Saturday, January 10, 2015

KRATON POLYMERS IN BELPRE, OHIO HAS ANOTHER GAS LEAK: THE COMPANY CLAIMS THAT THE GAS LEAK IS CONTAINED AND FIRE IS OUT. SEVERAL LEAKS HAVE HAPPENED THERE IN THE LAST YEAR.



KRATON POLYMERS IN BELPRE, OHIO GAS LEAK IS CONTAINED AND FIRE IS OUT.  SEVERAL LEAKS HAVE OCCURRED THERE DURING THE PAST 365 DAYS.


UPDATE 8:51 PM
Kraton Spokesman Mike White says a gas leak at Kraton has been contained and the fire is out.
White confirms the gas leak of process solvents was in a pipe in one of the operating departments.
It occurred around 6:00 PM Friday evening and resulted in a small flash fire.
Kraton's crew responded and the small fire was isolated, under control and allowed to burn itself out.
White says there are no reports of any injuries.
Local fire departments were put on standby.
White says "with the fire water runoff into our South side runoff pond and we are taking precautionary measures and placing booms in our area water systems to contain the fire water runoff. At this time we do not anticipate any offsite impact."
The fire was out as of 8:40 PM Friday evening.
Washington County Sheriff Larry Mincks says a gas leak has been reported in the boiler room at Kraton Polymers.
Not much is not know at this time.
The extent of the leak is not known, nor is the origin.
Officials still do not know what type of gas it is, but say that it is not an imminent danger to the surround public.
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UPDATE 1/20/2014 5:10 PM
Kraton Polymers says there's no connection between an overnight leak at its Belpre plant and a pair of leaks there ten days ago.
Plant officials say it happened around 11:30 Sunday night.
An employee tightening a gauge broke off a piece of the pump.
That caused a small, 20 gallon leak of process solvents into the plant's water treatment center
"We're taking a look at what would have caused the piping to break while we were tightening that gauge," says plant spokesman Mike White. "We have an investigation team; we're always looking into, when a mistake happens, what happened, what we can do to make sure it doesn't happen in the future, how can we prevent it."
Officials say this treatment system is not part of the pond that flows into Davis Creek or the Ohio River and there should be no outside effect to the community or fish life.

UPDATE 1/20/2014
A Sunday night gas leak at Kraton Polymers in Belpre is contained.
A Kraton spokesman says the leak was totally contained to the plant's site and there should be no outside effect to the community or fish life.
Officials say about 20 gallons of liquid process solvents leaked into the Plant’s in-Plant water treatment center
The water treatment system is not part of the overflow pond that flows into Davis Creek or the Ohio River.
The spokesman says the leak occurred after an employee broke off a piece of pump while tightening a gauge.
Officials say the Plant's alarmed was sounded off at 11:30 pm as part of a standard operating procedure.
An all clear was sounded at around 1:00 am.



Authorities are responding to a gas leak at Kraton Polymers in Belpre, Ohio.
According to Washington County Sheriff Larry Mincks the leak is now under control and slowly being contained.
Officials say the leak occurred just before 11:30 pm Sunday night.
Nearby residents have been issued a telephone warning through the Community Action Network.
Authorities say the leak is not significant and does not pose a threat to the community.
This is the third leak out of Kraton in the past two weeks.
The Belpre Police Department and Little Hocking Fire Department are both on stand by at this time.
We will keep you updated with the latest. 



UPDATE 1/10/2014 05:10 PM
Kraton deals with another small spill following Thursday's that did partially reach Davis Creek.
This one totally contained in a retention pond at the Belpre plant.
The second spill happened at 10:30 Friday morning.
Kraton says it was due to a vapor leak of process solvents and was contained and treated within the plant.
Unlike the first spill early Thursday, the company does not believe it will have any effect on nearby Davis Creek.
The U.S. EPA is on the plant site conducting an investigation of the leaks.
Davis Creek, where a fish kill happened Thursday, is located near the Ohio River.
Belpre Mayor Mike Lorentz told us the city gets its public water supplies from wells and not from the river itself.

UPDATE 1/10/2014 12:30 PM
Officials are addressing another leak at Kraton Polymers.
Mike White, spokesman for the Belpre plant, says there is another leak in another line.
He says they are in the midst of addressing it.
He says it's being contained to the plant's retention pond and they do not believe it will impact Davis Creek or the Ohio River.
Belpre Firefighters confirm the plant asked them to be on standby.
We will bring you more information as it becomes available.

UPDATE 1/9/2014 4:15 PM
The clean-up is well underway and the Ohio DNR responded early Thursday morning.
Kraton describes it as a small solvent leak.
The company says it happened just after 3:00 Thursday morning.
It was a release of solvents used for cooling of plant equipment.
The chemicals leaked into a retention pond and into nearby Davis Creek.
The Ohio Department of Natural Resources and the state EPA are investigating.
"We acted very quickly," says Mike White, plant spokesman. "Our emergency response team got the booms out to try to contain it. We're trying to minimize what effect it does have to the environment."
The majority of the leak was controlled within hours, but what Kraton describes as a "minor fish kill" resulted from the leak.
There were no injuries, and White says there was little effect on operations at the Belpre plant.



UPDATE 1/9/2014 11:25 AM
Kraton Polymers released the following statement regarding a leak:
"At approximately 3:15 a.m. this morning, we experienced a release of process solvents as a result of a leak in a piece of equipment that provided cooling to some process equipment. The leak resulted in a runoff to our south-side in-plant retention pond and subsequently to the adjoining Davis Creek also located on our site. Our in-plant environmental support team responded quickly and we have contained the majority of the leak and have booms in place in Davis Creek. Unfortunately, there was a minor fish kill within Davis Creek and the Ohio River. Appropriate outside agencies, including the Ohio EPA and DNR, have been notified. There were no injuries and effect to plant operations is minimal as a result of the incident. An investigation team has been formed to determine the cause."



A leak at Kraton kills fish in a creek and the Ohio River.
Officials at the Belpre plant say process solvents leaked into the plant's retention pond, which feeds into Davis Creek.
The leak occurred at 3:15 Thursday morning, resulting in a minor fish kill in the creek and the Ohio River.
The Ohio DNR responded and the Ohio EPA was notified.
We have a reporter on the scene and we will bring you more information as it becomes available.