The Virginian-Pilot
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CHESAPEAKE
City officials on Monday ordered Allied Terminals to drain a large liquid fertilizer storage tank after discovering welding defects similar to the ones that likely caused a nearby tank to collapse last month.
Allied Terminals tank 209, which can store more than 2 million gallons of liquid fertilizer and is within 250 feet of nearby homes, has been declared an unsafe structure that poses an "imminent threat to public safety," according to a letter Monday from Chesapeake Fire Chief Steve Best.
At least six welding deficiencies have been discovered on tank 209, and they are similar to the defects that likely caused the collapse of tank 201 at the Allied Terminals facility, Best wrote. The tank must be emptied within 15 days.
"Wonderful," said Chakeeta Rivers, who lives on Banks Street within a few hundred feet of tank 209. "I think I can sleep better at night now."
Allied Terminals may have known about welding defects on some of its tanks at least four years before the collapse last month that spilled 2 million gallons of liquid fertilizer, the head of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board said Monday.
Some of the welding defects on tank 209 date to reports from 2004, documents show. Officials from the U.S. Chemical Safety Board, which is investigating the Nov. 12 collapse, said they obtained the 2004 reports from another company after Allied Terminals had trouble locating them.
"Part of our investigation will be, 'What did they know and when did they know it?' " said John S. Bresland, chairman of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board.
Bresland said he was dissatisfied with Allied Terminals' response to the safety board's urgent recommendations Dec. 8 to safeguard three other fertilizer tanks, which includes tank 209, with similar welding defects. Robert Hall, the safety board's lead investigator for this case, said that to his knowledge Allied hadn't lowered product levels in the tanks since the recommendations were made.
As for tank 209, the one that was declared unsafe Monday, Allied said in its response to the safety board's urgent recommendations that it would "remove the fertilizer from the tank as fast as their customer shipping orders would permit," Bresland said.
"To us, that seemed like a vague commitment," he said.
Allied Terminals executives have said they took prompt action to comply with the board's recommendations, including lowering the amount of liquid fertilizer in the three tanks with the welding defects. Allied Terminals Executive Vice President Bruce Law, who usually responds to media inquiries by e-mail, did not respond to questions sent to him near the end of the business day Monday.
Earlier this month, the safety board determined that welding defects likely played a major role in the collapse of tank 201 on Nov. 12. Four people were injured. The spill sent liquid fertilizer rushing into the South Hill neighborhood and into the Southern Branch of the Elizabeth River.
City Manager William Harrell said Monday that Chesapeake would likely have more meetings with the residents of South Hill, who are surrounded by about two dozen Allied Terminals fuel and fertilizer tanks. Members of a city task force created after the collapse were in South Hill on Monday handing out notices detailing the latest development in the case.
The city has been trying to find an industrial buyer for the neighborhood of about 30 homes.
Rivers, the South Hill resident, said she was glad the city pressed Allied Terminals to empty the tank. "They're putting the heat on them now, which is wonderful," she said.
Mike Saewitz, (757) 222-5207, mike.saewitz@pilotonline.com
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Did?
Did Allied get a building permit before the welding begin? Did the city inspect the welding when the work was done?
With so many qualified welders building ships that manage to float, where did Allied find welders who seem not to have done good enough work?
When the use of tanks was changed from oil products to fertilizer, was the zoning administrator required to review the change as a 'change of use'?
I smell a slacker
The city of Chesapeake inspected these tanks just months before the collapse. Now all of a sudden they have someone that knows what they are looking at or maybe that person didnt really look before. Wouldnt surprise me at all, the building inspectors hardly ever look beyond the end of their own noses. But they will make you jump through hoops to get a permit.
Fire Chief
How does the Fire Chief have the authority to issue such an order. does this then make Chesapeake the lead and responsible if any thing else goes wrong??? It seem that the state and feds would be able to better handle tis matter. They can use a bigger LAWYER!
we'll empty it when we have orders from our customers?
Orders will probably come for the spring planting season, perhaps around March. Norfolk Southern has rail cars sitting idle during the current recession. Why not load rail cars now and let them sit until orders for fertilizer come in. Besides, orders for all the fertilizer are probably already in hand, but the delivery dates are probably months away. As a better citizen than most, Norfolk Southern would likely be willing to rent out enough rail cars to hold the fertilizer until deliveries are wanted.
Why not construct a single berm around all of the questionable tanks so that any further spills would not escape from the property. Warning: don't use fly ash to construct berms.