Regulations, Schmegulations

Filed in National by on November 25, 2018

Shit covered romaine lettuce and this gas leak (that could have been a gas leak with a catastrophic explosion) are probably not related to 20 years of “cutting regulations” that are “choking businesses.” Right?

PENNSVILLE, N.J. (AP) — A chemical leak shut down the Delaware Memorial Bridge in both directions Sunday evening, bringing traffic on a major East Coast artery to a standstill on one of the busiest travel days of the year.

The leak stems from the Delaware chemical production facility Croda Atlas Point, located near the twin suspension bridges on a major route between Washington and New York City, Holloway Terrace Fire Company Public Information Officer George Greenley said.

The leaked chemical is ethylene oxide, a highly flammable gas that is a finished product stemming from methanol, Greenley said.

Who had the bright idea to build a chemical plant at the foot of the bridge anyway?

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Jason330 is a deep cover double agent working for the GOP. Don't tell anybody.

Comments (10)

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  1. what did you say says:

    The Democrats of NJ

  2. Nancy Willing says:

    There is a story about Croda that still lingers, You can still read it in the Bond Bill epilogue if you look for it.

    Remember Tom McGonigle, Jack Markell’s CoS who landed at Drinker Biddle in 2012? That is the same firm aggressive land use attorney Shawn Tucker works for and it’s the same firm that took in Jack Markell’s former Secretary of Development Alan Levin when he left public office.

    Levin was literally days from leaving DEDO (and jumping to DB), Tucker was representing the Croda plant upgrade and was furious with Dave Grimaldi and Tom Gordon for delaying the newly proposed facility upgrade until they had a second environmental study done. Requiring an independent study was to ensure safety considering the extreme danger of the proposed chemical processes involved and proximity to residential neighborhoods and the bridge.

    So at the end of session, Tucker showed up at leg hall with Alan Levin in tow and they presented some allegations that Gordon’s delay was baseless, convincing Quinn Johnson and Dave Sokola and the rest of the bond committee to put NCC on notice and give them until date certain to release construction permits or the state would take jurisdiction over the parcel. It is still in the bond bill’s epilogue language (June 2015).

    Gee, way to put politics ahead of public safety, folks. [Was Gordon piling on with a requirement for access through the property for his dream container port? yes, Likely but who can now say the cautious second look at the dangers wasn’t justified?]

    https://www.delawareonline.com/story/news/local/2015/06/26/state-county-battle/29361175/
    Lawmakers back state takeover of New Castle plant permits
    A House-Senate panel tucked a footnote into the state’s capital budget Friday authorizing a state takeover of New Castle County’s review and permitting authority for a $170 million factory expansion near the Delaware Memorial Bridge. The move left a furious County Executive Tom Gordon threatening a lawsuit to defend county Home Rule powers and state officials claiming that needless county permit delays had raised worries that Croda Inc. would walk away from the plan, taking hundreds of construction and regular jobs with it…..State officials said Friday the county had moved too slowly on permits, complicating the review with safety and technical questions outside the county’s regular oversight responsibilities.

    …Gordon questioned the true economic benefit and accused the state of bowing to chemical industry demands for quick action on a new chemical reactor and process at the plant, without adequate safety assessments. “It’s under the bridge and near two developments. I asked for evidence that they had a public hearing with community members present,” Gordon said. “I’m not allowed to ask? This isn’t a 7-11. This is something serious.” The epilogue item would give the Office of State Planning responsibility for assuring that county subdivision, land development, construction permitting and code enforcement requirements are met.

  3. Jason330 says:

    Gordon questioned the true economic benefit and accused the state of bowing to chemical industry demands for quick action on a new chemical reactor and process at the plant, without adequate safety assessments. “It’s under the bridge and near two developments. I asked for evidence that they had a public hearing with community members present,” Gordon said. “I’m not allowed to ask? This isn’t a 7-11. This is something serious.”

    Thanks, Nancy. As bad as he was, Gordon had a valid point. We don’t need terrorists planting bombs under bridges when we have “economic development” handling that.

    • Not to mention the environmental racism that comes with the siting of these facilities.

      Just one more question: Why was it left to someone from the Holloway Terrace Fire Company to announce this? Not DNREC? Not DELDOT? Not the bleeping Governor’s office? Was the Holloway Terrace Fire Company the lead agency in this fiasco? I don’t think so. Although, in Delaware, you never know.

      • jason330 says:

        We drove to the Wilmington Train station last night. Waze routed us due north on 13 avoiding 95 and 495. The smell was strong from Minquadale all the way to the station, but there were no announcements on WSTW.

        No warnings. Nothing.

        • mediawatch says:

          Jason,
          If you’ve got an ear for news, WSTW is the last place to be listening.
          If you want to keep a disaster a secret in Delaware, stage it on a Sunday night, when the number of news media personnel on duty statewide can be counted on one hand.

  4. Nancy Willing says:

    I was following the facebook comments last night and neighbor after neighbor reported getting no warning or not one for hours after the problem started. There is supposed to be an alarm sounding right at the facility that was not implemented.

    Bill Dunn is an subject matter expert as these manufacturing processes were his profession at DuPont. He wrote this on his facebook today –

    Having worked with a sister chemical, (BDO) butanediol, I got interested in the chemistry that Croda was applying to make PDO, propanediol. Croda publicizes there green chemistry being applied at their Delaware facility. Below is three different methods for making PDO and in my opinion, they are applying the most dangerous method. AND, DNREC doesn’t have enough competent people to do a proper evaluation of their process.

    Bill was the Civic League for NCC nominee for the Coastal Zone Act RAC as a citizen member with appropriate technical expertise. He was rejected by Gavin et al probably bc of his activism. But they only had one citizen member on it with appropriate expertise, Gene McCoy, who suddenly passed. He was replace by recent DEM candidate for the state House, Larry Lambert. A nice guy but without a stick of expertise for developing the regulations for the coast zone businesses to come. The one person with some expertise is a Chamber of Commerce guy who supposedly wrote the modification bill in the first place.

  5. Bill Dunn says:

    I followed up the post with this: I stand corrected, Croda is making ethylene oxide (could be a precursor to making PDO) and DNREC should have known that this was either the product or intermediate to their product….(from a Delawareonline article). British-based Croda Inc. last week announced completion of the steel frame that will house the main processor reactor for the bio-ethanol plant being built at its Atlas Point facility near the Delaware Memorial Bridge.

    The new plant, reportedly the first of its kind in North America, will convert corn-based ethanol, or alcohol, into ethylene oxide.

    It all begs the question; When Croda came to DNREC to show plans and discuss their chemical process, why didn’t DNREC recommend that they reconfigure their plant layout to move the ethylene oxide reaction and storage tanks further away from the bridge? The News-Journal or WDEL reported that 70% of the ethylene oxide in the leaking tank vented to the atmosphere. If the slightest spark would have occurred, all the tanks would have exploded.

  6. mouse says:

    I remember the first time I drove over the St. George’s Bridge I got the best head buss from the odor coming from the refinery.