UPDATE: Faulty gasket blamed for leak at Wacker in Bradley County Posted: Oct 03, 2016 9:10 AM EST Updated: Oct 03, 2016 11:05 AM EST
UPDATE: A faulty gasket was responsible for a reported chemical spill Monday morning.
A spokesperson for Wacker Chemical Corporation said the issue was noticed around 7:20 a.m. in a distillation column/tower at the Wacker Polysilicon plant in Charleston.
William Toth, Director of Corporate Communication and Compliance for Wacker Chemical Corporation said their on-site emergency response team responded and noticed visible water vapor.
As a result, responders cleaned up the incident without the help of Bradley County EMS.
Employees were evacuated as a precaution and held outside of the facility for a short time.
Afterwards, Toth said there was no threat to those on-site or in the surrounding community.
PREVIOUS STORY: A morning chemical spill at the Wacker Polysilicon plant in Charleston is being handled internally by their teams.
Bradley County dispatchers tell Channel 3 that no backup has been called and the company has not requested any assistance from Bradley County first responders.
Dispatchers were notified about the spill 8:15am Monday morning
There's no word as to what chemicals may be involved in the leak or the extent of the leak.
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A mechanical issue at Wacker's Charleston, Tenn., plant early this morning caused a response team to be sent to the factory's distillation area, but there were no injuries and production was unaffected, an official said today.
At about 7:16 a.m., the issue was detected during a continuous monitoring of the distillation process, said Bill Toth, Wacker Chemical Co.'s director of corporate communications. In accordance with standard protocol, the plant's incident response team was sent to the distillation area and access to the site was suspended, he said. Toth said there was no chemical spill.
At about 9:00 a.m. the mechanical issue was resolved, the plant was reopened at 9:48 a.m. and operations returned to normal, he said. There were no injuries, Toth said, and no risk posed to people on the site or to the community. "Wacker's first and foremost priority is the safety and well-being of its team members, contractors and the community," Toth said.