7-12-2021 5:59am

Chemtool responds to state lawsuit

Michael McGinnis Editor

Chemtool smoke plume, June 14, 2021

Friday's lawsuit against Chemtool by the Illinois Attorney General's office had been brewing since the six-alarm fire began in Rockton on Monday, June 14. The lawsuit asks the Circuit Court of the 17th Judicial Circuit to hold Chemtool responsible, and its wording demands that Chemtool be forced to fulfil its obligations. Some Rockton residents have wanted Chemtool to do more and to do it faster. But according to Chemtool, the company has been working all along with state and federal officials to responsibly address the concerns and needs of the Rockton community.

First of all, Alicia Gauer, Senior Director, Global Communications at the Lubrizol Corporation, the parent company of Chemtool, told Roscoe News, "We remain devastated by the fire at our Rockton Chemtool site and regret the impact on the local community. Throughout this incident, we have been working with state and federal regulators to address their concerns and the needs of residents and will continue to do so. As we continue to move forward from the fire, we remain focused on supporting the local community. We will continue to provide ongoing updates on our website – www.Lubrizol.com/Rockton."

The state lawsuit alleged the disaster involved the "release or threaten release of oil and its degradation byproducts into the environment" and that four storage tanks still remain at the facility "with an estimated 100,000 gallons of petroleum product." The state attorneys described the tanks as "unstable" and "compromised."

Gauer gave her company's side of that story: "As soon as the scene was safe to do so, we began planning how to safely remove stored materials from on-site storage tanks. The tanks are stable and largely have been emptied with a vacuum truck with their liquid safely stored in approved frac tanks. A very limited amount of liquid material remains in storage tanks because some tanks are located close to the fire cause and origin investigation scene, which we will not touch to ensure the integrity of the scene. All stored material that has not yet been safely removed remains in secure storage." Likewise, the company is planning further investigations into the cause of the explosion and fire - "once the scene is available to do so."

Fire departments are already submitting claims to Chemtool/Lubrizol for their expenses in fighting the fire. Like other municipalities, Rockton has a "spiller pays" ordinance. For example, South Beloit Fire Chief Dan Zerfass says he is submitting a claim that includes $4,219 of equipment damaged or lost while fighting the fire. Gauer says, "We are very grateful to all the firefighting personnel who responded to and supported this incident. We mobilized a claims process within days of the incident, and fire departments can use this claim process. We stand ready to quickly process requests for reimbursement from fire departments, businesses and residents."

Citizens for Chemtool Accountability has a Facebook page that says they are "holding Chemtool/Lubrizol accountable for the Rockton disaster." Gauer says Chemtool has been in touch with leaders for the citizen group and has offered to participate in citizen discussions. (Brad Frost, manager of Community Relations at Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, has declined to participate.) Gauer says, "I want to reaffirm our commitment to local residents. We welcome questions from the community... We continue to offer support for debris removal, surface cleaning and reimbursement."

The citizens group may not be antagonistic toward Chemtool, but they have been suspicious. One reason for suspicion is that, though the fire burned for almost ten days with smoke visible more than 55 miles away, environmental testing consistently showed that almost everything was fine, both during and after the event. When experts examine the debris that landed in nearby yards, they don't seem to contain hazardous substances. Yet some residents are reporting health problems. Lubrizol's website says, "To date, these analyses do not show negative health risk other than the short-term irritation one would normally experience in the presence of smoke."

Jillian Neece at Severson Dells, who provided a detailed analysis of the reports, agreed that particulate matter was the main culprit found in the tests so far, but that more analysis needs to be done. Gauer says, "As we’ve stated in the past, multiple independent experts conducted regular air, water, and soil sampling in the area to monitor this event. We also conducted air monitoring and environmental media sampling and shared our results with the Illinois EPA. Our continuous monitoring of air quality at the site has indicated that current quality levels are consistent with historic benchmark data from the area prior to the fire."

The citizens group recently hosted a virtual meeting with a similar group in Rouen, France, the site of a similar Lubrizol plant fire in September 2019, where dissatisfaction remains. Rockton already had its own problems. The Lubrizol/Chemtool facility in Rockton, formerly a factory for paper-making equipment, was named a Superfund site in 1990 because of ground contamination. But the EPA says the groundwater pump-and treat-system provides effective protection to Rockton's citizens.

The US Chemical Safety Board was monitoring the incident, but said on June 15, "At this point assessments appear to indicate that the incident is a fire event and not a chemical process safety event." Originally, fire fighters planned to let the volatile chemicals burn off so that firefighting water and suppression foam wouldn't be released into the nearby Rock River. But they changed their mind and decided to "to berm and boom the access to the river and extinguish the remaining blaze. This may add an environmental impact element to the incident dynamic." One item in the lawsuit is that some of the foam did reach the river.

Asked if they plan to reopen the Rockton plant someday, Gauer said, "We have not made decisions about the future of the site." But the company is trying hard to help employees to find other jobs "given the near-term realities at the site." They hosted a job fair on July 1 with 16 area employers and shared those employers' information with those who didn't attend. On average, employees left the job fair with two scheduled interviews. The company is still providing full pay and benefits to their Rockton employees. Still, they are holding resume and interview workshops and are offering a placement bonus for employees who find jobs with other companies "as a thank you for the years of outstanding support and service and encouragement for the path ahead."

"Here is what I can affirm," said Gauer. "We will support the safe and secure cleanup of the site in collaboration with the proper authorities. We are committed to the community and will continue to offer our support, whether that be through the claims process, ongoing clean up where warranted or continued transparent updates.