The WiZard is In
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Chemical trash
Magnesium Waste
Hazardous waste finds use as low-cost fertilizer
Abstracted from: Chemical & Engineering News December 24, 1984
Phoenix Resource Recovery (PRR). PRR was created that year [1977] to
reprocess magnesium rich smelter slag from Northwest Alloys, Addy, Wash.,
a subsidiary of Aluminum Co. of America.
In the refining process, fluxing salts—potassium chloride and magnesium
chloride—are added to purify the magnesium metal and prevent it from
oxidizing. When the pour is made, some metal is left behind along with spent
fluxing salts. That combination is poured into molds, and the resulting sludge
bars, containing 18% magnesium, are trucked to PRR for recovery of the
metal, the company's principal business.
The recovery process is simple: The bars are crushed and the crushed
material is passed through screens. The malleable metal does not break
down and is captured on the screens. The material that does pass through
the screens consists of the fluxing salt residue and some fine magnesium
metal that cannot be recovered economically. PRR stockpiled the waste at its
plant site, and by the summer of 1983 the pile had grown to about 50,000
tons.
McLucas admits that the pile was unsightly and possessed some pretty
unpleasant properties. The fresh material contains 2% magnesium nitrides
which, upon contact with the atmosphere, hydrate to produce ammonia and
magnesium hydroxide. During temperature inversions in the valley, local
residents became rather aware of the ammonia emissions. Additionally, the
reaction is exothermic and occasionally generated sufficient heat to ignite the
fine magnesium metal in the mixture, which produced what she calls
"spectacular fires."
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The WiZard is In
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Once just Chemicals, and Now Bombs
Once just Chemicals, and Now Bombs
NY Times 30ix88
By KEITH SCHNEIDER
NITRO, W.Va., Sept. 27 - The discovery of an explosive cylinder of deadly
hydrogen cyanide at an abandoned plant here has thrown into sharp
focus a potentially serious threat, posed by deteriorating chemicals, to
communities across the country.
The chemical contained in the four-foot-tall cylinder is at least 20 years old
and has undergone a slow process that has transformed a stable liquid
into a highly unstable solid believed to weigh about 30 pounds.
Ever since it was found Aug. 26 at the center of the 11-acre plant, owned
by the Artel Chemical Corporation, workers clad in white jumpsuits and
breathing from air tanks have been kept busy trying to isolate the cylinder
by carefully moving out of the way thousands of drums of chemicals that
are more stable but equally inflammable.
The Environmental Protection Agency hopes to evacuate virtually all of
this town's 8,000 residents next month and then destroy the cylinder and
its contents in a controlled explosion at the plant, which is only 1,500 feet
from Nitro's business center.
Threat to Town Centers
Federal officials here and in other regions say that cylinders of explosive
chemicals are being found at hundreds of abandoned hazardous waste
sites in communities across the country, many close to the center of town,
as in Nitro. In numerous cases, the chemicals have become so unstable
that a simple nudge can set off the blast, placing entire communities in the
path of uncontrollable fires and clouds of poisonous gases.
The plant here in Nitro is one of 1,177 hazardous waste sites for whose
cleanup Congress has already authorized $8.5 billion, with billions more to
be needed. Although it is not known how many of the sites have
deteriorating chemicals that are ready to explode, Federal inspectors and
local fire chiefs: say that their discovery of such wastes I is becoming
increasingly common.
"What we have in Nitro is typical of what we're finding now," said Stephen
Jarvela, chief of the emergency response section at the E.P.A.'s Philadel-
phia office. "Chemicals dry out, crystallize and become shock-sensitive.
Bumping, jarring, even opening them to find out what's inside, can heat
the molecules enough to-cause an explosion."
Fire Struck Elizabeth
What officials fear is an explosion and fire like the fierce blaze that
engulfed, the Chemical Control Corporation waste site in Elizabeth, N.J.,
on April 21, 1980. In that episode, two thirds of the 40,000 drums of
chemical wastes stored on an isolated two-acre site in an industrial area
along the Elizabeth River were destroyed. The cause of the fire, which
burned for 15 hours, has never been determined, although unstable
chemicals are the prime suspect. Fortunately a wind blowing eastward
carried clouds of toxic gases away from the, heart of Elizabeth, and the
clouds had largely' dissipated by the time they reached the next
population center, on Staten Island.
Here, along the eastern bank of the Kanawha River 11 miles ' west of
Charleston, workers under contract to the E.P.A. have been occupied for
months with averting a similar blaze. The Artel plant was abandoned late
last year after 35 years of operation, is thoroughly contaminated by
leaking chemicals and lies along the railroad tracks that run through the
heart of Nitro, a town that got its name from an enormous nitro-cellulose
gunpowder factory that was built by the Government in 1918.
