The ferry had been crossing the river from Algiers to Chalmette.
The state continues on Saturday to investigate the source of sulphur dioxide that is blamed for complaints of eye and throat irritation by passengers aboard a ferry crossing the Mississippi River just below New Orleans, a DEQ spokesman said.?
The toxic chemical is believed to be coming from a Rain CII petroleum coke processing plant in Chalmette.
"I talked to one of our air scientists in the region last night," said Rodney Mallett, spokesman for DEQ, in an email response this morning to requests for comment. "They are aware of a SO2 (sulphur dioxide) release today and suspect it is from the Rain facility.
"West Jefferson Hospital staff called the DEQ responder with questions regarding what the ferry captain and two others were allegedly exposed to," Mallett said. "We have contacted Rain CII and they will discuss the situation with the hospital."
According to a report on WVUE-TV Friday night, a DEQ spokesman said air quality tests showed the presence of sulphur dioxide.
The St. Bernard Parish Sheriff's Office said it was called about 6 p.m. Friday by someone on the ferry, who reported the passengers' complaints and said?there was a gray cloud sitting above the river. The ferry had been crossing the river from Algiers to Chalmette.?
The ferry had resumed operations Saturday morning, according to the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development web site.
Louisiana State Police Trooper Melissa Matey said her agency was told a nearby chemical plant had been shut down for the past week, but began producing again Friday.
Rain CII officials have not responded to request for comments.
The Rain CII plant produces calcined petroleum coke by heating petroleum coke produced by oil refineries to remove contaminants so the carbon-based material can be turned into anodes for production of aluminum.
That process removes sulphur dioxide and other pollutants from the coke.
According to DEQ records, Rain CII was verbally granted a variance on Nov. 30 to increase the number of hours that a piece of equipment called a pyroscrubber stack was allowed to vent sulphur dioxide and other pollutants into the air at the company's Chalmette Coke Plant. According to an approval letter signed Dec. 5 by DEQ Assistant Secretary Sam Phillips confirming the earlier variance approval, the variance was required because of "another boiler tube rupture which has disabled the waste heat recovery system" that normally removed the pollutants.
However, the variance does not allow an increase in the allowed amount of sulphur dioxide that already was being emitted from the plant, which would have been 268.8 tons through Feb. 28, the end of the variance period, according to the letter.
Normally, the gas stream is vented through the plant's waste heat boiler or baghouse, both of which are pollution reduction processes. But the company also is allowed to use the Pyroscrubber Stack as a bypass for up to 500 hours a year during outages of the waste heat boiler or baghouse.
The variance would add to the bypass total by 336 hours, according to the DEQ variance.
"A variance does not authorize the maintenance of a nuisance or a danger to public health and safety," said the letter from Phillips.
Stay with NOLA.com as more information becomes available.
Source: http://www.nola.com/traffic/index.ssf/2012/12/louisiana_environmental_offici.html
north korea news north korea news giuliana and bill giuliana and bill bill rancic nflx jennifer hudson
No comments:
Post a Comment