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"The
second cloud last week was too much," Representative Robert
Valihura said, referring to the July 2 release into the
atmosphere from the General Chemical plant of
fluorosulfonic acid, sulfur trioxide and anhydrous hydrogen
fluoride, all of which are said to be highly toxic chemicals and
present a major health threat.
That
release evidently came from a railroad tank car. An earlier
major release was blamed on a faulty valve. In addition, there
have been other incidents both at General Chemical and the
adjacent Sun Oil refinery. Sun has had to burn off acid gas that
General Chemical was unable to accept because of faulty
equipment. Sun sells the gas, a byproduct of refining to the
chemical company.
Valihura
said that he and Senator Cathy Cloutier pressed the natural
resources department "to find out what they were doing about
it."
Secretary
Nicolas DiPasquale told the lawmakers that he was attempting to
remedy the situation through a combination of penalties and
'remediation efforts'.
Valihura
said he was "not at liberty" to disclose details of a proposed
consent agreement which the company is being asked to accept.
The legislator indicated that an alternative to the agreement
would be for the state to file suit, but said that DiPasquale
"would prefer a voluntary solution."
It is
possible, Valihura said, that agreement will be reached in time
for disclosure at a public meeting on July 11 at 7 p.m. in the
Claymont Elementary School auditorium.
Both
DiPasquale and General Chemical officials have agreed to attend
that meeting along with the other Brandywine Hundred
legislators, according to a notice issued by the legislators'
office.
"We feel
the public has the right to vent their feelings and to be told
what is going on," Valihura said.
A similar
public session, sponsored by the Claymont Coalition in May drew
promises of steps to alleviate the problems at both the chemical
plant and the refinery.
"Neither
proposed legislation, nor administrative action has abated the
nuisance of the highly toxic chemical releases at these
facilities. The public is demanding solutions to the problems
at General Chemical -- problems that appear to be
worsening," the statement quotes Cloutier as saying.
"I see
this fundamentally as a managerial problem," Valihura said. "We
don't have these problems with the Du Pont or Conectiv plants."
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