Eleven months after a San Luis Obispo city employee dumped toxic chemicals at a public facility, city officials have still not reported the illegal discharge to state authorities as required by law.
The failure to report the spill could leave the city with fines totaling more than $1 million.
“I would hate to imagine the fines that could result from this mess,” Doug Dowdin, a city storm water enforcement official says in a Feb. 2 email to fellow employees. “I am sure that I don’t have to stress the potential liability.”
In late January 2011, an angry city employee told several subordinates to pour out cans of acetones (solvents), varnish, epoxy, creosote, enamel paint and latex paint. The chemicals were dumped on an asphalt parking lot that abuts up to a grassy area. Paint and chemicals swirled together creating areas thick with paint and a lower section that included open soil coated with acetones, varnishes and creosotes.

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4 News)- Fire and hazmat crews responded to a South Salt Lake business tonight after employees complained of smoke and a terrible smell.

The incident was reported at Entec Composite Machines at 2975 south 300 west.  Crews investigated and found four large containers of epoxy had some type of chemical reaction.  Investigators say this reaction was responsible for the smell.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A Kansas City, Mo., hazmat crew has been called to 3101 Gardner Ave. to help extinguish a chemical fire.
The Kansas City Fire Department said an epoxy is burning in a several-thousand-gallon container outside a building at 3101 Gardner Ave.
The Fire Department said it is a "low burning" fire and no one is at risk.
A hazmat crew is using dry ice to extinguish the fire.
Copyright 2011 by KMBC.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Arlington firefighters and the hazardous materials team responded to the Lyon Village Shopping Center around 12:20 this afternoon for a strong chemical odor. Several people in the Starbucks reported feeling ill as a result of the odor.

Firefighters went up to the roof and came down with a bucket of epoxy that was being used for some sort of roofing work.

A building inspector and a health inspector are on their way to the shopping center to evaluate the situation.

DALTON — No one was injured Sunday afternoon when a fire broke out at a chemical plant off Abutment Road in Dalton, officials said.
Just after 1 p.m., 911 began receiving calls from several people who reported hearing explosions coming from the Polystar Chemical plant at 206 Brookhollow Industrial Blvd., an operator said. No one was in the building when the fire began, fire officials said.
Dalton Fire Chief Bruce Satterfield said around 6 p.m. that officials had not yet begun to investigate the cause of the fire.
“Things are just now cooling down,” he said. “I don’t know how much they’ll even (investigate) today.”
...
Polystar is a 5-year-old company headquartered in Dalton that produces “a full line of materials for epoxy systems,” according to the company’s website, www.polystarusa.com. “Our core chemistries are amine and epichlorodhydrin based, and so our key products are hardeners, diluents, adducted resins and related surfactants,” the website states.