Settlement Leaves Bhopal Mystery Unresolved : India Blames Poor Plant Design, Maintenance; Carbide Still Claims Sabotage

Union Carbide’s out-of-court agreement to compensate victims of its gas leak in Bhopal, India, may leave forever unresolved the mystery of what happened on the disastrous night of Dec. 3, 1984.

The agreement means Carbide won’t go to trial to present its evidence that the disaster occurred when a disgruntled employee pumped water into a huge vat of lethal methyl isocyanate. Nor will the Indian government have a chance to make its case that poor plant design and negligent maintenance were at fault.

After a costly and laborious 16-month investigation, Carbide officials went public in mid-1987 with their explanation. They insisted that the leak occurred when the culprit sneaked into the pesticide plant, removed a pressure gauge on one tank, attached a water hose and turned a faucet.

Two hours later, they said, he darted away, as the water mixed with the chemical, sending a poisonous cloud out of the ruptured tank, and into the sleeping city.

They claimed that this scenario was supported with various pieces of evidence. Investigators were told by witnesses, they said, that a pressure gauge was missing from a tank. Others told them of a water hose found near the tank on the day after the calamity.

And Carbide investigators claimed that they had evidence that plant logs and records had been falsified to hide the fact that plant employees had discovered the hose and tried to drain off the water before it was too late.

The Indian government and other critics have attacked this version partly on grounds that Carbide has been unwilling to produce their suspect. “If they have such a person, they ought to be naming the guy, as you would in any investigation,” said Bruce A. Finzen, an American lawyer retained by Indian government.

The critics have asserted that the Bhopal plant was under surveillance that night and that guards would have spotted any such activity.

A Carbide spokesman, Robert Berzok, declined Tuesday to discuss the company’s explanation of how the disaster occurred. “I don’t have that information,” he said.

The government’s investigation suggested that the leak occurred when workers who were washing some filtering equipment about 350 feet away allowed water to leak into the tank through a feeder line.

The government insists that what might have been a minor accident was turned into a calamity by the poor design of the plant. Government officials maintained that the company should not have been storing the chemical in such huge quantities, which by themselves posed a threat.

They asserted that the tanks weren’t adequately cooled, as they should have been, to reduce the risk of a dangerous reaction. Nor, they said, were the pieces of equipment called “scrubbers” adequate to do their task of neutralizing dangerous escaping gas.

Also inadequate were the flare towers, which are designed to burn off such gases that do escape.

“These plants are supposed to be designed for the worst case,” said Finzen. “Here, the worst case occurred, and they couldn’t handle it.”

The government contended, however, that Carbide was responsible for the accident even if there had been sabotage.

And last April, an Indian appeals court judge seemed to buy that contention. To Carbide’s horror, Judge S. K. Seth ruled the company should pay “interim” damages to help victims, because its liability had been established without a trial.

Main story, Part I, Page 1.