A tank containing 7,000 gallons of methyl methacrylate has been overheating for the last 2 days. Officials say they’re probably not going to be able to prevent it from either venting its contents, or exploding, either of which could cause severe health risks in an area west of Disneyland.
In all the coverage I’ve seen of this, they aren’t saying when this might occur. Possibly soon (thus the evacuations), but is there any sense in how long they can put it off?
Nobody knows. They are in uncharted territory.
The article says they’ve been trying to cool the tank by spraying water on it, but I suspect that they don’t think they’ll be able to cool it fast enough to prevent it from failing.
My niece, her husband, and their baby live in the evacuation zone. They are currently safe with her mother (my sister) about 20 miles away.
Do you have info on where the evacuation zone is?
My son lives in Orange County (asleep as I write this, I hope) so I’d like to know. The CNN article isn’t all that helpful.
Here’s a map;
It sounds like the county used reverse 911 to mass-call people in the area and inform them they needed to evacuate.
Methyl methacrylate. That’s the adhesive used by plumbers to join PVC pipes. For that purpose, the exothermic polymerization is activated by a peroxide activator.
I think that it’s slightly volatile, so if the tank ruptures, some of it will evaporate. It’s not exactly a gas-leak, and if the tank ruptures, I don’t think it’s going to explode. It is all converting from a liquid into a solid, which may be why “the valve isn’t working”.
The steel tank is (as I understand steel), actually getting stronger at the temperatures they are seeing (it gets weaker when it gets cold), so I don’t think that there is any actual risk of rupture at present.
I would not be part of the 10-20% who have refused to evacuate unless I was poor or rich, neither of which I am.
The fire chief is saying the outcome is going to be either it ruptures and vents its contents, OR it explodes.
Thank you for that. Looks like our son is not in the danger zone, which I’m happy for. But I hate that it is a bad situation for others.
A lot depends upon whether it is solidifying from the outside->in or from the inside->out. If the outer layer solidifies and shrinks insulating the inner layer’s heat, then yes, it could explode regardless of what the steel tank is doing.
Has anybody seen information about what started the whole crisis? Was there an accidental mix of chemicals? Did the tank breach and let too much oxygen in? Do we know yet?
??? I think at this point, the fire chief is saying that it’s cooler now, and continuing to cool down.
The manufacturer’s response team had tried everything they could but couldn’t mitigate the crisis, Covey said Friday. The only two options given to authorities were either the tank would crack and leak the 7,000 gallons of MMA into the surrounding parking lot, or the container would explode, he said.
Per the county health officer, this is the first time something like this has happened that anyone is aware of. We’re in black swan territory here.
https://ktla.com/news/orange-county/garden-grove-tank-hazmat-chemical-health-risks/
Past real-life examples to learn from are limited. Officials said they haven’t found a precedent for this type of hazmat emergency.
“This is a unique situation. We don’t have information of a similar situation where this happened,” Chinsio-Kwong said.
Yes, it’s likely to be solidifying from the (hot) inside, but I don’t think it’s got the mechanical or physical-chemistry properties to allow an “explosion” even if it solidified from the outside. And the pictures I’ve seen sort of agree with me: I don’t think anyone would be that close if they were worried about an “explosive” explosion.
I think it’s a reasonable thing to worry about, but I don’t think it’s going to happen.
I wouldn’t like to be anywhere near it. The Great Molasses Flood killed 21 and injured 150.
I wonder how the methyl compound in the Garden Grove tank compares to say, the dioxin chemical in the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio about four years ago. I vaguely recall the latter chemical was considered less inherently combustible. Since I’m not a chemist, I just barely remember a quick gloss by my chemistry professor about combustible substances.
Simple view of the area zoomed to be roughly the size of the evac zone
In terms of mechanical flooding of liquid goo, 7000 gallons is much less than the typical SoCal backyard swimming pool that are generally in the 20K gallon range. Even if the substance was as thin and runny as water, it could not flood far and wide; there just isn’t enough of it. The molasses flood was a lot more stuff in a much more congested area.
And if, per the chemical folks upthread, the stuff is naturally thick and goopy and also in the process of solidifying in an uncontrolled fashion, whatever does get out isn’t even 7K gallons and can’t flow very far very fast.
Unless there is either a combustion / deflagration or something akin to a low temperature BLEVE where the tank bursts from the internal pressure spewing goop hither and yon simply from the pressure release. But even then that’s a threat to immediately surrounding buildings, not to people a mile or more away.
ISTM the concern driving the evacuation is entirely the cloud of volatile noxiousness that will follow a tank breach and then the wind will blow in whichever direction at whichever concentration for however long. That’s the risk they need to be out ahead of in time. If the tank just calmly split a seam and left a 7000 gallon puddle of liquid under the tank, there’s not time starting right then to move nearby people out before the fumes get to them. That has to be done in advance.
Different point:
I admire the candor of the officials: “We don’t have pat answers because nobody anywhere has any answers. We’re on a voyage of discovery with a novel form of industrial accident here.”
I’m 49 miles away up in Valley Village, CA. So it probably won’t effect me, but what damage will happen is the mystery. Hopefully they can limit it to a massive leak and contain it before any major damage might happen. An explosion could keep a lot of evacuated people out of their homes for a while.