About Our Neighbor, Bayer
I should start by pointing out that I’m not a journalist. I have this blog primarily because I wanted people to be able to Google my area and find nice things. This is a great place to live and I love it - but there is something that concerns me so much that I just have to talk about it. I may not be the best one to present the information (not a journalist, remember?) so I’d be happy if you could add your voice in a comment or a post on your own blog.
Last August, there was an explosion at the nearby Bayer plant in Institute, WV. We live about 12 miles away and I was asleep, but my husband woke me to ask, “What was that noise?” I fell back asleep without knowing just how scary that moment might have been. And now that I do know, it’s just hard to be quiet.
The explosion happened about 80 feet from a tank full of a chemical called methyl isocyanate, or MIC - the same chemical that killed thousands and adversely affected the health of 170,000 people in Bhopal, India in 1984. At Institute, two people were killed and nine injured. Property damage was widespread.
Bayer is the only company to manufacture and store large quantities of this chemical. According to the Charleston Gazette, “Bayer reports to EPA that it stores between 100,000 and 999,999 pounds of MIC at the plant.” Most of the MIC is stored underground, but at the time of the explosion there were 13,000 pounds of MIC in a “Day Tank” that had not yet been moved to the underground storage.
Bayer is the only plant that continues to exceed the EPA’s mandated threshold limit of 10,000 pounds. In fact, no other plants in the United States stockpile MIC.
According to the Chemical Safety Board, the unit operators at Bayer had been averaging 20 hours of overtime a week for three months leading up to the accident and had not been properly trained on the use of new computerized controls for the unit. Written instructions were out of date and didn’t include all steps. Fatigue and lack of training likely contributed to the accident.
A congressional investigation found that video cameras had been disconnected, air safety monitors weren’t working and that evidence had been removed from the scene and destroyed. The State Journal reports that an internal community relations strategy from Bayer stated “Our goal with People Concerned About MIC should be to marginalize them. Take a similar approach to The Charleston Gazette.”
Bayer is trying to avoid disclosures to the public using a rule from the Coast Guard’s 2002 Maritime Transportation Security Act, meant to safeguard sensitive information from falling into the hands of terrorists.
What was the worst case scenario? “300,912 people affected within a 25 mile radius.”
Senator Jay Rockefeller says, “These findings are an outrage. I was expecting bad news, but this is far worse than I could have imagined and very disturbing. Bayer Chemical Company owes all West Virginia families a clear explanation for this explosion, the response, and any potential hazards, and should cooperate fully with this investigation. We must make sure this never happens again.“
Why am I telling you all this? The majority of my family, friends and most of the people I’ve met in my entire life live within that 25 mile radius of Bayer. I’m not trying to run them off, but I do want them to be a responsible neighbor. I’d appreciate honesty about what happened, I’d like their employees to be properly trained and I’d like them to quit stockpiling a dangerous chemical. Having been born and raised here, I’m used to living near chemical companies. But I’m also used to having neighbors who are there for you and treat you well. Mistakes were made, people were killed and injured, and fear of what might have been led to a big cover up. I don’t care to be marginalized. Bayer, please be open and honest with me so I don’t have to be afraid to live near you.
And to the 911 responders, police, firemen and medics - thank you for all you do to keep us safe.
Photo courtesy of the Chemical Safety Board. If you’d like to read their presentation to the public regarding the Bayer explosion, you can download it as a PDF here.
April 29th, 2009 at 8:31 am
Bravo! I live across the river and a little over a mile, line-of-sight, from the plant, and the night of the explosion I was upstairs and thought our large oak tree had fallen against the house - several times, as the shockwave hit our house again and again. When we heard the sirens almost an hour later, we started watching the news and learned what had happened, but still there was no information forthcoming.
If there had been a release, we would all likely be dead, simply because Bayer would not reveal any information to the authorities in anything approaching a timely fashion.
I sincerely hope someone goes to jail over this, and that SOME agency will step in and make changes, the way we were promised two decades ago.
April 29th, 2009 at 8:47 am
Let’s see it happened last August and you still don’t have a reason for this?
April 29th, 2009 at 9:29 am
Wow, Mike, you live really close! We only heard the one BOOM, I can’t imagine a series of shockwaves and then not being able to find out what was going on. I should point out that the emergency responders did a great job and were commended by the CSB for their work - and taking care of people and the situation comes first, but it is terrifying not to have the information when you need it. The shelter in place was ordered 59 minutes after the explosion just in case, while Bayer still wouldn’t say what might be in the air.
Missy, the free PDF in the last paragraph details everything that led up to the explosion, but it’s a lot of chemical stuff that I don’t understand and I was afraid to try to put it into my own words. You can download and click through it like a Powerpoint presentation, it has a lot more information than I shared here.
April 29th, 2009 at 10:25 am
Sarah, great writing and great post. Thank you. I actually posted on this on my own blog today, focusing not on the details of the event so much as the courage of Maya Nye in her advocacy for the public interest. I appreciate your facts and details here.
I’m afraid your goal of getting an honest relationship with this industrial “neighbor” is unrealistic. After reading their PR strategy and listening to the outright words of coverup from their CEO, I think we all need to get our heads out of the sand, and get rid of this kind of business all together. They are too dangerous in every way, and they will NEVER prioritize the our lives and the lives of our loved ones over profits. Period.
