Tank car filled with acid leaks in Utah; no one knew which acid.

[NNadir]

This is a kind of classic story.

"SOUTH SALT LAKE — The finger-pointing was just beginning Monday as the cleanup of the rail car involved in a hazardous materials leak was being wrapped up.
A private company said the 13,500-gallon tanker that leaked Sunday, prompting evacuation of thousands of people and closure of I-15 and I-80, contained a mixture of acetic, phosphoric, hydrofluoric and sulfuric acids. Kennecott Copper owned the tanker but had subleased it to Houston-based Philip Services Corp. (PSC).
Kennecott said Monday the acid cocktail should never have been in its tanker. "They're hauling substances that should not be hauled," Kennecott spokesman Louie Cononelos said...

...One big stumbling block for the more than 100 police and fire personnel at the scene was not knowing the tanker's contents. Foote said the story from Philip Services kept changing.
"It was like going in with a blindfold," Foote said.
Initially, the company said there were two acids in the tanker, he reported. Later, two acids became four acids and even later ammonia was added to the list..."

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,600117132,00.html

The tank was designed only to carry sulfuric acid.

[Divernan]

1. Company based in Houston can do whatever it wants

as long as it's executives have paid their baksheesh to Bush.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

2. Whah?

What kind of maniac mixes acids like that(and you can bet they were high-concentration, too...)?

Shit like this is gonna get someone killed.

[FtWayneBlue]

5. Back in '73, I worked for a United Technologies

company in the little red-neck hillbilly town of Andrews, IN. My job, right out of high school, was to mix Sulfuric, Hydrochloric, and Nitric Oxide in a water solution to brighten newly forged brass fitting blanks. The stuff boiled all by itself for quite a while. When it started losing its effectiveness, the boss showed me how to mix it with soda to neutralize it, then flush the whole thing down the sewer. Yuck!

[cornermouse]

3. Typical

An example of "The public doesn't need to know" thinking.

[Divernan]

4. Car on its way to an Ohio plant called "Victory Environmental"

Sounds like that plant should be named Victory Over the Environment. Ironic, and fitting, that three red states are involved - Texas, Utah and Ohio. Ohio is referred to as Cancer Alley by epidemiologists because of the high levels of all kinds of cancer, which correlate to the high levels of toxic emissions and leakage into its water table. It's like a narrowing funnel going from the top to the bottom of the state - the farther south you go, the higher the rates of cancer, culminating in Cincinnati, that hotbed of GOP support. Can't give a cite, but I learned all of this about 10 years ago when a close relative in the Cincinnati area developed a rare and deadly form of cancer.