REC to investigate cause of chemical cloud

MOSES LAKE - Several people visited Samaritan Hospital after reportedly breathing chemical fumes released from REC Silicon in Moses Lake Friday morning.

Connie Opheikens, public information officer with Samaritan Hospital, said Friday evening that 14 people had so far visited the emergency room complaining of minor respiratory irritation. All patients were treated and released.

Some people in the area of the REC facility claim to have "tasted the cloud", according to Grant County Sheriff's spokesman Kyle Foreman, and one REC employee reported to the plant's on site dispensary for first-aid treatment and was subsequently released, according to a company spokesperson.

"We regret this incident and its impacts on the community," stated Jeff Johnson, REC's director of operations for the Moses Lake facility.

Johnson said the company is now establishing a claims process, and asked community members who believe they were affected by the incident to seek medical attention before calling the company at 509-793-9000.

According to emergency officials, on Friday about 7 a.m. an emergency alarm activated at the REC facility. A visible chemical cloud was released into the atmosphere from the plant and traveled south/southeast before dissipating.

Area residents were notified to stay indoors for several hours after the release via media outlets and reverse 9-1-1 calls, Foreman said, and a portion of Interstate 90 and all roads in the area of the plant were shut down for about an hour as a precaution.

Johnson said the chemical release occurred in one of the company's "silane units," which utilize silane gas in the creation of polychristaline silicone. The vapor cloud was a result of a chemical hose losing containment during cleanup, releasing silicon tetrachloride/trichlorosilane.

According to an REC spokesperson, the released chemicals react with atmospheric moisture to form silicon dioxide and hydrochloric acid, which can be an irritant to the mucous membranes in the nose and throat.

REC personnel reportedly monitored the cloud and detected no ground-level concentrations of chemicals from the release.

There have been other chemical leaks in the history of the plant, according to Johnson, but when asked how they compared to this latest incident, he said only that REC personnel were still looking to quantify exactly how much of the chemical escaped.

"We'll investigate further as to exactly what happened," he said, adding the process will include a step-by-step look at what happened to determine the actions leading up to the incident and to find a root cause.

"We will then take action to prevent this from occurring in the future," Johnson said.

Agencies involved in the response included the Grant County Sheriff's Office, Moses Lake Police Department, Moses Lake Fire Department, Grant County Fire District 5, the Washington State Patrol, the Department of Emergency Management, Samaritan Hospital and the Grant County Health District (GCHD).

Theresa Fuller with the GCHD said the agency sent a liaison to the site to collect information and get it passed along to appropriate staff members, although in this particular case "there was nothing in the cloud to be particularly concerned about."

The GCHD is part of a regional system of preparedness that includes all central Washington hospitals, Fuller said.

"We have plans in place where, once a certain facility becomes overwhelmed, we can activate another facility, and we also have an alternate care facility trailer that is set up with about 25 beds," she said. "In this case, obviously our health care system could handle it, but we got our staff out there as quickly as we could."

Fuller said the GCHD will follow up with Grant County Emergency Management to review all aspects of the response to see if there are areas that can be improved upon.

"We'll take advantage of this event and report our findings to health care agencies across the region so we can all learn from this," she said.