MONDAY, MAY 1, 2023
The Columbus City Council recently approved a contract to collect and analyze air quality data in a neighborhood near the Yenkin-Majestic Paints plant, following the fatal explosion in 2021.
The unanimous vote awards $189,000 to the city's Board of Health to enter into a contract with Aclima, Inc. a San-Francisco-based technology company that measures air quality hyper-locally through cars armed with monitoring sensors.
Reports indicate that the incident was not mentioned by name, but the area was selected because of its proximity to the paint plant, according to a Council spokesperson.
“In 2021, an environmental event took place within the North Central Community," according to information attached to the ordinance. “Since then residents have expressed concern over what impacts this will have on their community both short-term and long-term.
“This legislation will allow for hyperlocal data collection and an air quality analysis of the North Central Community and another area for comparative purposes.”
According to reports, Aclima will use its fleet of vehicles to measure and map air quality, taking samples to measure greenhouse gases and toxins “block by block.” The aim is to discover the source of emissions, and who is impacted, said Davida Herzl, co-founder and CEO of Aclima.
Two years after 2021 paint plant explosion, Columbus Council funds $189k air-quality study https://t.co/V2aa6YaRI1
— Columbus Dispatch (@DispatchAlerts) April 18, 2023
The Columbus program will be conducted in three phases:
“In Phase 1, our fleet vehicles will collect hyper-local data in the St. Mary's neighborhood, which was, of course, the site of the very tragic explosion last year,” Herzl said. That data will be compared with samples from another neighborhood, not yet selected.
The ordinance states “the effects of [the incident] are unknown,” but it has left residents with “urgent concerns of the air quality of their neighborhoods.”
The work on the project will reportedly last at least through 2024, and the city’s partnership with the tech firm could eventually extend to other neighborhoods. Aclima is anticipated to initially hire 10 residents to drive its vehicles and assist with data collection.
What Happened
At 12:05 a.m. on the morning of April 8, 2021, Columbus Fire was called to respond to a report of an explosion along Leonard Avenue at the Yenkin-Majestic Paints plant. The company is reported to have 180 employees, 21 of which were working in the facility at the time of the explosion.
As a result of the explosion, eight plant workers were reported to be injured at the time, but were later reported to be in stable condition by Columbus Fire. Of the eight reported, however, Fire Battalion Chief Steve Martin said that crews had to rescue two employees that were trapped inside.
By the morning, rescue teams also made the discovery of one deceased plant worker, 44-year-old Wendell Light, who was located partially buried under the rubble. Light was a pressroom supervisor for Yenkin-Majestic Paint.
Yenkin-Majestic is a Process Safety Management site that falls under the OSHA standards for highly hazardous chemicals. In the days following the incident, hazmat teams were on the scene to help due to the hazards presented by the materials within the building. An OSHA compliance officer was on the scene the morning following the blast and reported that the Administration had launched an investigation.
According to the U.S. Chemical Safety Board update on the investigation later that month, the OPC Polymer Unit of the facility—a separate unit from the company's paint and industrial coatings divisions—was operating normally at the time of the explosion.
However, to that regard, the CSB reported that the initial cause of the explosion seemed to have been linked to a metallic kettle reactor that burst during the manufacturing of alkyd polyester resin. The kettle reactor was heated by a gas furnace.
Following the explosion and associated fires, other smaller explosions took place involving chemicals and other products stored in tanks, which resulted in the collapse of the OPC Polymer Unit.
The CSB estimated that the total damages are over $1 million. A number of materials are stored in the facility, including maleic anhydride, phthalic anhydride, xylene, and mineral spirits. A week prior to the report, the company had not yet provided the quantities of the materials at the site during the event.
In November 2021, the Columbus Division of Fire announced that it had completed its investigation of the incident. According to reports at the time, there was no evidence of any criminal or intentional acts and the explosion was an accident. No charges will be filed.
The following month, CSB investigators were able to access Kettle 3’s manway cover for the first time last week. Kettle 3 is reportedly the vessel that released a flammable vapor cloud that ignited and caused the initial explosion. The manway lid and rupture disk were collected for inspection.
CSB reported that it planned to inspect and test this evidence, as well as electrical components, resin samples and process equipment, at offsite facilities in 2022. According to the release, tank cleaning, waste removal and demolition activities were ongoing since April to access key pieces of physical evidence inside the plant. Most of the plant, except for the area surrounding Kettle 3, has been demolished.
Previous Incidents and OSHA Citations
Prior to the 2021 incident, Yenkin-Majestic had five past cases, according to records on the regulatory agency’s website: two in 2011 (one involving the death of another employee), one in 2012, a follow-up in 2014, and one in 2015. However, the Leonard Avenue location has had 24 total violations since 2011, including 15 “serious” violations labeled by OSHA, in which the plant reached a settlement to pay $76,203.
In 2012, the plant was cited for “a cloud containing flammable vapors was released,” which was reportedly caused by a "copolymer reaction" of flammable chemicals when over-pressurization occurred in some equipment. No injuries were reported in that incident.
OSHA cited Yenkin-Majestic in November for the explosion earlier this year, proposing $709,960 in penalties for two willful and 33 serious safety violations regarding:
Yenkin-Majestic has also been placed into OSHA’s Severe Violator Enforcement Program, which mandates follow-up inspections for companies who commit willful, repeated or failure-to-abate violations.
According to the OSHA press release, an investigation found that the company had altered a kettle reactor vessel improperly and then returned the vessel to service after it failed. The vessel released a flammable vapor cloud when its manway cover and gasket failed, which ignited and caused the initial explosion.
The investigation determined that the kettle reactor vessel was altered in December 2020 but not tested to ensure it maintained its pressure-containing ability, and in January the newly installed manway opening failed. A new gasket was installed, but failed to adhere to OSHA’s pressure vessel inspection procedures and the American Petroleum Institute’s pressure vessel inspection code.
Tagged categories: Accidents; Air quality; Environmental Controls; Explosions; Fire; Hazardous air pollutants; Hazards; Health & Safety; Health and safety; Program/Project Management; Research
