NTSB puts Axiall chlorine leak size at 17,000 gallons

About 17,000 gallons of chlorine leaked from a railroad tanker car at the Axiall Corp. plant north of New Martinsville, the National Transportation Safety Board said Thursday in the first public estimate of the size of last weekend’s incident that prompted nine people to seek medical attention and led to the temporary evacuation of several nearby communities on both sides of the Ohio River.

The NTSB estimate was included in a press release the agency issued to provide an update on its investigation of the incident and explain the reversal of its earlier announcement the night of the leak that it would not launch a review to try to pinpoint the cause.

NTSB said that a team led by Paul Stancil, a senior hazardous materials investigator, had examined the rail car, gathered relevant documents and interviewed personnel involved in the loading of the car. The team plans to interview more plant personnel, review tank-car loading procedures, conduct a damage assessment, and ship the fractured section of the rail car to NTSB headquarters in Washington for metallurgical examination.

Few details have been made public about what happened on Saturday morning at the Axiall Corp. plant at Natrium, near the Marshall-Wetzel county line, when a railroad car that had been loaded with chlorine the night before apparently began spewing its contents into the air. Officials have indicated that, unlike some other chlorine rail car incidents, the one at Axiall didn’t occur during the loading or unloading of the car. There has also been no public statement by any investigator to indicate the car had derailed or collided, or that it was moving at the time of the leak.

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