CHESAPEAKE
About 200,000 gallons of liquid fertilizer remains unaccounted for after the collapse of a storage tank last week, Chesapeake fire officials said Tuesday.
Cleanup crews have cleared the liquid fertilizer from public areas, but some remains on Allied Terminals' property in South Norfolk, said Capt. Steve Johnson, spokesman for the Chesapeake Fire Department.
About half of the 2 million gallon spill was contained inside a berm and 800,000 gallons of liquid fertilizer was reclaimed using vacuum trucks, Johnson said. The rest - 200,000 gallons - remains unaccounted for, he said.
The collapse left four people injured and sent some liquid fertilizer into the Elizabeth River's Southern Branch and the nearby South Hill neighborhood. More than 30 residents were evacuated from their houses. They were allowed to return home over the weekend.
City officials on Tuesday said they were convening a task force to bolster the inspection of tanks throughout the city.
The task force will be making sure that bulk storage terminals in Chesapeake are complying with state laws that require the companies to inspect aboveground tanks storing flammable, combustible liquids at least every 10 years under an American Petroleum Institute standard.
If the task force finds that a terminal is not having its fuel storage tanks inspected, the fire marshal's office can revoke the company's permits to store flammable, combustible liquids, said Chesapeake Deputy Fire Marshal Donald Fowler. State and federal authorities also will be notified if the task force finds that a terminal is not following the law.
Officials say there are no required inspections for tanks containing liquid fertilizer. But Fowler said the task force will be asking if those tanks are inspected too.
Altogether, the task force could be checking on at least 60 storage tanks scattered across the riverfront, officials said.
Council members Debbie Ritter and C.E. "Cliff" Hayes Jr. said they thought the plan to check on all the tanks was appropriate.
"There needs to be some kind of regular intervals where we routinely inspect the tanks," Hayes said.
A Virginia Department of Environmental Quality spokesman has said some of the fertilizer from the collapsed tank leaked into the Elizabeth River. The Elizabeth River Project, a nonprofit environmental group, said Tuesday the damage could be lasting.
Initial tests show oxygen levels in the area of the spill are normal so far, said Marjorie Mayfield Jackson, the group's executive director. But the groundwater was contaminated and can continue to leach into the river.
If nitrogen levels are high enough, the river could experience fish kills this summer, Jackson said.
"It's bad news," she said, "but we just don't know how bad yet."
Mike Saewitz, (757) 222-5207, mike.saewitz@pilotonline.com
Kristin Davis, (757) 222-5208, kristin.davis@pilotonline.com
Delicious
Digg
Reddit
Facebook
Google
Yahoo
I think some of it may have
I think some of it may have evaporated as we all know water is prone to do. This might help them: ASHRAE says: W = [A + (B)(V)](Pw - Pa)/Hv where: W = water evaporation rate, (lb/hr) per sq.ft. of water surface area A = a constant = 95 B = a constant = 37.4 V = air velocity over the water surface, miles/hr Pw = vapor pressure of water at the water temperature, inches of Hg Pa = vapor pressure of water at the air dewpoint temperature, inches of Hg Hv = heat of vaporization of water at the water temperature, Btu/lb
HaHa, That 200,000 gallons is gone forever.
BTW, the berms are for containing a LEAK; not a complete failure. Come on people. Maybe they should build them like Babushka dolls. The more dangerous the more layers. HaHa
Something will never be found
In all of the articles i have read nobody has mentioned what percent of UAN was in the storage tank. UAN is manufactured by percentages (i.e. 28%,32% etc) the higher the percentage the more Urea/Ammonia Nitrate and less water is used. Correct me if i'm wrong but, i was under the assumption that the berms surrounding storage tanks was suppose to be engineered to hold the volume of the tank it surrounds. Sounds to me like this berm might have been just alittle small.........and the 200,000 gallons that is unaccounted for is all mixed in with the water from the rains and the Elizabeth river.....solution by dilution.........
So some of it leaked into the river
And there are 200,000 gallons unaccounted for. There was a hard lenghty rain following this accident. I think it would be fair to say that "most" of the missing fertilizer is adding some extra spice to the Southern branch of the Elizabeth River.