Black Soot from Tangipahoa Parish, LA, Plant Blast Found 15 Miles Away
The Times-Picayune | The New Orleans Advocate
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Aug. 27—The black, oily soot that spewed from the Tangipahoa plant that caught fire and exploded last week does not pose "an imminent threat to public health," regulators said Wednesday, but further details on the substance's contents were not provided and parish officials expressed concerns over the slow release of information.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials issued the finding, but nonetheless warned residents to wash surfaces and their hands if they've come in contact with the material and to avoid concentrated collections of the black residue.
Coating surfaces across the area near Smitty's Supply Inc., the black soot, which fell at least on Friday and Saturday, has become one of several contamination concerns for residents after the devastating fire near Roseland and has been key in a series of proposed class action lawsuits over the blaze.
Covering roughly 20 acres, the complex holding as much as 8.7 million gallons of flammable hydrocarbons and other chemicals caught fire shortly before 12:52 p.m. Friday, sending a towering black plume skyward.
The fire continued to smolder Wednesday with scattered hot spots and remains 98% contained, though officials have not said what was in the complex and what burned.
EPA officials said black soot from the fire has been reported as much as 15 miles away from the Smitty's complex, but testing has shown the material isn't a major health risk.
"Based on the data currently available, there is no indication of any imminent threat to public health from the soot or smoke residue deposited in the surrounding area," the EPA statement said.
"Out of an abundance of caution, residents are advised to take general hygiene precautions, including washing any outside surfaces that may have been impacted by soot or smoke and practicing good handwashing after contact with outdoor surfaces. Do not ingest any deposited soot or come into direct contact with areas of concentrated residue," the agency said.
The EPA statement came only a few hours after Tangipahoa Parish President Robby Miller expressed frustration with the slow pace of information from the unified command managing the fire's aftermath. Miller said in a statement he is "standing with our residents and pushing for answers."
"Due to the event's Unified Command structure, we are allowed in all the meetings where we hear information and have input, but we are frustrated with the long process of validating that information and being able to distribute it to the public," Miller said Wednesday.
Meeting with governor
Miller sent out the statement after meeting Wednesday morning with Gov. Jeff Landry and other state and federal officials.
EPA is the lead of the unified command and didn't respond on Wednesday to a request for comment on Miller's concerns. But it issued the statement about the black soot about two and a half hours afterward.
In that statement, EPA officials didn't say what constituted the black material, which initially was described on Friday as oily at a time when it was intermittently raining, but later described as soot.
In an interview earlier this week, Peter Sunderland, a University of Maryland professor whose specialties include fire protection engineering, said whether it is soot or potentially oil droplets thrown from the fire, the materials are generally toxic.
But offered the EPA statement Wednesday, Sunderland said that the agency's advice seemed reasonable.
"The main hazard from soot is inhalation. This is how it enters the lungs, bloodstream, brain, etc.," he said.
"Soot deposited on surfaces is far less hazardous. It is most likely to slowly decompose on exposure to oxygen and sunlight, or drain into gutters and streams," he added.
He noted that a person mowing grass in the area where the black material fell "could be at risk, but nothing an N-95 mask couldn't remove."
He said the greater risk at this point could be from staining to property.
Cause still unclear
The fire forced a 1-mile evacuation that affected close to 1,000 people and a local elementary school. The evacuation wasn't fully lifted until Tuesday, though some roads remain closed.
Though it issued a statement Tuesday expressing sorrow and promising to rebuild, Smitty's hasn't offered explanations about what caused the fire or what was in the plant when it burned and exploded.
Smitty's officials said they remain focused on safely and efficiently cleaning up, making plans to move forward and supporting the needs of local, state and federal agencies.
"Smitty's will provide additional information as warranted as things progress and in cooperation with all federal, state and local authorities," company officials said.
EPA officials said boom has been placed along 42 miles of the Tangipahoa River in an effort to halt the flow of contaminants and foam used on the fire. Oil retrieval equipment is operating in multiple locations, Miller added.
Fire foams, like AFFF, can contain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. They are persistent pollutants that have been increasingly linked to human health impacts, such as decreased female fertility and high blood pressure in pregnant women, child developmental effects, increased cancer risk and reduced immunity.
EPA officials said fluorine-free firefighting foam was mostly used to fight the blaze "except for a limited period of time when fluorinated AFFF, which does contain PFAS, was used."
In chemical fires such as the one at Smitty's, foams must be used to smother the fire, Sunderland said.
EPA officials did not specify the length of time that AFFF was used. Aerial photos of the fire and surrounding area appear to show white foam in nearby ditches.
The EPA has not completed testing of river and ditch water, agency officials said.
Minute PFAS chemicals are hard to control and filter and, Sunderland said, won't be stopped by boom in the river.
Miller, the parish president, also shared numbers to report affected wildlife at (832) 514-9663 and to help affected residents at 1 (877) 891-2276.
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