Any thoughts on the Chemical/Oil Plant in Houston that blew up last night?

[noclonyofthechimp]

just on CNN. Deliberate?

[pnutchuck]

1. who knows?

Nobody was killed or injured and I find it hard to believe that a deliberate attack would be made without injuries. If deliberate, it's a setup by the Bushies to keep us afraid.

[noclonyofthechimp]

5. Agree.

[BiggJawn]

2. A refinery blew up last night?

Sorry, I don't get Video Propaganda piped in anymore, and I haven't heard about this on the radio...

VERY interesting....Crude prices start to slide down a little, then something happens to fuck with the supply...

They'll do ANYTHING to justify those high prices at the pump and heating furnace, won't they?

This isn't about keeping us afraid, IMO, it's all about justifying the rape at the pump.

[noclonyofthechimp]

3. This is more along the lines of where I was going. I don't think it

was any terrorist attack, but some kind of "statement". They are investigating it and we SHOULD hear more soon. They just did a quick clip on CNN about it.

[BiggJawn]

10. When the prices go back up again....

"Oh, remember? There was that refinery fire last week. That's why the prices have gone back up, even though Crude Futures are under $40..."

I saw the local prices hit a 14 Cent-per-gallon "spike" over the holiday last week. $1.84 on Monday, $1.98 on Wednesday, same all through the weekend, then on this past Monday, back to $1.84...It's MAJIK!

Now it's $1.78. after the news of the fire soaks in, I bet it'll be back up to $1.90 by Monday...

[TexasBushwhacker]

4. I looked it up

It's about 6 miles from the neighborhood I grew up in. The area of the chemical plant is surrounded by residential developments. They're lucky it wasn't worse. Here's the coverage on a local TV station:

http://www.click2houston.com/news/3971250/detail.html

They say that the same plant had a fire about this time last year too. A lot of these chemical plants and refineries are OLD and have been grandfathered out of a lot of EPA regulations, courtesy of our former governor.

[noclonyofthechimp]

6. Thanks for the info. Why do you think the same thing happened

around this time last year?

[TexasBushwhacker]

9. Seals are getting loose because of the temperature changes

Some are also probably old and cracking, but still it's an issue of regulations and MAINTENANCE, both of which cost money.

[peekaloo]

7. an explosion in SW Houston that was felt in League City and Baytown?

Yowsah!

Your last line says it all!

[Historic NY]

8. LQQK for a spike in gas prices again!!!

At the rate we keep losing refinery capacity, we will not be able to process oil for gas.

Not one new one has been built since 1976, but about a hundred have shut down as aging inefficient polluting operations.

[Bridget Burke]

11. These things blow up all the time.

I heard one of the explosions while walking from the bus stop; it was raining, so I thought the big "boom" was thunder.

Marcus Oil & Gas is not a refinery but something called a "wax plant." Fire officials said the company specializes in melting chemicals to make wax. Polyethylene was believed to be the burning material.

www.click2houston.com/news/3971250/detail.html
www.marcusoil.com/index.htm

Coverage of the 20th anniversary of the Bhopal "accident" had not escaped my notice. But Dow/Union Carbide owns plenty of facilities in Houston; Marcus isn't one of them. This particular plant had problems before; I believe somebody's mentioned how Texas law "regulates" the petro-chemical industry.

[Lady Effingbroke]

12. The amazing thing is that accidents don't happen more often.

The vast majority of plants run 24/7/365, and overall they have a commendable safety record, considering that many of the operating units deal with some dangerous shit, either as raw materials or finished product.

[elehhhhna]

14. 40 minutes for Hazmat to show up--the F Dpartments had to wait

that long to ofind out what the plant processed before they could put water on the fire (some chems react poorly with water). Shouldn't the local Fire House know what plants are processing what in their own territory? Particuliarly in a residential area?

Better hope nobody in Al Queda's got an IQ higher than about 60.

[Lady Effingbroke]

15. Yup. The reason why I said that plants/refineries have an amazing safety

record is because I worked in one for a while (5 years as an operator) and am familiar with exactly what you are saying. IIRC, it is the responsibility of the plants to provide MSDS on the chemicals involved to outside first responders such as the local HAZMAT team/fire department. The operators on shift at the time should have had that information immediately available for the HAZMAT team.

[amazona]

13. they blow up a lot you know

It happens quite frequently. Not usually considered top news outside the region.

[dkofos]

16. For the insurance???

[lpbk2713]

17. Any gummint scrutiny or punitive action will be

directly proportional to the amount of this company's contrib to the BFEE reselection campaign coffers. They no doubt were good contribs if the local FD would let them slide on what was required of them. Somebody at the FD should be fired for letting a chemical plant slide like that. They should have regular inspections and they should ensure that all paperwork is correct and up to date.

[TexasBushwhacker]

18. Unfortunately, state laws would supercede any local fire department codes

No one at the fire department let this plant "slide". It's the lax state regulations, and the grandfathering of older plants and refineries (which almost all of them are) that's the problem. We'll have to have a tragedy of Texas City proportions before anything will change, and maybe not even then.

The 1947 Texas City Disaster happened when a ship loaded with tons of fertilizer exploded and caused a chain reaction of fires and explosions among the refineries and chemical plants. Approximately 600 people died and over 3,500 were injured in a town with a population of only 16 to 18,000. The force of the explosion was so great that the 1.5 ton anchor of the ship was hurled 2 miles and imbedded 10 feet into the ground when it landed.

The thing is, most of those plants and refineries were rebuilt in the same place, just as close to each other, and still present a tremendous risk for a chain reaction explosion such as the one that happened almost 60 years ago. "The industrial complexes around the Texas City area were at that time (and still are) connected by pipelines that caused the fires and explosions at the Monsanto plant to quickly spread to the surrounding plants." Downtown Houston is only 40 miles northwest of Texas City.

http://www.chron.com/content/chronicle/metropolitan/txcity/index.html

http://sdsd.essortment.com/texascityexplo_rkvi.htm