Wed Jan 15, 2014, 12:36 AM

WillyT (72,631 posts)

Freedom Industries: Meet The Chemical Provider At The Center Of The West Virginia Chemical Spill

Freedom Industries: Meet The Chemical Provider At The Center Of The West Virginia Chemical Spill
By Dennis Lynch - IBTimes
on January 12 2014 5:22 PM

The site of the Freedom Industries chemical spill. via Flickr user iwasaround: http://www.flickr.com/photos/iwasaround/ iwasaround via Flickr

<snip>

Freedom Industries, the company responsible for the recent chemical spill in West Virginia, has had its hands full with not just the cleanup, but with the resulting backlash from angry West Virginians and authorities. Here is some information about Freedom Industries and its handling of the spill.

On its website, Freedom Industries says it was founded in 1986 and has two production facilities. The Etowah River Terminal, where the leak occurred, can store 4 million gallons worth of chemicals. According to WOWKTV, Freedom bought the property in December.

The website says it is a “full service producer of specialty chemicals for the mining, steel, and cement industries [and] a leading producer of freeze conditioning agents, dust control palliatives, flotation reagents, water treatment polymers and other specialty chemicals.” The leaked chemical, 4-methylcyclohexane methanol (MCHM), is used in a coal cleaning process.

Kanwaha County Commission President Kent Carper said yesterday that a containment wall meant to prevent chemicals from reaching soil at Freedom Industries was in need of $1 million in repairs, but was never fixed...

<snip>

More: http://www.ibtimes.com/freedom-industries-meet-chemical-provider-center-west-virginia-chemical-spill-1536036

Main site: http://www.freedom-industries.com/about.html

7 replies, 2059 views

Thread info Bookmark this thread Trash this thread

Reply to this thread

Always highlight: 10 newest replies | Replies posted after I mark a forum

Replies to this discussion thread

7 replies	Author	Time	Post
Freedom Industries: Meet The Chemical Provider At The Center Of The West Virginia Chemical Spill (Original post)	WillyT	Jan 2014	OP
Who owned the storage facility before Freedom?	exboyfil	Jan 2014	#1
Good question.	El_Johns	Jan 2014	#3
It was a Pennzoil fuel terminal	jmowreader	Jan 2014	#5
Thanks	exboyfil	Jan 2014	#6
Who owned the storage facility before Freedom?	exboyfil	Jan 2014	#2
is that little wall in the front	onethatcares	Jan 2014	#4
The chain link fence is to keep people out, like any other chain link fence	jmowreader	Jan 2014	#7

Response to WillyT (Original post)

Wed Jan 15, 2014, 01:51 AM

exboyfil (17,602 posts)

1. Who owned the storage facility before Freedom?

Buying the property in December and then having this leak - very suspicious especially since someone had been trying to stop the leak without informing the regulators.

Reply to this post

Response to exboyfil (Reply #1)

Wed Jan 15, 2014, 04:01 AM

El_Johns (1,805 posts)

3. Good question.

Reply to this post

Response to exboyfil (Reply #1)

Wed Jan 15, 2014, 06:51 AM

jmowreader (49,032 posts)

5. It was a Pennzoil fuel terminal

http://www.etowahriverterminal.com/profile/default.htm

It started out life in the 1930s as a gasoline and diesel bulk plant for Pennzoil. (Yes, Pennzoil used to sell gasoline.) In 2001, Pennzoil sold the plant in what looks like an ESOP and it became Etowah River Terminal LLC. Please don't ask me why a chemical company with all its operations in West Virginia named itself after a river in Georgia. As far as I can tell, the only change in their operation was selling off all the fuels, cleaning the tanks and refilling them with mining chemicals. Then came December 2012 and Freedom Industries bought Etowah River Terminal.

Reply to this post

Response to jmowreader (Reply #5)

Wed Jan 15, 2014, 08:45 AM

exboyfil (17,602 posts)

6. Thanks

I am not sure what to make of it. One of the owners of these separate but now merged companies failed to pay taxes he withheld for several years. I was thinking possibly some big pocket was trying to unload a problem. A merger like that would expose all of the companies to the liability though.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303819704579316951855899732

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-13/west-virginia-company-completed-merger-days-before-river-spill.html

Reply to this post

Response to WillyT (Original post)

Wed Jan 15, 2014, 01:51 AM

exboyfil (17,602 posts)

2. Who owned the storage facility before Freedom?

Buying the property in December and then having this leak - very suspicious especially since someone had been trying to stop the leak without informing the regulators.

Reply to this post

Response to WillyT (Original post)

Wed Jan 15, 2014, 06:09 AM

onethatcares (15,431 posts)

4. is that little wall in the front

the "containment" wall? Looks more like a 6 ft high chain link fence. How do you stop a liquid with a chain link fence?

Reply to this post

Response to onethatcares (Reply #4)

Wed Jan 15, 2014, 06:15 PM

jmowreader (49,032 posts)

7. The chain link fence is to keep people out, like any other chain link fence

The pictures of this place from the river won't show the containment wall...a containment wall for fluids looks like a shallow swimming pool, and the tanks are standing in it. Go on google maps, search for "Freedom Industries, Charleston WV" and go into satellite view...you'll see the wall right off.

Reply to this post

General Discussion (Forum)