Last June here, inspectors with the E.P.A. and the State Department ot
Natural Resources discovered hundreds of tanks and more than 4,000
drums of chemicals, many rusting an leaking. Among the chemicals
stacked in dilapidated warehouses and unsteady piles were drums of
sodium amide and chromyl chloride, both of which, when mixed with other
agents are inflammable and explosive. The inspectors also found a
railroad tank cat containing 9,000 gallons of methyl mercaptan, which is
added to natural gas to give it an odor and is as explosive as gasoline, as
well as drums that were labeled as containing phosgene, a deadly
component of nerve gas.
Federal officials, concerned that leaking chemicals might mix and produce
"an uncontrollable situation,' began to stabilize the site. But in late August,
workers stumbled upon something far more unstable, and thus fat more
dangerous, than the chemicals that had been discovered initially: It was
the cylinder of hydrogen cyanide leaning against a crumbling concrete
wall in a roofless storage shed. After building a curtain of sandbags
around the cylinder, Federal managers sought help from experts.
Manufactured for Two Decades
The cylinder and its contents were manufactured from 1948 to 1968 by
the American Cyanamid Company, one of the nation's largest chemical
manufacturers. Hydrogen cyanide was generally used as an insecticide by
exterminators, grain elevators and furriers But it was also useful in various
chemical processes, and Elmer A. Fike, from whom Artel acquired
controlling interest in the plant two years ago, said in an interview today
that he bought the cylinder of hydrogen cyanide to conduct laboratory
experiments there ir the 1960's.
Mr. Fike, who from November 1980 to February 1987 was cited 14 times
by state and Federal inspectors for numerous violations of environmental
laws, described himself in the inter view as "not a good housekeeper."
American Cyanamid was aware that hydrogen cyanide was unstable
and during the two decades when the chemical was on the market,
required customers to return cylinders every 90 days so that they could be
cleaned and refilled.
According to specialists at American Cyanamid, liquid hydrogen cyanide
forms a granular polymer over time. If a piece of the polymer is jarred
loose and falls into any liquid that may main, a violent chain reaction
results heating the contents, building enormous pressure and turning the
cylinder in a bomb.
Early Control Setbacks
After production of hydrogen cyanide was halted in 1968 in favor of
superior and more stable insecticides American Cyanamid tried to locate
and retrieve all the cylinders. one day in 1970, while company technician!
were drawing the liquid out of a cylinder found at a grain elevator in the
Middle West, the cylinder began to heat up, to such an extent that the
paint or its exterior blistered. Then it exploded. The technicians had
enough time it seek cover, and nobody was injured But the incident
Alerted the company to the unacceptable danger of trying it empty the
cylinders manually.
In 1976, the company tried another approach, involving explosives. But an
Army ordnance squad made *an error in disposing of two cylinders in
Stamford, Tex., and the resulting explosion caused extensive property
damage.
The company now uses a nine-year old method developed in part by
E.P.A Specialists in Dallas. The technique entails removing the ends of
the cylinder with explosive cutting charges, which are detonated in a pit
alongside containers of diesel fuel and gasoline. The chemical, which is
released as a gas is then instantly consumed in a fireball,
Jet Research Center Inc., an explosives manufacturer in Mansfield, Tex.,
is under contract to American Cyanamid to help destroy hydrogen
cylinders wherever they are found and has done so 14 times, in Canada,
Australia and the United States. The most recent occurrence was last
April, when two small cylinders were discovered in Minneapolis and blown
up in the nearby town of Anoka without incident.
Doug P. Fox, the E.P.A. official who is coordinating the cleanup in Nitro,
says he now hopes to destroy the cylinder here on Oct. 9. Twice this
month, after questions had arisen over the legal liability of companies that
help carry out such an operation, Mr. Fox was led to delay it.
The on-again, off-again evacuation has angered Nitro's Mayor, Don
Karnes. "They've put us all through a lot of pain," said Mr. Karnes, a
former mechanic and garage owner who took office in July. "It's costing us
thousands of dollars we can't afford to plan for the evacuation. I can't
believe that we're going through all of this to remove a little tank. I can't
see where it's such a big deal.”
But Mr. Fox, whose agency has already spent $2 million making the old
plant here safer, says residents do not understand the hazards. "We were
requested by the State of West Virginia to stabilize a situation that was
very dangerous," he said. "We intend to stay until the threat is gone."
