The State of Texas State Operations Center (SOC) received a report of a large chemical fire at the El Dorado Chemical plant located at 6232 West State Highway 21 in Bryan, Brazos County. The building contains fertilizer, of which one is ammonium nitrate (Dangerous; strong oxidizer. Contact with other material may cause fire or explosion. Harmful if swallowed or inhaled; causes irritation to skin, eyes and respiratory tract). An incident command post has been established. A three mile radius evacuation has been enacted. EPA OSC Jones has been deployed to site. ASPECT plane deployed to gather plume data
EPA, CST and the PRPs contractor began collecting baseline air quality data to aid in the evacuation decision making. CST and the PRP deployed Area RAEs with ammonia specific sensor cross gradient and down gradient of the fire. EPA collected data along the perimeter of the evacuation zone. All the data collected indicated that ammonia concerntrations were below the human health action levels.
ASPECT conducted a third flight over the fire to collect additional air quality data. Preliminary data from the ASPECT flight did not detect any chemicals of concern. However several areas of elevated temperatures were detected.
Based on the baseline air monitoring data and the preliminary results from the ASPECT flight Unifed Command removed the remaining evacuation zone. However Highway 21 remains closed to thru traffic due to the close proximity of the facility to the highway.
A mitigation plan was approved to address the smoldering timbers segregating the pile of ammonia nitrate product from the ammonia sulfate product pile. The mitigation effort is expected to take approximately 8 hours.
The PRP and its contractors are currently developing a formal remediation action plan for review and approval by Unified Command.
EPA/CST/TCEQ and the PRPs contractor will continue to collect air monitoring data for public health and worker protection purposes.
An evacuation shelter was established at Reed Arena located at 730 Olsen Road, College Station.
Due to the explosive nature of ammonium nitrate extreme caution will be required during the remediation of the site.
Potential heavy rain showers are predicted for the area.
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