Chemicals in drums abandoned on Crow Reservation identified
DUNMORE —
Residents were allowed back into their homes Saturday afternoon in Dunmore after four 55-gallon drums of chemicals found Friday discarded by a roadside were safely hauled away.
That ended a time of uncertainty in the tiny reservation town, which began Friday when a call came into the Crow Police Department at just before 4:45 p.m.
A driver noticed the drums, two upright and two on their sides, on River Road, about a half-mile east of Interstate 90, which runs parallel to the Little Horn River. Three of the BIA officers arrived at the scene 10 minutes later.
The tribe’s Disaster Emergency Services got involved next. And by 6:30 p.m., tribal Chairman Darrin Old Coyote set up an incident command at the Black Lodge Community Center, said Ben Cloud, spokesman for the tribe.
“The chairman didn’t want people to overreact, but he wanted to keep the safety of people his main concern,” Cloud said Saturday. “The evacuation was what was important until we found out for sure” what was in the drums.
The tribe’s hazardous waste operations team investigated the metal containers and discovered at least one contained isocyanate, a highly flammable compound with a low flash point that can be easily ignited by heat.
For safety’s sake, police officers evacuated residents in the immediate area. After consulting with the EPA, the tribe expanded the evacuation circumference to include dozens.
About 45 people spent the night in a shelter set up by the Red Cross at the Multipurpose Building in Crow Agency 5½ miles south of Dunmore. Others stayed with family or friends or in hotels.
To maintain the drums at a constant temperature, the hazwop team laid sleeping bags on them, and then draped the area with blue tarps to block the sun.
At about 11:30 on Saturday morning, a team of four employees from Environmental Restoration in Sidney arrived at the community center in pickups, one pulling an enclosed trailer. The group was led by Billy Bennett, emergency response manager for the company.
They were joined by Joyel R. Dhieux, federal on-scene coordinator for the Region 8 emergency response unit of the Environmental Protection Agency out of Denver, which flew in Saturday.
Jack Old Horn, information officer for the tribe’s Incident Command Center, briefed the newcomers about actions taken to that point.
“Once we discovered the contents of the 55-gallon drums, once we got hold of the Denver EPA, we felt we’d rather have experienced people handle” the situation, Old Horn said.
He showed the others photos of the drums, then pointed out on a map their precise location. The one container of isocyanate, which can react with water and generate toxic fumes, was about five feet from a swamp, he told the group.
It also wasn’t certain whether any of the drums had leaked, Old Horn said.
Just before noon, Bennett and his crew, Dhieux and a few of the tribe’s DES employees drove down the gravel road from the community center and around a corner to the site. The others remained at the Incident Command.
Those waiting got periodic radio updates, including the fact that none of the drums had leaked. The Environmental Restoration team donned protective garb before they began their work.
All of the drums were carefully loaded into the trailer. And then those at the site returned to the community center to give a final briefing before leaving, with the drums headed to Sidney.
One drum was identified as holding about 100 pounds of isocyanate. Bennett cleared up some confusion that the chemical was not the same as methyl isocyanate, which killed nearly 4,000 and injured a half-million more people in the 1984 disaster in Bhopal, India.
The other three drums each held an estimated 70 pounds of butyltrichlorosilane, which is less hazardous than the isocyanate. When inhaled, the corrosive chemical irritates the upper respiratory system and cause severe eye irritation and burns.
Bennett told the group that these types of drums have their own little fingerprints “and they’re pretty easy to track.”
“When it comes down to cost, they’ll look for the responsible party to recoup those losses,” he said.
Because the drums are fairly new, Bennett said, he thought they likely contained the names printed on the outside labels.
“If the drums were beat up with no labels, that’s when we would have to get into the categorization of the thing,” he said.
Dhieux, who photographed the drums, said at least one had a date stamp. The evidence will be turned over to the EPA’s criminal investigative division to track down the owners.
Dhieux speculated, after seeing the labels, that the chemicals might be linked to insulation materials. She applauded the tribal officials for seeking assistance to deal with the situation.
“I think the emergency response the tribe did was fantastic, spot on,” Dhieux said.
That kind of action is especially prudent when what appears to be abandoned chemicals are discovered.
“Whenever there are drums that have been abandoned and there is some uncertainty about what might be inside them, it’s always best to approach them with an abundance of caution,” she said. “It’s better to be safe than sorry.”
