report that a 55-gallon drum of volatile chemical materials that had authorities close down Oser Avenue in Hauppauge for hours Tuesday has been stabilized. 

Police said the stabilizing chemicals were received at approximately 7 p.m. Tuesday, then was mixed in with the hazardous material at Pall Corp. Oser Avenue was reopened to vehicle traffic later that evening. 

The 55-gallon drum of chemical material was stored overnight inside Pall Corp's building overnight until it could be removed by Miller Environmental on Wednesday, according to police. 

There was no leak in the 55-gallon drum at Pall Corp, but the materials had chemically changed due to undergoing temperature fluctuations while shipping. The potentially explosive situation was first noticed by a company employee. 

"An unopened 55-gallon drum was observed to be bulging," company spokesman Doug Novarro said in an emailed statement. "In accordance with recommended safety standards, employees were evacuated, the local fire department was called to the scene and the provider of the material was notified. As an extra precaution, a small portion of Oser Avenue was temporarily closed off. The drum has now been stabilized and employees have returned to work."

Toxic petroleum dissolved in groundwater beneath Suncor Energy north of downtown Denver is seeping directly into the bottom of Sand Creek near the creek's confluence with the South Platte River? and piped drinking water at the refinery may be contaminated with benzene.
State health officials today ordered additional measures to minimize environmental harm and prevent people from ingesting contaminated water. Those measures include posting of "Drinking Water Warning" signs at the refinery.

Benzene levels in Sand Creek are fluctuating but reached 670 parts per billion on Dec. 22 -- 134 times higher than the 5 ppb national drinking water standard.

An anonymous tip from a Suncor employee Thursday alerted state health officials to contamination in tap water on the refinery property.

AIRFIELD, Conn. – A chemical spill at General Electric’s Fairfield headquarters leaked 500 gallons of nonhazardous materials Thursday evening, according to the Fairfield Fire Department. The fluids drained from a broken pipe in the corporation’s utilities area into the storm drain system before fire crews could get the leak under control.
The chemical involved was Dowfrost, a heat transfer fluid. It is classified as “practically nontoxic to aquatic organisms,” according to the safety sheet published by its manufacturer, the Dow Chemical Co.
Fairfield fire crews built a dam to prevent the spill from spreading before cleanup crews arrived. State Department of Energy and Environmental Protection workers were also on the scene to oversee the cleanup process. No one was harmed during the incident or the cleanup process.

SAN DIEGO (CNS) - About 500 gallons of a liquid concrete hardener spilled from a big rig Friday and the cleanup efforts caused officials to close some area streets.

The truck driver hit the brakes to avoid another vehicle while exiting Interstate 5 at 17th Street about 9:30 a.m., which caused the vehicle's two tanks to shift and crack, San Diego Fire- Rescue Department spokesman Lee Swanson said.

The truck continued down B Street toward 10th Avenue where the driver was flagged down and told the tanks were leaking, Swanson said.

The tanks leaked about 500 gallons of the chemical used to set concrete. It flowed to Ninth Avenue and C Street, where crews were working to contain the spill, Swanson said.

City crews were called to bring in sand to soak up the chemical, Swanson said.

A major headache on the Yellowhead caused a major backlog Thursday afternoon.

A HAZMAT team had to be called out to the scene westbound on Highway 16 at Range Road 222, after an oil tanker rolled and spilled its load.

RCMP Cst. Wally Henry says if you're headed into town, you will be delayed.

"Alberta environment and clean up crews were called to the scene, and we're advising people to avoid the area if they can and if they do have to drive through, they'll encounter some delays."

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The cargo ship accident that dumped tens of thousands of gallons of thick, tarry ship fuel into San Francisco Bay caused lasting damage to the region's once-plentiful schools of Pacific herring, the bay's only commercially fished species, according to a study released Monday.

Herring embryos collected from shorelines left coated in oil starting about 3 months after the November 2007 Cosco Busan spill suffered from unusually high death rates and a range of ailments and deformities associated with exposure to the chemicals in crude oil, the study found.

"The majority of embryos in samples from oiled sites were dead on examination in the laboratory," wrote the study's authors, who were led by John Incardona, a toxicologist with the fisheries division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.