Vol. 77/No. 25      July 1, 2013

BY STEVE WARSHELL

HOUSTON — Three people were killed and 85 injured in two separate explosions in chemical plants in Louisiana last week. The fatal blasts occurred as bosses in the U.S. petrochemical industry, concentrated in Texas and Louisiana, are ramping up production in response to the potential for profit from abundant new sources of natural gas from tar sands and fracking operations in North America.

The first blast occurred June 13 at the Williams Cos. Olefins propylene plant in Geismar, La., about 65 miles northwest of New Orleans. Nearly 840 people were on the site when the explosion occurred. Two were killed and scores more injured.

Workers at the plant found a propylene leak six months before this week’s deadly explosion, officials told the media. The company confirmed June 14 that a visible leak was found in December at the plant, which leaked 514 pounds of flammable propylene chemical.

Williams Olefins has a history of dangerous incidents and is currently in negotiations with the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality over penalties for previous leaks of propylene in 2008, the carcinogen benzene in 2009 and ethylene and volatile organic compounds in 2010. The company operates a transcontinental system of natural gas pipelines that stretches from the tar sands in Canada to the Gulf of Mexico.

On June 14 a nitrogen vessel burst at a fertilizer plant 20 miles downstream in Ascension Parish, killing one person and sending eight others to the hospital. Ronald “Rocky” Morris, a 55-year-old worker, died in the blast at CF Industries Donaldsonville Nitrogen Complex, where he worked for more than 30 years.

“It’s getting worse and worse working around anything that has to do with natural gas,” Abel Bocanegra, 36, a heavy equipment operator at Eagle Ford in Louisiana, said in a phone interview. Eagle Ford is the largest natural gas production field in the region.

“They had us working ‘daylight’ — from sun up to sundown as long as there’s light, sometimes 18 hours per day,” Bocanegra said. “Workers get hurt and get killed putting in hours like that. I know they’re pushing people hard in the processing plants, too. I’m sure that these conditions led to those people dying here.”

In March a massive explosion involving similar chemicals at a fertilizer plant in West, Texas, killed 15 people and destroyed hundreds of homes.

In 2000 three workers were killed and eight injured in an explosion that occurred during maintenance operations at one of CF Industries ammonia plants. CF Industries, the world’s second-largest nitrogen fertilizer producer, was fined less than $150,000 by federal safety officials.
 
 
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