Sulfur dioxide chemical spill reported at SAWS recycling plantin San Antonio, Texas

By David Ibanez

Web - Managing Editor

 

JULY 21, 2015

 

SAN ANTONIO, TEXAS

No injuries reported at Dos Rios Water Recycling Plant.

A chemical spill was reported Tuesday morning at a San Antonio Water System recycling facility. 

Fire officials said employees at the Dos Rios Water Recycling Plant in the 3400 block of Valley Road were transferring sulfur dioxide at 6 a.m., when a valve malfunctioned. 

The tank was shut off and the gas was contained to one room. It wasn't clear how much gas escaped, but it didn't leak into the atmosphere, officials said.

No injuries were reported and the plant was operating normally.

Fire Is Out at Becker Sherco Coal Power Plant in Minnesota

07/21/2015 - 9:30 AM

Photo courtesy Xcel Energy 

 

BECKER, Minn. (AP) - 

Xcel Energy says a fire is now out in the coal storage barn at its Sherco power plant near Becker.
Xcel spokesman Tom Hoen says the Becker Fire Department was called Friday when residual coal and a rubber door seal were spotted smoldering. He says other fire departments helped out over the weekend as hotspots developed.
But he says the fire was declared out Monday morning. All firefighters left except for a Becker pumper truck that stayed as a precaution.
Hoen says there were no injuries and no significant equipment damage, but costs have not been tallied. He says Sherco's three generating units continued to operate normally.
A catastrophic failure in Sherco's Unit 3 turbine in 2011 caused more than $200 million in damage and took 22 months to fix. 

Sheer size sets Sherco apart from the company’s other generating facilities. Sherco is the largest in terms of square feet, steam production, power generation capability and coal consumption. Sherco’s boilers are more than 200 feet tall – taller than the dome of the Minnesota State Capitol building. Each boiler weighs about 8 million pounds and contains about 200 miles of steel tubing.

The Unit 3 generation building is more than 15 stories high and the stack, or chimney, extends 650 feet – as tall as some downtown Minneapolis office towers. The plant’s coal barn – longer than a football field – provides dry storage for coal, cutting down on dust and improving coal handling efficiency. A rotary car dumper, which literally turns a rail coal car upside down, unloads one car every three minutes and an entire train in just over six hours.

Unit 3 is 41 percent owned by Southern Minnesota Municipal Power Agency, composed of municipal power companies operating on a cooperative basis.

No injuries reported in a Piper PA-18 Super Cub small plane crash near Beluga, Alaska

 

Tegan Hanlon

July 21, 2015

 

COOK INLET, ALASKA

Alaska State Troopers say two people walked away without injuries from a single-engine plane wreck in Southcentral Alaska.

The Piper PA-18 Super Cub crashed into trees near Beluga, a remote village on the west side of Cook Inlet. Troopers got a report of the crash at about 3:40 p.m. Monday, according to a troopers dispatch posted online Tuesday.

The pilot, identified by troopers as 27-year-old Brian Redman of Anchorage, and his passenger received no injuries in the crash. Relatives picked them up, troopers said.

Troopers said the cause of the crash was unknown Tuesday. "Recovery efforts to retrieve the plane are being made," troopers said. The Federal Aviation Administration was alerted, they said.

The report of the plane crash near Beluga followed at least three other reported small plane crashes in Alaska since Friday.

The National Transportation Safety Board said the pilot of a Kingfisher swam to safety Monday morning after his small plane flipped while taking off from a lake west of Wasilla. Michael Zagula, 54, died in a small plane crash near Trapper Creek on Sunday while flying over his daughter's wedding reception in a Cessna 206, troopers said. On Friday, a Cessna 207 crashed in Southeast Alaska, killing the pilot, 45-year-old Fariah Peterson, and injuring four passengers.

Date:	21-JUL-2015
Time:	-15:40
Type:	Piper PA-18 Super Cub
Owner/operator:
Registration:
C/n / msn:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 2
Other fatalities:	0
Airplane damage:	Unknown
Location:	Near Beluga, Cook Inlet, AK -   United States of America
Phase:	Unknown
Nature:	Unknown
Departure airport:
Destination airport:

Narrative:
The aircraft impacted trees on the west side of Cook Inlet near Beluga, Alaska. The airplane sustained unreported damage and the two occupants onboard were not injured.
Sources:
http://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=178018
http://www.adn.com/article/20150721/no-injuries-reported-small-plane-crash-near-beluga



///----------------////

NTSB: Pilot safe after Anderson EA-1 Kingfisher plane flips and sinks on lake near Wasilla

Zaz Hollander

July 20, 2015

 

PALMER, ALASKA

An experimental homebuilt amphibious small plane known as a Kingfisher flipped while taking off from a lake near Wasilla Monday morning, but the pilot was able to swim to safety, the National Transportation Safety Board said.

The pilot, identified as 72-year-old Hugh Barber, told investigators that he was taking off "when his plane started to bounce on the lake and flipped upside down," according to a dispatch posted online by Alaska State Troopers.

Barber escaped the aircraft after it flipped, NTSB Alaska region chief Clint Johnson said. The plane later sank in the large, clear lake located in the unincorporated Meadow Lakes area west of Wasilla.

The pilot will be responsible for removing the plane from the lake, Johnson said. The NTSB is investigating the crash.

Date:	20-JUL-2015
Time:	-11:00
Type:	Anderson EA-1 Kingfisher
Owner/operator:	Private
Registration:	N47170
C/n / msn:	01
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Other fatalities:	0
Airplane damage:	Unknown
Location:	Blodgett Lake, Meadow Lakes, west of Wasilla, AK -   United States of America
Phase:	Landing
Nature:	Private
Departure airport:
Destination airport:	Blodgett Lake

Narrative:
The aircraft, an experimental Barber built Kingfisher, nosed over inverted upon landing on Blodgett Lake, in southwest Meadow Lakes, Alaska. The amphibian airplane submerged, sustaining unknown damage and the sole pilot onboard was not injured.
Sources:
http://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=177988
http://www.ktuu.com/news/news/plane-flips-sinks-on-lake-near-wasilla/34259532
http://www.airport-data.com/aircraft/N47170.html

http://www.abpic.co.uk/photo/1157529/
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anderson_Kingfisher

The 52-foot commercial fishing vessel Jamie K ran aground near Cape Blanco, Oregon

The 52-foot commercial fishing vessel Jamie K sits aground near Cape Blanco, Ore., July 21, 2015. 

Petty Officer 2nd Class Darren Harrity, a rescue swimmer and member of the responding MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crew from Coast Guard Air Station North Bend, Ore., pulled all four fishermen to safety through 5-foot seas and 30-mph winds. (U.S. Coast Guard photo by Air Station North Bend)

The 52-foot commercial fishing vessel Jamie K sits aground near Cape Blanco, Ore., July 21, 2015. Coast Guard officials are working with local, state and federal partners to mitigate any potential pollution threat. (U.S. Coast Guard by Air Station North Bend)

Video: Coast Guard Air Station Astoria Air Crew Rescues 3 Fishermen from the sinking fishing vessel Flying Fish 19

A Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter air crew from Air Station Astoria, Ore., rescues three fishermen from the sinking fishing vessel Flying Fish 19 miles east of Tillamook Bay in the Pacific Ocean, July 21, 2015. 

All three fishermen were rescued and treated by emergency medical technicians at Coast Guard Station Tillamook Bay in Garibaldi, Ore. 

U.S. Coast Guard video by Air Station Astoria