SIGNIFICANT WOOLWICH EVENTS INVOLVING HAZARDOUS MATERIALS

Tomorrow evening at Woolwich Council there will be a Presentation by Dale Martin, Deputy Fire Chief. The title is "Hazard Identification Risk Assessment". Currently his Presentation can be found on-line on the Township's website under Council Meetings. One page of text as well as a couple of pages of photos really caught my eye. The photos include a tanker truck with hazardous contents in the ditch as well a photo of an ongoing fire at Chemtura and finally an aerial photo of Varnicolor Chemical.

The page of text that caught my eye is a listing of Significant Events in Woolwich that involved hazardous materials. Some of these I had not heard of. In 1958 there was an Ammonia leak at the former Nutrite (Read fertilizer). Breslube had an unspecified incident in 1984 which I vaguely recall was probably a fire. Sulco had an Oleum (Sulphuric Acid) spill in 1990 which I definitely do recall. Bridgeland Terminals (BTL) the local (Elmira) trucking company had a Hydrochloric Acid leak which I do not recall. Odd.

In total there are fourteen incidents listed. Varnicolor Chemical is listed as an event in 1992 which was after they were closed but still having leaking barrels being cleaned up and removed. Uniroyal/Chemtura have a total of eight of these fourteen events. Yes that's right eight of the fourteen. They include a Hydrogen explosion (1975), various solvent fires in the late 70s and 80s as well as a potentially life threatening Chlorine leak in 1994. The early 2000s were a bad time for Chemtura with assorted leaks and fires in 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2006. Oddly the 2010 BLE (acetone & diphenylamine) fugitive release into the Elmira atmosphere is not mentioned. In fact there were two of them albeit the second was quite minor just a year or so ago.

All of this begs the question: What has or are Chemtura doing for Woolwich Township or Councils that have insulated them from the ire of Woolwich residents? Above and beyond jobs that is. Are their corporate property taxes particularily significant, or not? Do they donate to some local charities? I believe they do. With a history of fires, explosions, spills, leaks, fugitive air emissions, contaminated groundwater and at one time a totally dead Canagagigue Creek; one has to admire the perseverance of Elmira (particularily) citizens. How long will it last I wonder? What will be the last straw?