Rockdale County officials extended a shelter-in-place order through the weekend as cleanup efforts at the site of a now-extinguished fire at the BioLab plant in Conyers kicked up more smoke Friday.
There is no timetable for when that work will be finished. County offices, which have been closed since Sept. 30, are expected to reopen to the public Monday, according to a Rockdale news release.
Officials across southeastern parts of metro Atlanta warned residents again Friday that they may continue to see hazy skies and smell a chlorine odor through the weekend. People who live near the plant have also reported finding sooty debris on their properties, and the city of Conyers directed them to contact Rockdale’s emergency management agency for it to be collected.
The ongoing plume is caused by the pool chemicals produced at the plant reacting with the water that was used to contain Sunday’s fire.
“When the chemicals stored in our facility come into contact with water, they slowly release chlorine — as they are intended to do when sanitizing a swimming pool,” BioLab said in a statement Friday. “This release, and the water that was needed to control it, have contributed to the ongoing visible haze over our facility.”
Rockdale fire Deputy Chief James Robinson, who said he helps make decisions about evacuation and shelter-in-place orders, described the smell as “normal.”
“When you open the tap on your faucet, sometimes you smell a little chlorine. When you go outside around the swimming pool, you smell a little bit of chlorine. It’s OK to smell a little bit of chlorine,” he said in a video posted by the county Friday. “If you feel that your eyes are starting to burn, that would be the first sign you want to go back indoors and shelter in place.”
Georgia Poison Control reported it has received hundreds of calls from people with symptoms related to the BioLab chemical release. In addition, “a few hundred” patients have gone to emergency rooms and clinics complaining of symptoms associated with an exposure to the smoke, Georgia Department of Public Health epidemiologist Cherie Drenzek told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Lisa Bishop and her three children live about five minutes from the plant. Her 22-year-old son experienced cold symptoms earlier in the week, but chest and back pain led him to go to the emergency room, where he was diagnosed Wednesday with an upper respiratory infection, Bishop said.
While the fumes have given Bishop headaches and other symptoms, she’s particularly upset by the way Rockdale officials have handled the situation and their vague messaging, she said.
”For me, it’s the lack of information. What are we doing?” Bishop said. “What is the ‘product’? What are we breathing in?
“Too many questions are going unanswered.”
Credit: Contributed
Credit: Contributed
The Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency advises people to limit their time outdoors and consider seeking medical care if they start to experience symptoms such as eye and airway irritation, coughing, shortness of breath, difficulty breathing, chest tightness and headaches.
In the meantime, efforts are focused on “neutralizing the wet chemical product” at the site to prevent it from smoking, BioLab representatives said.
The building’s walls caved in during the firefighting efforts, trapping the chemical products under concrete, Robinson said. The walls have to be lifted, causing hot gas to rise and creating “pockets of little plumes,” Robinson said.
BioLab said it has deployed two specialist hazardous material crews from Mississippi and Louisiana to help with the remediation efforts. It has also engaged two water management companies, as well as technical chemical experts. The companies were not specified.
BioLab has had a history of fires and chemical releases at its facilities in Georgia and elsewhere, records show. Since Sunday’s fire in Conyers, environmental groups have called for the plant’s closure.
Officials continue to monitor air quality, and more monitors were being added Friday, Robinson said. That will “ensure that we know exactly where that plume is moving at all times,” he added.
“I’m not saying that there won’t be some pollutants,” he added, “but as we work through that (cleanup) process, we ask for a little bit of grace and knowing that we here at Rockdale County are doing everything we can to get rid of this chemical in the safest and most environmentally (friendly) way as possible.”
Carmen Marsit, professor of environmental health at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health, said, “Generally, yes, the air is safe in metro Atlanta.”
Although people might smell chlorine, the levels of chlorine gas that are being detected are below what is considered harmful enough to take protective actions, he said.
At the same time, environmental experts say while there is monitoring by the EPA and Georgia emergency management officials, questions remain about chemicals not being measured.
”We can only comment on the levels of pollutants that are currently being monitored. It is important to ensure that monitoring is actively being carried out for any harmful chemicals and byproducts that may be originating from the site,” said Christina Fuller, an associate professor in the School of Environmental, Civil, Agricultural and Mechanical (ECAM) Engineering at the University of Georgia.
Officials should also monitor for combustion-related pollutants including fine particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide, none of which are included within the publicly available information, Fuller said. It’s also not clear how long it will take for the chemical release to be brought fully under control and then additional cleanup to occur.
As a precaution, Rockdale school officials have shifted to virtual learning for Monday through Wednesday after being on fall break this week. Additionally, Saturday’s SAT exam at Salem High School has been rescheduled. The district said it would share the new date via email.
BioLab said it has established a community assistance center for people to get information about resources and services and said it has donated to local organizations to help support residents. The company did not provide details about where that center will be or how to access the information.
— Staff writer Helena Oliviero contributed to this article.
