TOLEDO, Ohio — Toledo lifted all remaining evacuation orders Friday afternoon, Oct. 23, after a tank that leaked a toxic chemical in north Toledo finished venting and hazmat crews found no detectable hazards on reentry.
Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz announced the all-clear at a news conference, USA Today reported. The tank is empty now.
“As of late last night, the final contents of the tank vented out and so now the tank is entirely empty,”
Toledo Fire and Rescue Battalion Chief Blake Molnar said crews feel confident the site is safe.
“At this time, we do feel confident that the site is safe,” Molnar said.
The leak began the night of Oct. 20 at MC Tank Terminal, 1266 Progress Ave. The chemical in the tank was glycidyl methacrylate. It got out into the air from a 5,500-gallon tank.
Hundreds of people were ordered out at first. Others were told to shelter in place. Evacuate a mile out, officials said at first. Stay inside out to three miles.
The zone got smaller step by step. The tank was cooling. Pressure was dropping too, and by Oct. 22 the evacuation area was down to a quarter-mile. The shelter-in-place order was lifted late Oct. 21.
Crews did not move in while chemical remained in the tank. As long as it was there, officials said, an explosion was possible, and that risk kept hazmat teams back.
No fire happened. No explosion happened either, officials said Friday, even though Kapszukiewicz had earlier called the release an explosion.
Kapszukiewicz said an employee error caused the release. An MC Tank Transport employee was trying to transfer the liquid and introduced a temperature level to the tank, he said, and that set off a chemical reaction.
“The event was caused when an employee of the company introduced a temperature level to the tank in the process of trying to transfer the liquid… it was the introduction of that temperature that caused it to happen,” Kapszukiewicz said.
The company has accepted responsibility, he said. It was an employee who first called 911.
Fifty-seven people went to hospitals with symptoms tied to possible exposure, Kapszukiewicz said. All are now in good condition. Symptoms included headaches, trouble breathing and watery eyes.
“Certainly very serious things but happily nothing that began to approach a threat to life,” he said.
Glycidyl methacrylate is used to make some plastics, paints and coatings perform better. It is stored as a liquid. In Toledo it leaked as a gas and formed a plume, which mixed with heavy fog. Residents reported smelling and tasting it.
Officials called it mostly an irritant. Eyes can sting. Headaches happen, and so can trouble breathing. But a smell alone, they said, did not mean someone had taken in enough to face a long-term danger.
City health officials told people coming home to open up their houses and let fresh air in, wipe down surfaces, and toss food that had been left uncovered.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is handling cleanup. EPA Region 5 Administrator Anne Vogel said questions remain.
“There’s a lot of unanswered questions. There will of course be an investigation,” Vogel said.
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