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Dow to begin pipeline repair today
Published October 28, 2009
FREEPORT — Leslie Diaz was disappointed about having to stow away her Halloween decorations and leave for a hotel room so Dow Chemical Co. crews can clean up a urethane leak near her house.
But Diaz would not let it affect her holiday spirit, saying she planned to include her stock of candy when she packed her other belongings. Instead of passing out the sweets to neighborhood trick-or-treaters, she’ll share it with people staying at the hotel, she said.
“I can’t bring the decorations though, because most of them are electric, unless they are going to let me plant them out in the hotel somewhere,” Diaz said with a laugh. “But I’m going to do what I can to make it more special for the kids that are staying there.”
Dow officials went door to door Monday evening in a small section of northernmost Freeport advising residents of 65 homes they should leave by 8 a.m. today and prepare to be gone the next three to five days while the pipeline is repaired. The petrochemical giant plans to foot residents’ expenses, including hotel rooms, shelter for animals and vouchers for meals.
The affected area is bordered by Avenue U to the north, Zapata to the west, Avenue R to the south and Terry to the east, Dow officials said. Nobody has refused to leave their homes.
“When we take on operations within the site, whether this one or any other, not only do we try to do things safe but we have extra precautions,” Dow Vice President and Texas Operations site director Gary Hockstra said at a news conference Tuesday. “Moving people into a temporary location is an extra precaution.”
The leaked chemical is toluene diisocyanate, a urethane intermediate used in the production of cushions like mattresses and pillows. Exposure to the chemical can cause respiratory problems, nausea and vomiting, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Crews discovered the leak about 8 a.m. Sunday and immediately began investigating the incident, Hockstra said. They contained the affected area, and monitors have shown no emissions have resulted from the leak.
There have been no health problems reported to area hospitals related to the leak, company spokeswoman Gina Gibbs-Foster said.
Don Mathews, another resident moving to a hotel while crews work on the leak, said the announcement is an “inconvenience,” but it’s part of living in the shadow of a petrochemical plant. Dow’s Freeport site, Texas Operations, is the largest manufacturing operation in North America.
“I’m worried about the security,” he said. “It’s hard for the police to look over all the houses.”
Freeport police plan to patrol the area closely while residents are gone in hopes of deterring any criminal activity someone might be considering, City Manager Jeff Pynes said.
Residents and city officials questioned Dow officials’ handling of the situation, saying they should have been informed immediately after crews found the leak.
“Have we been breathing all the chemicals for the last three or four days and no one’s been telling us about it?” Diaz said.
Dow did not tell the public immediately after detecting the leak, which was within plant borders, because it was most important to secure the area and make sure there were no emissions releases, Hockstra said. He said “every time we go through some sort of an incident, we learn and we can always improve on how we respond.” He said company officials “followed all guidelines, but I’m not saying we can’t improve.”
Neither residents nor employees were put at risk because of the leak, Hockstra said.
“Until we put together a repair plan and saw what precautions we needed to take, that’s when we told the people as well as the city of Freeport,” he said. “We really needed to understand all the steps that needed to be taken in order to get that pipeline secured and then safe and then safely repaired.”
Company officials plan to use an automated calling system to update affected residents, including when it is safe to return home, Hockstra said.
“Anybody we don’t get that way, we’ll go and physically find them,” Hockstra said. “We’re going to make sure people get notified.”
Dow is expecting a visit from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality about the leak, but company officials do not know whether the regulator will take any punitive measures related to the incident, Gibbs-Foster said.
Nathaniel Lukefahr covers The Facts. Contact him at 979-237-0151.
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IN THE KNOW
For information, residents can call Freeport’s public information line at 979-233-KNOW (5669) or Brazosport Industrial Community Awareness and Emergency Response’s public information line at 979-238-CAER (2237).
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