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Disaster drill goes smoothly
  
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Water plant at heart of city holds lethal payload of chlorine
By John Griffith
jgriffith@paragoulddailypress.com
Folks living on or about Fifth Avenue might have noticed a disturbance early Wednesday as a siren began to wail and first responders flooded the grounds of the water plant a block north of the School of the 21st Century.
The alarm at 8:05 a.m. signaled a potentially catastrophic chlorine leak inside the Paragould Light, Water and Cable water plant, a scenario plant manager Terry Tripp described as potentially “nightmarish.” Wednesday’s action was a mock drill designed to test PLWC’s response system and the readiness of Paragould’s Hazmat teams and first responders.
The wide area centered on the water plant and enclosing perhaps 30 percent of Paragould’s population in residential and industrial zones is euphemistically referred to as the “warm zone.” If a catastrophic chlorine leak occurred at the plant, Tripp said the warm zone indicates the area within which animals would be affected.
Whether in a gaseous or liquid state, chlorine’s concentration is measured in parts per million (ppm). In a million gallons of water, Tripp said one ppm of chlorine is the standard for killing harmful bacteria and making drinking water safe. To breathe in one ppm of chlorine is “tolerable,” he said; anything above that has the potential to be harmful or lethal.
“Five parts per million will pretty much kill everything,” Tripp said.
In its natural state, chlorine is a gas heavier than air that rapidly sinks to the ground and spreads, pooling in low places. To store, ship and use chlorine in industry, it is pressurized and cooled and gravity fed into tanks. The Fifth Avenue water plant holds two chlorine tanks with a 2,000-pound capacity.
“That’s why we don’t mess around with safety,” Tripp said as he prepared to trigger the alarm that would set the drill in motion.
At 8:06 the alarm ceased wailing, the sign that it had been detected at PLWC headquarters on Jones Road; by 8:08 Tripp had received a phone call from headquarters informing him that the alarm indicating a chlorine leak at the water plant had been triggered.
“If it’s 2 a.m. and I’m at home, that’s a nightmare scenario,” Tripp said.
Following procedure, Tripp said he must first verify that the emergency is genuine. Chlorine has a sharp bleach-like odor that is unmistakable. Tripp said he can also determine a genuine emergency based on the activity of the giant chlorine scrubber connected to the tank storage room that switches on automatically if chlorine gas leaks from a ruptured tank and can scrub up to 2,000 pounds of the poisonous vapor, removing it from the air.
When the alarm is received at PLWC headquarters and an emergency is verified, Tripp said first responders are mobilized to reconnoiter at the scene, find and seal the source of the chlorine leak and rescue, decontaminate and treat victims of chlorine exposure.
At 8:24, the first team of Paragould firefighters arrived; at 8:28, a second group arrived and began setting up a decontamination staging area.
“In this scenario here, we know what chemical we are dealing with so we’re ahead of the game,” Assistant Fire Chief Danny Rogers said. “We have to have all the safety measures in place first, and we know that copious amounts of water will decontaminate chlorine.”
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), no antidote exists for chlorine exposure. When chlorine gas comes into contact with moist tissues such as the eyes, throat and lungs, an acid is produced that can damage the tissues. Liquid chlorine is cold enough to induce frostbite. Symptoms of exposure include coughing, chest tightness, a burning sensation in the nose, throat and eyes, blurred vision, nausea and vomiting and blisters. The only treatment options available are rinsing away the chlorine and then followup medical care, according to the CDC.
By 8:35, the decontamination staging area was set up and at 8:50, the Paragould Fire Department’s Hazmat operation was fully operational.
Suited in bright blue training Hazmat suits and wearing garish orange rubber boots, firefighters Brian Carter and Irvin Cato entered the plant.
“We were providing recon,” Carter said at the conclusion of the drill. “Our job was to find out how many people were in there — who could walk or not walk and find the leak and fix it if possible.”
The entry team encountered 14 people throughout the plant — students from Northeast Arkansas College — overcome by chlorine exposure, one of whom had collapsed and had to be extracted on a stretcher by a second Hazmat team.
Exposure victims made their way to the decontamination area, where they were decontaminated and treated by medical personnel.
Carter and Cato located the leaking tank and sealed it at 9:08 using an on-site repair kit — 63 minutes after the initial alarm sounded.
