Feds - Freedom Industries Knew For Years Before MCHM Spill Of Multiple Tank Farm Problems

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Court dates have not yet been set for Freedom Industries or for two other company officials, Michael Burdette and Robert Reynolds, on charges against them related to the MCHM leak, which the U.S. Chemical Safety Board has said appears to have been caused by a lack of inspections and maintenance on the facility’s aging chemical storage tanks. During a public meeting in Charleston last July, CSB investigators said they had found “extensive corrosion” in Tank 396 and other tanks at the facility, evidence of poor inspection practices and a lack of preventative actions at the site.

In his affidavit, Lafferty writes that, “Freedom, through certain of its key personnel, was long aware” of the “inadequacies” in the MCHM storage area’s containment dike. “I have talked to employees who had worked for the Etowah Facility’s previous owner, before [Etowah River Terminal] purchased the site in 2001, and they have told me that they were aware of deficits in the dike wall at that time,” Lafferty wrote. “A company hired by Freedom to perform tank inspections in 2008 also noted the deteriorating condition of the dike wall, in particular in areas near the location of Tank 396, the tank from which the MCHM leaked. Nonetheless, Freedom never repaired the dike wall.”

Lafferty alleges that Freedom also failed to properly inspect Tank 396. “Tank 396 was a riveted tank, a type of construction that had not been used for above-ground storage tanks for many years,” Lafferty wrote. “In 2008, when Freedom made arrangements to have all of the large tanks at the facility inspected, it deliberately excluded Tank 396 and the two other smaller tanks that were used to store MCHM, Tanks 395 and 397, which were also riveted tanks.”

Lafferty describes discussions he has had with Burdette, the former Freedom plant manager who was charged through an “information,” a procedure that typically means a defendant is cooperating with investigators and has or will reach a plea agreement. “Burdette even stated that in 2008, almost seven years after Freedom first took possession of the Etowah Facility, that Freedom would get rid of Tanks 395, 396 and 397, that is, take them out of service, because they were old,” Lafferty writes. “Freedom, however, never took them out of service. Instead, Freedom continued to use them for MCHM storage.” Lafferty writes that Freedom “also never had the riveted tanks, including Tank 396, subjected to any formal inspection to test the walls and floor for soundness, even though there were times after 2008 when the tanks were completely empty.

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http://www.wvgazette.com/article/20150108/GZ01/150109425/1419