Brewer vows to clean
up contamination, review
safety procedures

By Pat Omandam
Star-Bulletin

It may take the rest of this week to neutralize the 35 tons of sulfuric acid that leaked from a storage tank on Thanksgiving Day at an industrial plant owned by Brewer Environmental Industries.

Still, company officials said yesterday they are committed to cleaning up every area contaminated by the spill, as well as conducting a thorough inspection of all of its plant equipment at Campbell Industrial Park.

The company also will review its emergency response plan and make any changes to it so everyone will know exactly what to do should such an accident occur again, said Brewer President Stephen Knox.

A news conference yesterday by Brewer officials was the first of planned daily briefings to update the public on the cleanup. Knox said he will do everything he can to restore public confidence that Brewer is a responsible company.

The state has criticized the company for its delay in discovering the leak, and for doing nothing to the spill other than letting it evaporate.

"We're down, but we're not out," said Knox, who added the plant is in full operation.

Ernest H.H. Shih, vice president of Brewer's environmental services division, said the company has brought in an industrial hygienist who is testing the level of acidity in the area. Shih said six pH-test samples were taken from the ocean yesterday, while 11 test pits have been set up along the width of the retention trench that collected the sulfur spill.

About 400 feet of the 430-foot-long trench showed acid contamination, although most of the spill was confined to the deep side of the trench, a 6-foot-deep section on the right side of it.

The company was notified yesterday by the state Department of Health that test borings revealed acid from the spill seeped onto Chevron property, about 10 feet outside the containment area.

Remediation or cleanup revolves around neutralizing the acid by mixing it with a chemical base such as soda ash or caustic soda. The reaction creates a solid salt that is harmless and can readily be disposed of.

Knox said the company is awaiting word from the Health Department on what it should do with the neutralized matter. The options include sending it to the mainland, dumping it at a local landfill or leaving it on the property.

The main activity at the company's Campbell plant is to make a grade of bleach that is safe enough to use for potable water. The facility is the only one in Hawaii certified to do so, said Joy S. Oyama Kono, vice president of marketing and purchasing.

Kono said major customers of the bleach are the counties and the military, who use it for swimming pools. The bleach is also used at sewage treatment plants, she said.

Paul Aki, Brewer's environmental consultant, said the employees at its industrial plant undergo a 40-hour hazardous waste and emergency response training session. The three men who worked on the day of the spill last received refresher training in April and August.

Meanwhile, company officials debunked reports that the storage tank began leaking before the day of the spill. Knox said the tank was empty until the day before Thanksgiving, when it was filled with 197 tons of sulfuric acid. Based on their calculations, the leak in the tank began about 7 a.m. Thanksgiving Day, he said.

Once the leak was detected, it took nearly eight hours for a pump to transfer the acid from the leaking tank to another tank, Knox said.