A worker died tragically Saturday morning, when an explosion rocked the US Ecology hazardous waste plant near Grand View, Idaho.
Blast Erupted Near Highly-Flammable Powdered Magnesium
The November 16th explosion occurred shortly before 9:30 a.m., followed by a series of chemical reactions.
At least one person witnessed the blast from 7 miles away.
“I was driving down the highway, and I was just looking,” he told 7KTVB.com. “As I looked to my left, I caught this huge — it was like just this huge big red ball shot up, kind of like if a bomb had been dropped, more or less, but it was just a big huge red ball explosion that kind of caved in, a big mushroom of smoke.”
The explosion apparently erupted in a building that processed powdered magnesium. The material is highly flammable, and even finely-dispersed particles will explode if they encounter an electrostatic charge.
Remains of US Ecology Employee Recovered Hours Later
At least 15 workers were onsite Saturday morning.
Rescue crews recovered the remains of a missing equipment operator later that afternoon.
The 48-year-old Grand View man had worked for US Ecology since 2014.
Three of his colleagues received treatment at area hospitals for non-life-threatening injuries.
US Ecology Processes Radioactive Waste, Other Hazardous Materials
US Ecology has sites in 22 states, including a facility located at the Hanford nuclear reservation in Washington. It also operates in Canada and Mexico.
The company’s Idaho plant processes hazardous heavy metal waste, as well as low-level radioactive waste.
So far, it does not appear that the explosion affected any radioactive material. As a precaution, however, the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality installed new air monitoring systems at the site on Tuesday
OSHA and EPA Investigating US Ecology Explosion
Investigators from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) arrived at the US Ecology plant Sunday morning.
Saturday’s tragic explosion appears to be the first fatal accident in the company’s 66-year history.
In 2012, however, US Ecology agreed to pay a $184,400 EPA fine for failing to timely report toxic releases at the Grand View, Idaho facility.
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