A chemical leak at a silver recovery plant in Institute, West Virginia, killed two people and sent about 30 others to hospitals on Wednesday, as officials said toxic fumes were generated during preparations to shut down part of the Catalyst Refiners facility. Kanawha County emergency management director C.W. Sigman said the leak occurred at the plant as workers were getting ready to end operations for at least part of the site.
Sigman said authorities believed a chemical gas reaction occurred at the Catalyst Refiners plant involving nitric acid and another substance. At a briefing, he described it as “a violent reaction of the chemicals and it instantaneously overreacted,” and he said “Starting or ending a chemical reaction are the most dangerous times.” Kanawha County Commission President Ben Salango said the reaction was believed to have produced toxic hydrogen sulfide.
Among the injured, officials said, were seven ambulance workers responding to the leak. Gov. Patrick Morrisey said first responders “always run to the fire,” and he said his administration was monitoring the condition of those transported to local hospitals. Morrisey told reporters that one person was in serious condition.
WVU Medicine Thomas Memorial Hospital in South Charleston said it cared for a dozen patients, including eight who arrived by personal vehicle because they were in the area at the time. The hospital said those injuries were not considered life-threatening. Vandalia Health Charleston Area Medical Center, one of several hospitals treating patients, said some of the sickened arrived by ambulance while others came after community members went to the hospital to be checked.
Officials said patients reported respiratory symptoms including cough, shortness of breath, sore throat and itchy eyes, according to Vandalia Health’s hospital spokesman Dale Witte. A shelter-in-place order was issued for the surrounding area and lifted more than five hours later, and officials said all the deaths occurred on the plant site. Sigman said “You had to get really close to the facility to smell it,” and officials said the leak required a large-scale decontamination effort in which people had to remove their clothes and be sprayed down.
Morrisey said it’s believed the local air quality and water supply were unaffected. The plant is located near Institute, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) west of Charleston, in a region known as West Virginia’s “chemical valley,” where many hazardous-material plants have closed or changed ownership in recent decades.
Catalyst Refiners works to remove silver from materials left from chemical processes, including items such as circuit boards and other electronics, photographic and X-ray films, and jewelry, officials said. Nitric acid is used to dissolve materials, leaving silver nitrate that can be processed to recover pure silver; recovery businesses can also crush or sandblast items and sort metals using magnets or differences in density. Sigman said Ames Goldsmith recovers silver from various plants at the Institute complex and described operations such as vacuuming carpets to recover “so many thousands of dollars’ worth of silver” from the dust.
Ames Goldsmith Corp., which owns Catalyst Refiners, said it was saddened by the deaths and that its thoughts were with those impacted and their families. Company President Frank Barber said “This is an unfathomably difficult time,” and the company promised to work with local, state and federal officials as authorities investigate. A spokesperson for the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration said the agency has opened an investigation into what happened and has six months to complete its examination.