Associated Press Published

Chemical Safety Board to Discuss West Virginia Explosion, Spill

Chemical Safety Board

  The federal Chemical Safety Board is coming to Charleston next week to release findings about a New Cumberland metal recycling plant explosion that killed three workers in December 2010.

The board said Thursday that it also will update the public on its investigation of a January chemical spill at the July 16 meeting. The Freedom Industries tank leak contaminated drinking in the Kanawha Valley for days.

In March, metal recycler AL Solutions in New Cumberland settled to pay a $100,000 civil penalty to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and a $97,000 penalty to the U.S. Department of Labor.

The settlement requires AL Solutions to process or dispose of almost two and a half million pounds of titanium and zirconium stored at two facilities. It also must implement safety procedures for the New Cumberland plant.