Hazmat team called out to Wheatfield, New York plant
on June 27, 2016 - 12:17 PM
WHEATFIELD, NY – The Bergholz Volunteer Fire Co. and the Niagara Falls Air Base Hazmat team early Monday afternoon were called to Materion Advanced Materials, 2080 Lockport Road, in response to the activation of 20 gallons of acid at the plant.
Plant Manager Joseph Kwiatkowski said the plant’s own Hazmat team was able to take care of the issue, but outside help was called as a precaution. No injuries were reported.
“We had a chemical reaction in one of our process tanks. We ended up having a release of a plume of smoke,” said Kwiatkowski. “We called for backup in case we needed it, but we didn’t. They were there if anything happened, but our own employees handled it.”
He said no injuries were reported and the reaction was contained within a tank.
Materion Advanced Materials, formerly Williams Advanced Materials, has been on Lockport Road for the past 19 years and has never had an incident, said Kwiatkowski.
Materion Corp. is headquartered in Mayfield Heights, Ohio and is a global supplier of specialty materials. It supplies precious and non-precious metals, inorganic chemicals and powders, specialty coatings, specialty engineered beryllium alloys, beryllium and beryllium composites, and engineered clad and plated metal systems. In addition to the location on Lockport Road, Materion also operates a facility in Buffalo.
Kwiatkowski was not able to go into the full details of the proprietary chemicals used at the plant, but called it a “chemical reaction dissolving metals.”