Tag: Bayer CropScience

Bayer CropScience Settles for $5.8M Over Blast

Federal officials say they have struck a $5.6 million settlement with Bayer CropScience over an explosion that killed two people at the company’s Institute pesticide plant in 2008.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Justice announced the settlement Monday.

Under the settlement, Bayer CropScience committed to spending $452,000 on safety improvements at chemical storage facilities across the country. The company also will spend $4.23 million to improve emergency preparedness and response in Institute and protect the Kanawha River. Bayer CropScience also will pay a $975,000 penalty.

Federal investigators found that safety lapses led to the deadly runaway chemical reaction that killed two workers.

A consent decree filed in U.S. District Court in Southern West Virginia is subject to a 30-day public comment period and court approval.

Small Chemical Leak Reported at Institute

A Kanawha County emergency official says a small amount of ethylene oxide leaked at Bayer CropScience’s plant in Institute.

C.W. Sigman with Kanawha County Emergency Management tells media outlets that the leak was reported around 8 a.m. Thursday.

Sigman says the leak was contained to the plant and doesn’t affect the public.

He says Bayer CropScience crews responded to the leak.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration says ethylene oxide is primarily used in the production of ethylene glycol and other industrial chemicals. The chemical is flammable. Exposure could result in respiratory irritation and lung injury, headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, shortness of breath, and cyanosis.

Bayer CropScience to Sell Institute Park to Union Carbide

Bayer CropScience says it plans to sell its Institute Industrial Park to Union Carbide. But the company will continue to operate its thiodicarb unit at the site as a tenant.

Terms of the transaction announced Monday weren’t disclosed.

Bayer says in a statement to media outlets that the plant’s operations, including utilities and security, will be transferred to Union Carbide in a phased turnover. Union Carbide is expected to assume full operation of the site by mid-2016.

The Institute site’s head, Jim Covington, says it is no longer economically viable because of a decision in 2011 to close units dedicated to carbamate chemistries.

Bayer took over the site in 2002 as part of its acquisition of Aventis CropScience.

Covington says about 150 Bayer employees work at the site.

Exit mobile version