A unique website dedicated to fishing information from Florida's Northern Big Bend. This includes the area from the Econfina River west to the Apalachicola River
Incident Severity: Level 2
2 - Any spill or release of a Section 304 or CERCLA material, or a fire/spill/release of any hazardous material with limited protective actions and/or minor injuries (1 - 4 people)
Incident Occurred Date/Time: 12/15/2008 10:00 AM EST
Caller:
Caller Address: **************
49 Terminal Drive
St. Marks, FL. 32355
Callback #: ###-###-#### Time of Call: 12/15/2008 12:11 PM EST
Caller Represents: Liquid Transfer
Comments NRC Fax #892538 "VERBATIM": Caller reported that a gasket was found leaking on an above ground storage valve which caused 1,000 gallons of Sodium Hydroxide to release into the St. Marks River.
On Scene Contact:
On-Scene Phone #:
Facility Name: Liquid Transfer
Facility Address: 49 Terminal Drive
Facility City: St. Marks, FL. 32355
1,000 gallons - I wonder what the REAL # of gallons was
Going by this
Sodium hydroxide is extremely caustic, and can react with fats and oils on skin, in a reaction which creates salts. For this reason, sodium hydroxide is very dangerous, and skin should be washed thoroughly with water following contact with this substance.[citation needed]
A solution of 0.5M or more of sodium hydroxide should be labelled corrosive, while a solution between 0.5-0.05M should be labelled irritant.
I would guess that they could have lost 10 times that and had nothing more than localized damage at most
“Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them and you have their shoes.”
So the NaOH will react with the acid in the tannin, lowering the pH level and producing DMHO, causing the river to flow faster to release the excess? Well that's just great. If it's not one thing, it's another.
NaOH(aq) + HCl(aq) → NaCl(aq) + H2O(l)
Seriously though, while an inadvertent spill of anything is bad; I don't think this is worth losing any sleep over.
On a related note; this is the stuff to really watch out for: http://www.dhmo.org/
