No hazardous chlorine levels found in Atlanta after fire at nearby plant, authorities say

ATLANTA – A plume of chlorine gas loomed over the skyline Monday, causing authorities to shut down schools and government offices while ordering tens of thousands of people to evacuate or huddle inside their homes in Rockdale County in north-central Georgia. Meanwhile, officials said the plumes probably were not a threat to most people in the Atlanta metropolitan area of 6.3 million.

Rockdale County officials said Monday morning that air-quality surveys from the Environmental Protection Agency and the state Environmental Protection Division “revealed the harmful irritant chlorine” roughly 24 hours after a small fire broke out at the BioLab manufacturing plant in Conyers, which is about 20 miles southeast of Atlanta, sparking a chain reaction that would send a billowing cloud of gas into the air.

Authorities urged Rockdale County residents to shelter in place and recommended that businesses close. On Sunday, they ordered the evacuation of about 17,000 residents near the facility and issued a stay-at-home order that affected about 77,000 others as officials in Atlanta braced for the plume to waft in their direction.

The BioLab facility, which manufactures chemicals used to clean swimming pools and spas, has a history of hazardous incidents that have forced evacuations, caused damage and disrupted normal life. Sunday’s fire was at least the third in the past two decades.

BioLab said in a statement that all of its employees are accounted for and that no one had reported injuries. The company said its top priority is “ensuring the community’s safety.”

“Our teams are working around-the-clock to respond to the ongoing situation at our facility in Conyers, Georgia,” the statement on the BioLab website said. “We continue to work collaboratively with first responders and local authorities and have deployed specialized teams from out of state to the site to bolster and support their efforts. We are all focused on remediating the situation as rapidly as possible.”

A spokesperson for the company declined to comment further Monday morning.

In a video showing a cloud rising from rubble Monday afternoon, Rockdale County Fire Chief Marian McDaniel said the fire was out and the worst was over. Firefighters were clearing debris so they could access and remove the chlorine-based cleaning products.

“Once we can get it removed from the building, from the water source, [and place it] in a secure area, then we will see a better diminishing of the clouds,” McDaniel said.

A plume will probably be visible for several days, she said earlier.

The clouds had drifted to Atlanta, home of Jennette Gayer, director of the advocacy group Environment Georgia. She said she could see the strange haze and smell the chlorine outside Monday afternoon.

Gayer said legislators should reintroduce and pass the “Bad Actor” bill, which would have blocked companies that have “a dangerous track record,” and given local and federal environmental agencies more resources to punish the ones that pollute the environment.

Meanwhile, as a harsh chemical smell wafted through the city, a text from the environmental protection division of the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency announced a “local emergency.”

“The EPA is MONITORING air quality for CHLORINE AND RELATED COMPOUNDS,” the text read. “Chemical levels are UNLIKELY TO CAUSE HARM TO MOST PEOPLE.”

State and local officials urged people “with concerns” to remain inside, close windows and turn off their air conditioning.

Gov. Brian Kemp (R), who was surveying Georgia areas damaged by Hurricane Helene on Monday, is “receiving regular updates from local, state, and federal partners” that are responding to and investigating the incident, his spokesperson Garrison Douglas said in a statement.

Videos shared online show greenish-orange plumes of gas billowing out of the Conyers facility and blanketing the sky. The Post could not immediately verify the provenance of those videos or the contents of the plumes, but the colors are a telltale sign of chlorine, said Sadis Matalon, a professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s medical school.

“When you see that greenish cloud, you need get as far away as possible,” said Matalon, who researches pulmonary injuries.

Chlorine can cause eyes to burn and noses to run, Matalon said. In high concentrations, it can impair breathing and cause fluid to build in the lungs. Pregnant animals experienced stillbirths or severe growth restrictions when exposed to chlorine, according to Matalon’s research.

In severe cases, chlorine can be deadly, he said.

“Chlorine by itself really causes long-term effects. And if you have preexisting conditions like asthma or any kind of respiratory infection, it can make the situation much worse,” Matalon said.

Long-term effects include hypertension and respiratory complications. Matalon said people who are exposed and are having trouble breathing should seek medical attention.

A lingering chemical smell and haze were reported Monday afternoon in several Georgia counties, including DeKalb, Gwinnett and Fulton, where Atlanta sits.

Officials in Gwinnett County said their hazardous material team had not “detected anything hazardous.” The chemical smell there was expected to “dissipate in a couple of hours” as the winds shift, the county posted online midday. In a news conference with Gwinnett County authorities, EPA on-scene coordinator Bryan Vasser said people “may be able to smell” chlorine in the air below levels his agency considers hazardous.

Rockdale County, where BioLab is located, closed its government buildings and parks for the day Monday.

Sunday’s fire was at least the third hazmat incident in the past two decades at BioLab’s Conyers plant, which opened in 1973. In 2013, the company was purchased by Lawrenceville-based KIK Consumer Products, which specializes in making cleaners, bleach, and laundry and dish detergents.

On May 25, 2004, a fire at one of the Conyers warehouses containing pool chemicals led to evacuations of up to a 1½-mile radius and shut down I-20 for several hours. The effect of the plume was felt more than 50 miles away, according to the EPA.

On Sept. 14, 2020, a plume of hazardous chemicals was released, exposing BioLab employees and nine firefighters to dangerous fumes, shutting down part of I-20 for six hours and causing more than $1 million in damage, according to a report the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board released last year. On Sept. 18, four days later, there was a similar incident in which no one was hurt.

In the report, federal investigators cited several safety problems with BioLab’s operations, including with its fire protection system, which was impaired by a broken water pump and an inadequate power supply for the remaining pumps, the report states. Those problems caused a 5½-hour delay in getting firefighters the water they needed to attack the chemical fire.

That delay probably led to the release of more toxic chlorine and more of the facility being damaged, according to the report.

Federal investigators also described the inherent danger of BioLab’s operations: storing large amounts of chemicals used to chlorinate pools and spas. One of BioLab’s main products is a chlorinating agent that kills algae and bacteria when dissolved in large bodies of water. If moistened with small amounts of water, it doesn’t dissolve, but undergoes a chemical reaction, decomposing the chemical and generating heat. That breakdown can produce toxic chlorine and an explosive chemical compound.

Jeremy Fielding, a spokesperson for the company, did not immediately respond Monday afternoon to questions about whether BioLab changed its safety procedures, training or equipment after the 2020 hazmat incident or whether the company would make any changes because of what happened Sunday.

According to an EPA database, the facility received two state notices for violating the Clean Air Act this year. In 2019, the facility received a notice of violation that mentioned “inadequate space to allow unobstructed movement of fire protection equipment, spill control equipment, and decontamination equipment,” the Georgia Environmental Protection Division reported.

According to U.S. Census Bureau data, more than half the residents in a one-mile radius of the facility are African American, and about three-quarters are people of color.

The EPA has flagged the neighborhood around the plant as high risk for “environmental justice concerns” because it bears a disproportionate amount of environmental hazards, such as pollution and toxic releases, which could lead to long-term health problems.

Vulnerable residents in the area are within the top 5 percent for exposure to toxic releases in the air and top 2 percent for elevated air toxins and cancer risk, EPA data shows.

Abel Russ, an attorney at the watchdog Environmental Integrity Project, said the facility had a pattern “of sloppy management of hazardous materials.”

“This is exactly the poster child for an environmental justice community,” Russ said.

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Ajasa reported from New York, and Edwards and Paul from Washington.