April 29th, 2009 at 10:37 am
Sarah - this is just a great example of the value of blogging and how concerned citizens can take massive action. I found out about this post via Twitter. I applaud your efforts.
Why are politicians always outraged after the fact?
April 29th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
I live about 30 minutes away but am not at all surprised by how the execs at Bayer are trying to smooth things over by being “concerned neighbors”. I guess they’re following the examples of some of the other less-than-honest chemical and coal companies in the valley.
If the MIC tank explodes and the executives don’t make a sound - did it still really happen? *sigh*
April 29th, 2009 at 1:04 pm
I realize that you’re probably right, Elizabeth. This is Bayer’s chance to step up and do the right thing, and I hope they’ll do it. I know it’s hard for a big company to change, and their culture of covering up and trying to “marginalize” us would be hard to overcome. But the world has changed - anyone and everyone can become a part of the media. Facebook, Twitter and so on make it possible for us to reach hundreds or thousands of friends, who in turn can share with their friends … I’m hoping what we wrote today continues to have an effect, like ripples on a pond. The public isn’t nameless or faceless anymore, and the thought we can be ignored is no longer a sensible corporate strategy. Thank you for what you shared today, I appreciated it.
Ginny, I do indeed hope this will be a good example of massive action - we’re working on it!
Sherice, I like your last line so much I may have to print it on a T-shirt. Thank you.
April 29th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
You know how close we are. It happened around 10:30 that evening. We went to bed still not fully aware of what had happened and when I woke up the next day, there was a message on our machine (that came in at around 2:30 am) telling us to “shelter in place”. Four hours after the explosion. Good thing we were already asleep and “sheltering in place”!
April 29th, 2009 at 2:37 pm
Sarah, I’ll buy that t-shirt if its’ made. Heck, I’ll buy a bunch and give them out.
April 29th, 2009 at 2:58 pm
Evil Twin’s Wife, I worry about a shelter in place during the night. We’re supposed to turn off our furnace or air conditioner so that contaminated air isn’t being pulled into the house. If I’m sleeping, I won’t do that. What then?
Moutain Laurel, maybe a “Marginalize THIS” shirt, too? (That kind of ticked me off.)
April 29th, 2009 at 7:39 pm
Sarah -
How scary! Sounds to me like Bayer is conducting a LWH (Lawsuit Waiting to Happen). Too bad - if they just engaged with the community, they could probably save face with everyone.
Tina
April 30th, 2009 at 8:23 am
Before it was Bayer, it was Union Carbide.
I had no idea what I was in for when I moved to this area in 1995 from the North Central Part of the state. In the first 9 months of living in the Saint Albans area, I had 4 shelter in place emergencies. Those were just the ones we were told about.
I also became close to a family who had members working not just here, but about 4 other chemical plants in the area. We had a secret code, that if they called and said their “tuna sandwich was bad that day for lunch,” or they “thought it was going bad,” we knew there was an undisclosed leak. The employees all have secret messages to warn family, because otherwise they would be immediately fired by their employers.
How sad is that?
So after renting in the Saint Albans area for a year, we moved further out to the Hurricane area, where Sarah lives now, thinking it would be safer. While we did have fewer shelter in place emergencies out there, it was still risky. As she said, she felt this blast. I can only imagine what it felt like closer in. Also, you still have the worries of all the chemical trucks potentially wrecking on the Interstate nearby too.
It was because of these concerns, that we chose not to permanently put down roots in this area. My husband at the time, had a good job. We had good friends. But we worried about our children. The Kanawha Valley has a very high cancer rate. I might say (as a former nurse) it’s a “cluster” area. I didn’t want to expose my children to this.
We moved in 1999, and as many jobs as these plants provide, I wonder how many more, like me, are motivated by the conditions to move? They don’t talk about that. But I am one. It’s not worth a job or an economy, especially in light of the inferior safety conditions, to lose one child in my view.
And I remember very well what happened in 1984 with this same chemical, MIC. Here is a wikipedia description: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster
You are doing a brave thing, commenting on this Sarah. Not a lot of locals want to stand up, for fear of family members losing jobs and such. But again, the bigger picture needs to be exposed here.
April 30th, 2009 at 8:50 am
That more “secrets” like this aren’t exposed today is beyond me. We follow celebrities around to see if they cut their toenails with their left or right hand, but something of extreme danger and importance, like this, gets ignored.
Bravo to you, Sarah, for bringing this to the forefront. Very disconcerting that companies like Bayer (or any company) would continue doing business like this today and that our government doesn’t do more to prevent it.
April 30th, 2009 at 8:53 am
Additional information… I used to live in Lebanon Pennsylvania. My house was about 1 mile from an abandoned Bayer plant. I can’t verify any of this information and most of it is heresay but the locals said that bayer had abandoned the plant and there was thousands of gallons of some deadly chemical left in underground storage and that the storage had started to lead into the local water table. I also believe that the site was designated one of the worst chemical spills in america and was sited for superfund cleanup under the reagan administration. I only lived there for two years but found it quite scarry that a large corporation could pull this off.