Damaged chemical plant in Texas to ignite remaining containers

Arkema Inc. said Sunday that its damaged chemical plant in Crosby, Texas, is preparing to ignite remaining chemical containers after finding evidence that they were in the process of degrading.

“In order to maintain control of the situation, proactive measures to safely cause ignition of the remaining trailers through controlled means are being taken,” Arkema said in a statement.

Crosby is located in Harris County, one of the counties hard-hit by flooding in the wake of Hurricane Harvey.

{mosads}“There is clear visual evidence that the chemicals in the trailers are degrading but they have failed to ignite completely. We are concerned that, without ignition, we can’t determine if the hazard has been fully eliminated,” the statement said.

An official last week pushed back on reports of an explosion at the plant, which came amid growing fears that the after-effects of Harvey could unleash toxic chemicals upon the local communities.

“Some gray smoke initially emanated from it and eventually turned into black smoke,” Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said in a briefing.

“It is not anything toxic. It is not anything we feel is a danger to the community at all.

“It wasn’t an explosion. I want to be very clear. It was not an explosion,” Gonzalez clarified.