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The WiZard is In
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Trash Collector Dies After Inhaling Discarded [HF] Acid
Trash Collector Dies After Inhaling Discarded Acid
By LAWRENCE VAN GELDER
New York Times 13xi96
[edited /djh/]
A New York City sanitation worker died yesterday after he inhaled the
fumes of a corrosive acid from a discarded container that burst under the
compacting blades of a garbage truck making routine collections in
Brooklyn.
Fire Department hazardous materials experts identified the substance
as hydrofIuoric acid, which is often used to etch glass. The acid
immediately burns the skin like fire and dehydrates it.
A second sanitation worker was injured in the incident, which brought
the Mayor and Sanitation Commissioner rushing to the bum unit of New
York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, touched off an investigation by the
police and sanitation departments and raised the possibility of homicide
charges against those responsible for leaving the acid to be picked up.
The Brooklyn District Attorney's office said: "The investigation is
continuing. Depending on what evidence is obtained in that investigation,
there could be homicide charges if there is an arrest.
Lucien Chalfen, a spokesman for the Department of Sanitation, said the
incident was avoidable. "The appropriate procedure in this case would
have been to notify the Department of Environmental Protection, and they
will then recommend the proper procedure for disposal," he said.
Normally, the Sanitation Department picks up only residential refuse and
waste from public garbage cans on the street, while private haulers
dispose of industrial garbage. Mr. Chalfen said there was no way of
knowing whether some industrial user had illegally placed the acid where
it could be picked up by sanitation workers.
The dead man was identified as Michael Hanly, 49, of Brooklyn, a
Sanitation Department worker for 22 years. His injured partner, who
suffered bums on the face hands when he came to Mr. Hanly's aid, was
identified as Thomas Giammarino of Staten Island, a member of the
department for years who was listed in stable condition the bum unit,
where he was held for further observation.
"People are unaware of what they dispose of and how they dispose of
things," he said "Frequently, sanitation workers are stuck by needles.
People many times dispose liquid thinners and paints and so forth. When
the cans break open, they spatter. this case, this is a very highly caustic
acid” Mr. Chalfen said yesterday's incident began around 9 A.M. when Mr.
Hanly ,Ad Mr. Giammarino were working their regular collection route.
Their truck was nearly loaded when one of .them picked up a parcel and
threw it in the back.
"One of the sanitation workers Was doing what they call cycling the
blades, to compact, and the other turned away to pick up other material,
and he heard like a pop, and this acid, which is hydrofluoric acid, just
sprayed out," he said.
Gerard Parkin, a professor of chemistry at Columbia University, said
hydrofluoric acid is usually stored in a plastic container. "I presume that's
what the pop was," he said. [Anyone remember when it was stored in
wax containers?]
He said the acid not only burns but ,also dehydrates the skin, adding
that even as little as a drop "generates a Very, very painful experience."
Mr. Hanly inhaled the acid's fumes, leading to his death in the
emergency room of New York Hospital, Mr. Chalfen said. Mr. Giammarno,
who was 10 or 15 feet away collecting other refuse when the acid
container burst, rushed to his aid and pulled his partner away from the
truck.
Later, the truck was impounded. Mr. Chalfen said a gallon container
believed to have held the acid was recovered.
After the two workers were injured, they were taken to the Manhattan
hospital in a Fire Department ambulance, while a department hazardous
materials team set about identifying the volatile material.
Eventually, the Fire Department ordered and took part in the
detoxification of the emergency room, hospital personnel, its own
personnel and ambulance and members of a Bensonhurst ambulance
crew that initially responded.
For a time, the hospital's emergency entrance was closed off for
decontamination. No injuries were reported.
Mr. Chalfen, the Sanitation Department spokesman, said, "Basically this
kind of thoughtless act has created a tremendous amount of pain both for
the families involved as well as for each member of the department."
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quicksilver
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It would be a classic to have an address or some other thing from a town called NITRO.
Most likely they changed it to something Politically Correct.....
I could only imagine.....
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The WiZard is In
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Quote: Originally posted by quicksilver  | It would be a classic to have an address or some other thing from a town called NITRO.
Most likely they changed it to something Politically Correct.....
I could only imagine..... |
William D Wintz
Nitro The World War I Boom Town : an Illustrated
History of Nitro, West Virginia and the land on which it
stands
Pictorial Histories Publishing Co.
Charleston, West Virgina
1985
-----------
History 99.5%
Technical 0.5
Nitro was the site of the worlds largest gunpowder (smokeless)
plant.
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