Company defends use of toxic chemicals to fight plant fire
A company whose northern Illinois chemical plant was heavily damaged in a fire last week defended its use of firefighting foam containing toxic chemicals Wednesday, saying crews had taken steps to contain the material.
An industrial team hired by Lubrizol Inc., parent company of Chemtool, used foam containing PFAS compounds June 15 before switching to another foam without them on orders of the fire chief in Rockton, a town near the Wisconsin border.
State and federal regulators had raised concerns with the company about the PFAS-containing foam. It is legal in most of the U.S. but generally used only for highly flammable or combustible fires involving gas tankers and oil refineries, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The foam was used “in the early stages of firefighting efforts for a limited time given the heightened risk of letting the fire burn and spread," Lubrizol said in a statement Wednesday. “Fluorinated foam is twice as effective as non-fluorinated foam in suppressing a fire like the one we experienced and offered the best chance to control the fire in the shortest amount of time. ”
The company said the foam was sprayed on one portion of the site. Before it was applied, Lubrizol and the contractor, U.S. Fire Pumps, dug trenches around the property. The foam and water in which it was diluted were vacuumed up and stored in tanks for appropriate disposal, the statement said.
“We continue to run tests of the soil and water to further validate the effectiveness of the containment measures,” Lubrizol said.
PFAS chemicals belong to a group known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, which are used in a wide variety of industrial and household products. They have been linked to numerous health problems including cancer and damage to organs...
