DuPont Says Plant Leaked 23,000 Pounds of Toxic Gas

About 23,000 pounds of a flammable, foul-smelling toxic gas leaked from the DuPont chemical plant in La Porte where four workers died earlier this month, the company said Saturday.

That’s significantly more than the 100 pounds of methyl mercaptan that DuPont estimated had escaped the plant in its initial report, and was enough to asphyxiate the four workers and hospitalize another.

Companies are required to report all releases of at least 100 pounds of the gas to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. DuPont said it revised its initial estimate after determining how much gas was in the plant’s pipes and vessels before and after the tragedy.

“The release occurred inside a process building at the site’s Crop Protection unit and dissipated from openings in that structure over time,” the company said in a statement.

Read more: http://www.texastribune.org/2014/11/29/dupont-says-plant-leaked-23000-pounds-toxic-gas/