Carbide Warned Gas Could Leak in W. Virginia

Three months before toxic gas leaking from a Union Carbide Corp. plant in Bhopal, India, killed more than 2,000 persons and injured thousands more, the company’s own safety experts warned that “real potential” existed for a catastrophic leak of the same chemical from Carbide’s plant in Institute, W.Va., according to an internal company report.

The West Virginia facility is virtually identical to the plant in India and is the only chemical complex in the United States that manufactures methyl isocyanate, the substance involved in the Bhopal disaster.

Water Contamination

One of the dangers cited in the internal safety report was the existence of conditions at Institute that Carbide’s safety experts said could permit water to contaminate the methyl isocyanate tanks and trigger a “runaway” chemical reaction. Water leaking into methyl isocyanate tanks was labeled as the cause of the Bhopal explosion by a top Indian scientist earlier this month.

The assessment of conditions at the Institute plant was made public Thursday by Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), head of a key House subcommittee on the environment. Officials at Union Carbide headquarters refused to comment on the report or on Waxman’s charges.

Fear of Runaway Reaction

The assessment by Carbide safety specialists who visited the Institute plant before the Bhopal explosion cites “a concern that a runaway reaction could occur in one of the methyl isocyanate unit storage tanks and that response to such a situation would not be timely or effective enough to prevent catastrophic failure of the tank.”

The report warned that Institute workers may be overconfident because several earlier instances of water contamination had been “handled with little or no problem.”

This combination of factors, the report stated, “leads the team to conclude that a real potential for a serious incident exists” at Institute.

Waxman said the Carbide report proves that federal regulators and the chemical industry have neglected the risks of a “Bhopal tragedy” in the United States. He blasted the Environmental Protection Agency for failing to spot the hazards noted in the report when the federal agency inspected the Institute plant last December.

Whitewash Charged

“I think their conduct in this whole area is a disgrace,” he said. “EPA is trying to whitewash the chemical industry by saying there are no problems they are aware of. . . . They don’t know what’s going on in the 5,000 chemical plants in this country.”

EPA officials vigorously denied the charge, with one privately calling it “a cheap shot.”

After the Bhopal tragedy Dec. 3, Carbide officials shut down the methyl isocyanate operation at the West Virginia plant.

The Carbide report, written Sept. 11 and marked “business confidential,” stemmed from a tour of the Institute plant by company safety engineers last July. It was among a thick stack of documents that Union Carbide officials gave Waxman during congressional hearings in Institute last month after the Indian disaster.

In addition to the potential problem with water contamination of the methyl isocyanate tanks, Carbide’s safety experts cited these problems at Institute:

--Some methyl isocyanate tanks may be used for long-term storage when the plant is idle, risking the possibility that contamination could go undetected for some time.

--Pressures within the tanks could feed reactive chemicals into methyl isocyanate storage areas in “unfavorable” conditions.

They warned that the potential for water and chemical contamination existed because, instead of using chloroform, which is considered safer, the plant’s cooling system relied on brine to keep liquid methyl isocyanate below a crucial vaporizing temperature of 102 degrees Fahrenheit.

An Indian news agency reported Jan. 4 that that nation’s top government scientist has concluded that contamination of the methyl isocyanate operation by a single pint of water triggered the violent reaction that caused a cloud of methyl isocyanate gas to cover Bhopal. The water was said to have reacted with phosgene, which is mixed with methyl isocyanate to prevent it from turning into plastic.

The Institute assessment apparently is one of many prepared by “self-criticism” teams that patrol the company’s plants looking for safety problems. The report characterized the Institute methyl isocyanate hazards as a “major concern,” but said they did not require “imminent” correction.

A chemical-industry safety expert, who spoke on condition that he not be identified, said such reports are compiled by many chemical companies and are regarded much as other citizens might view fire-safety inspections. Deciding when to correct a faulty cooling system--like a homeowner’s decision of when to replace a frayed electrical cord--is largely a matter of judgment, that official said.

It is not known whether Carbide has acted to correct the problems cited by its safety inspectors.

An angry Waxman contrasted the report with what he called EPA’s “blithe assurances” that the Institute plant is safe. An EPA study issued Wednesday stated that the Institute plant basically complies with federal environmental laws, although 28 largely minor leaks of methyl isocyanate had not been reported to EPA as required.