“From my perspective, it went really well,” Rogers said. “We didn’t anticipate the first team being able to stop the leak. They kind of outdid themselves.”
“Everything seemed to run real smooth as far as I could see,” Tripp said.
The alarm at 8:05 a.m. signaled a potentially catastrophic chlorine leak inside the Paragould Light, Water and Cable water plant, a scenario plant manager Terry Tripp described as potentially “nightmarish.” Wednesday’s action was a mock drill designed to test PLWC’s response system and the readiness of Paragould’s Hazmat teams and first responders.
The wide area centered on the water plant and enclosing perhaps 30 percent of Paragould’s population in residential and industrial zones is euphemistically referred to as the “warm zone.” If a catastrophic chlorine leak occurred at the plant, Tripp said the warm zone indicates the area within which animals would be affected.
Whether in a gaseous or liquid state, chlorine’s concentration is measured in parts per million (ppm). In a million gallons of water, Tripp said one ppm of chlorine is the standard for killing harmful bacteria and making drinking water safe. To breathe in one ppm of chlorine is “tolerable,” he said; anything above that has the potential to be harmful or lethal.
“Five parts per million will pretty much kill everything,” Tripp said.
In its natural state, chlorine is a gas heavier than air that rapidly sinks to the ground and spreads, pooling in low places. To store, ship and use chlorine in industry, it is pressurized and cooled and gravity fed into tanks. The Fifth Avenue water plant holds two chlorine tanks with a 2,000-pound capacity.
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At 8:06 the alarm ceased wailing, the sign that it had been detected at PLWC headquarters on Jones Road; by 8:08 Tripp had received a phone call from headquarters informing him that the alarm indicating a chlorine leak at the water plant had been triggered.
“If it’s 2 a.m. and I’m at home, that’s a nightmare scenario,” Tripp said.
Following procedure, Tripp said he must first verify that the emergency is genuine. Chlorine has a sharp bleach-like odor that is unmistakable. Tripp said he can also determine a genuine emergency based on the activity of the giant chlorine scrubber connected to the tank storage room that switches on automatically if chlorine gas leaks from a ruptured tank and can scrub up to 2,000 pounds of the poisonous vapor, removing it from the air.
When the alarm is received at PLWC headquarters and an emergency is verified, Tripp said first responders are mobilized to reconnoiter at the scene, find and seal the source of the chlorine leak and rescue, decontaminate and treat victims of chlorine exposure.
At 8:24, the first team of Paragould firefighters arrived; at 8:28, a second group arrived and began setting up a decontamination staging area.
“In this scenario here, we know what chemical we are dealing with so we’re ahead of the game,” Assistant Fire Chief Danny Rogers said. “We have to have all the safety measures in place first, and we know that copious amounts of water will decontaminate chlorine.”
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC), no antidote exists for chlorine exposure. When chlorine gas comes into contact with moist tissues such as the eyes, throat and lungs, an acid is produced that can damage the tissues. Liquid chlorine is cold enough to induce frostbite. Symptoms of exposure include coughing, chest tightness, a burning sensation in the nose, throat and eyes, blurred vision, nausea and vomiting and blisters. The only treatment options available are rinsing away the chlorine and then followup medical care, according to the CDC.
By 8:35, the decontamination staging area was set up and at 8:50, the Paragould Fire Department’s Hazmat operation was fully operational.
Suited in bright blue training Hazmat suits and wearing garish orange rubber boots, firefighters Brian Carter and Irvin Cato entered the plant.
“We were providing recon,” Carter said at the conclusion of the drill. “Our job was to find out how many people were in there — who could walk or not walk and find the leak and fix it if possible.”
The entry team encountered 14 people throughout the plant — students from Northeast Arkansas College — overcome by chlorine exposure, one of whom had collapsed and had to be extracted on a stretcher by a second Hazmat team.
Exposure victims made their way to the decontamination area, where they were decontaminated and treated by medical personnel.
Carter and Cato located the leaking tank and sealed it at 9:08 using an on-site repair kit — 63 minutes after the initial alarm sounded.
“From my perspective, it went really well,” Rogers said. “We didn’t anticipate the first team being able to stop the leak. They kind of outdid themselves.”
“Everything seemed to run real smooth as far as I could see,” Tripp said.
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