(The following story by Nathaniel Lukefahr appeared on The Facts website on May 2, 2009.)
FREEPORT, Texas — A pencil-sized hole in the membrane of a railcar caused a leak of about 100 gallons of hydrochloric acid early Friday at a Union Pacific switchyard on FM 1495, near the Dow Oyster Creek Division.
Nobody was injured and no homes were evacuated, Freeport Fire and EMS Chief John Stanford said.
Hydrochloric acid can cause eye and skin burns, Stanford said.
Union Pacific crews at the switchyard discovered the leak about 2 a.m. and called local authorities for assistance, spokeswoman Raquel Espinoza said. Police officers blocked access to FMs 523 and 1495, and Brazoria County, city and area industrial emergency crews helped railway workers remove the acid.
“It was a team effort,” Gulf Chemical & Metallurgical Corp. spokeswoman Nancy Wollam said.
The railcar was destined for Gulf Chemical’s Freeport site from a PVS Chemicals facility in Louisiana, Wollam said. Gulf Chemical uses hydrochloric acid in the process of creating molybdenum and vanadium metal products, she said.
A PVS spokesman did not return messages seeking comment.
Union Pacific crews had hooked up a hose from the railcar to another, empty one Friday morning. Espinoza said crews were transferring the remainder of the acid into the second railcar.
Espinoza said the railroad company had not determined what made the hole in the railcar’s membrane, but an investigation is under way.
“We do everything we can to ensure the public is safe,” she said.
Freeport Police Chief Jeff Pynes said the assistance of local industry crews and the Community Awareness Emergency Response coordinators was critical to getting the situation under control. Dow Chemical Co. and Gulf Chemical crews were at the switchyard, Wollam said.
“They helped us get it contained quickly,” Pynes said.
Air monitors set up around the spill reported there was no airborne acid at 2 p.m., Espinoza said.
The highways were reopened afterward.