Residents were allowed back into their homes Saturday afternoon in Dunmore after four 55-gallon drums of chemicals found Friday discarded by a roadside were safely hauled away.
That ended a time of uncertainty in the tiny reservation town, which began Friday when a call came into the Crow Police Department at just before 4:45 p.m.
A driver noticed the drums, two upright and two on their sides, on River Road, about a half-mile east of Interstate 90, which runs parallel to the Little Horn River. Three of the BIA officers arrived at the scene 10 minutes later.
The tribe’s Disaster Emergency Services got involved next. And by 6:30 p.m., tribal Chairman Darrin Old Coyote set up an incident command at the Black Lodge Community Center, said Ben Cloud, spokesman for the tribe.
“The chairman didn’t want people to overreact, but he wanted to keep the safety of people his main concern,” Cloud said Saturday. “The evacuation was what was important until we found out for sure” what was in the drums.
The tribe’s hazardous waste operations team investigated the metal containers and discovered at least one contained isocyanate, a highly flammable compound with a low flash point that can be easily ignited by heat.
For safety’s sake, police officers evacuated residents in the immediate area. After consulting with the EPA, the tribe expanded the evacuation circumference to include dozens.
About 45 people spent the night in a shelter set up by the Red Cross at the Multipurpose Building in Crow Agency 5½ miles south of Dunmore. Others stayed with family or friends or in hotels.
To maintain the drums at a constant temperature, the hazwop team laid sleeping bags on them, and then draped the area with blue tarps to block the sun.
At about 11:30 on Saturday morning, a team of four employees from Environmental Restoration in Sidney arrived at the community center in pickups, one pulling an enclosed trailer. The group was led by Billy Bennett, emergency response manager for the company.
They were joined by Joyel R. Dhieux, federal on-scene coordinator for the Region 8 emergency response unit of the Environmental Protection Agency out of Denver, which flew in Saturday.
Jack Old Horn, information officer for the tribe’s Incident Command Center, briefed the newcomers about actions taken to that point.
“Once we discovered the contents of the 55-gallon drums, once we got hold of the Denver EPA, we felt we’d rather have experienced people handle” the situation, Old Horn said.
He showed the others photos of the drums, then pointed out on a map their precise location. The one container of isocyanate, which can react with water and generate toxic fumes, was about five feet from a swamp, he told the group.
It also wasn’t certain whether any of the drums had leaked, Old Horn said.
Just before noon, Bennett and his crew, Dhieux and a few of the tribe’s DES employees drove down the gravel road from the community center and around a corner to the site. The others remained at the Incident Command.
Those waiting got periodic radio updates, including the fact that none of the drums had leaked. The Environmental Restoration team donned protective garb before they began their work.
All of the drums were carefully loaded into the trailer. And then those at the site returned to the community center to give a final briefing before leaving, with the drums headed to Sidney.
One drum was identified as holding about 100 pounds of isocyanate. Bennett cleared up some confusion that the chemical was not the same as methyl isocyanate, which killed nearly 4,000 and injured a half-million more people in the 1984 disaster in Bhopal, India.
The other three drums each held an estimated 70 pounds of butyltrichlorosilane, which is less hazardous than the isocyanate. When inhaled, the corrosive chemical irritates the upper respiratory system and cause severe eye irritation and burns.
Bennett told the group that these types of drums have their own little fingerprints “and they’re pretty easy to track.”
“When it comes down to cost, they’ll look for the responsible party to recoup those losses,” he said.
Because the drums are fairly new, Bennett said, he thought they likely contained the names printed on the outside labels.
“If the drums were beat up with no labels, that’s when we would have to get into the categorization of the thing,” he said.
Dhieux, who photographed the drums, said at least one had a date stamp. The evidence will be turned over to the EPA’s criminal investigative division to track down the owners.
Dhieux speculated, after seeing the labels, that the chemicals might be linked to insulation materials. She applauded the tribal officials for seeking assistance to deal with the situation.
“I think the emergency response the tribe did was fantastic, spot on,” Dhieux said.
That kind of action is especially prudent when what appears to be abandoned chemicals are discovered.
“Whenever there are drums that have been abandoned and there is some uncertainty about what might be inside them, it’s always best to approach them with an abundance of caution,” she said. “It’s better to be safe than sorry.”