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In regards to the railcar derailment and its consequences, I have a few other final thoughts as well.* This was an "exceptional event" no-doubt, but in all my many years of ESHA experience, I'm not aware of any time a choice was made to "blow up" leaking containers on purpose - it truly makes no sense to me and contradicts good principle after a spill/accident occurs with respect to minimizing overall impact.** If anything, the combustion that occurred (without knowing the details as to which specific railcars - some of them had other chemicals) more than likely resulted in a "cocktail" of chemicals many of which probably remain in the atmosphere and by now are probably world-wide but diffused and sunlight will break these down over time. In addition to the various chemical gases produced (both organics and maybe various nitrogen oxides and other chemicals like HCl), I suspect there was considerable amount of particulate matter released as well.*** The particulate formed could also have very complicated chemistry, but as long as the particle size is not too small, this particulate will deposit within a given area mostly not that far away from the event itself that could be determined with some precision particularly if real-time meteorological conditions are considered and verified by subsequent monitoring/testing.**** I think it is going to be imperative to monitor for this deposition as river water (nearby and downstream) for any lingering effects, as well as the groundwater around the area where the derailment actually occurred. Ambient air monitoring also needs to be performed and the sooner the better. This monitoring data needs to be thorough and rigorous (it ain't gonna be cheap) and probably permanently ongoing for certain aspects - "media-specific" (air, water, soil) "chemical" markers associated with the event will need to be determined to assess with better precision and the testing methodology needs to comport with all regulatory criteria.***** Modeling could be done on some of this, but it is uncertain territory - some preliminary dispersion modeling (both ambient air and groundwater) might help define some of the parameters for the ongoing monitoring, but the monitoring is critical and will enable better understanding of the long-term impacts***** This whole event is a tragedy and very concerning. I would really like to know the details as to how the decisions were made early on to respond to the event because those details should be public information without a doubt - any obfuscation on this is to be treated as potentially nefarious.~~~~~~~~~~~(Now, I think I'm done thinking about it for the time being - I have some pepper plants I need to tend to....).With Respect,BK[Link]
Comment: More on the plant explosion from NPR: